After Apple-Picking By Robert Frost(stanza explanation)

After Apple-Picking By Robert Frost(stanza explanation)
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Stanza  1:👇🌷
My long two-pointed ladders sticking through a tree
Towards heaven still,
And theres barrel that I didnt fill Beside it, and thee may be two or three Apples I didnt pick upon some bough
 But I am done with apple-picking now.
Reference:
These lines have been taken from the poem
After apple picking� written by Robert Frost�.
Context:
In this poem, the poet compares the process of apple picking with the tiring work of this world. Perhaps, we all are busy in our works and are trying hard to survive in this world. But, even then we have to accept the inevitable death. We have no alternative but to leave everything aside for this reality.
Explanation:
In these lines, the poet introduces himself as an apple picker. He has been working in his apple orchard for a long time. He is filling barrels after barrels. He has picked a lot of apple but many are still to be picked. But now he is feeling tired and wants to have some rest. Actually, the poet wants to say that when man becomes tired then he wants to take some rest, leaving behind all his works.
Stanza 2:
Essence of winter sleep is on the night, The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And I held against the world of hoary grass
It melted, and I let it fall and break. But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell, And I could tell
Reference to  the  Context:
Same as above.
Explanation:
In these lines, the poet gives a pictorial description of the garden where he is working. He says that smell of apples creates such an effect on him that he starts dozing. Although, he has not completed his work, yet he cannot escape from the captivating smell of apples. There was a long open box of drinking water for animals in the garden. The water in it had a frozen ice. The poet removed a sheet of ice from it in the morning and held it before him. Through this sheet of ice he looked at the white snow covered grass. The poet was sleepy as the sheet of ice was falling form his hands.
Stanza  3:
What from my dreaming was about to take Magnified apples appear and disappear, Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the arch; It keeps the pressure of ladder-round
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. And I keep hearing from the cellar bin The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.

Reference to the Context:
Same as above.
Explanation:
Here in these lines, the poet describes his dreams while he is half sleep. The apples appear before him in large size and disappear. The trees, from the roots up to the branches giving flowers of the fruit, appear. The reddish brown colour of apples becomes clearly visible to the poet. Still standing on the ladder, his instep is keeping the ladder in balancing. But the branches of the tree
have started shaking. The dream of the poet continues and he hears the rolling sound of apples
stored in the cellar, as their huge loads arrive.
Stanza  4:
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, left down and not let fall
For all
That struck the earth
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
 Reference to  the  Context:
Same as above.
Explanation:
In these lines, the poet explains that he has tired from apple picking. Still, there are thousands of apples on the trees and he wants to pluck all these apples with his own hands. He knows that all those apples that fell down and hit the ground, will surely become useless for storage. These spoiled apples will then be crushed for juice in the machine.
Stanza  5:
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is, Were he no gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Longs sleep, as I describe-its coming on
Of just some human sleep.
Reference to the Context:
Same as above.
Explanation:

These are ending lines of the poem. The poet says that who wants to sleep is well aware what will disturb his sleep. Apart forms that, he wants to know what kind of sleep he is having. He says woodchuck could tell it easily about it. But that animal has gone. Now poet does not say surely whether his sleep will be like that of woodchuck or just a normal sleep for a few hours. He cannot also say whether it will be ordinary human sleep or the sleep of death. Here, in these lines the poet ends his poem with these thoughts that all our activities ends in sleep. Death is also an sleep that ends our tiresome journey of life.

Poetry Analysis: Ted Hughes’s “Wodwo”

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Poetry Analysis: Ted Hughes’s “Wodwo”

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Ted Hughes introduces “Wodwo” in the “Poetry in the making”:”Here is another poem of my own about some goblin creature-I imagine this creature just discovering that it is alive in the world. It is quite bewildered to know what is going on .It has a whole string of thoughts, but at the centre of all of them you will see is this creature and its bewilderment. The poem is called “Wodwo”. A Wodwo is a sort of half-man half animal spirit of the forests.”It is the titular poem of the collection published in 1967.The Wodwo, according, to Wikipedia, “was a link between civilized humans and the dangerous elf-like spirits of natural woodland.”Therefore, the term Wodwo is indeed emblematic as it stands for the state of Identity Crisis as the Wodwo stands between two worlds, as he is in quest for his roots. As the proverbial ‘Wodwo’, he is caught between instinct and reason, myth and reality, freedom and rootedness. It illustrates the irresolution that Hughes stood for after the ‘Lupercal’ poems that portrayed instinctive violence and

The Wodwo probes his roots at the very outset as he asserts “What am I?”Note that he uses “what” instead of “Who” pointing to animal and vegetative qualities. He seems to be “nosing” here or rather meddling with affairs that are not essentially his. Therefore, he feels to be divorced from that particular place. The action of “turning leaves over” is also a pursuit in search for himself. It follows a faint stain to the river’s edge with the hope of locating something meaningful.

The Wodwo does not hold the sure stance or the arrogant stand of the Hawk in Hughes’s “Hawk Roosting”. Neither does it possess the single-minded killer-instinct of Hughes “Pike “It is confused ,and has no feeling of belonging: “Who am I to split”. It views things from two from two perspectives:

The glassy grain of water looking upward I see the bed

Of the river above me upside down very clear

Note that first it finds itself unrelated to the river bank; then to the river (Who am I to split/The glassy grain of water),and then he finds himself divorced from the air too(What am I doing here in mid-air?)Further, he feels himself to be separate from the ground ;he is not just rooted, but dropped. The action of not being rooted signifies that he did not belong to the ground even in the past. He seems to be “dropped” as if out of nowhere. It seems to have no threads to link him. It appears as though he has been given the freedom of the place; however, it is this freedom that lends him disorientation-as he does not know where he belongs to,he cannot explore his roots. The ‘rotten stump” comes across a metaphor for his base: picking off bits of bark gives him no pleasure.

Even if he does coincide somewhere, it seems to be a mere coincidence and queer. As part of his state of being-neither is he a perfect Man nor Animal. Neither does he belong to the vegetative world:

Do these weeds

know me and name me to each other have they

seen me before do I fit in their world?

He endeavors to judge himself based on certain attributes-name (But what shall I be called),precedence(am I the first),tenure(have I an owner) and size(am I huge).He continues on his way on and on, till he realizes that he is tired, and discerns a sign that he exists-‘touching one wall of me.”All he finds is roots, roots and roots like a maze where he has to locate his identity; and the water gives him a blurred reflection. Nevertheless, he goes on looking.

How to Write a Critical Appreciation of a Poem:

How to Write a Critical Appreciation of a Poem:

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Critical appreciation of a poem is defined as the critical reading of a poem. The meaning of its words, its rhyme, scheme, the speaker, figures of speech, the references to other works (intertextuality), the style of language, the general writing style of the poet ( if mentioned), the genre, the context, the tone of the speaker and such other elements make up the critical reading or appreciation. It does not mean criticising the poem. A critical appreciation helps in a better understanding of the verse.

Meaning- Read the poem more than once to get a clear idea of what the speaker is trying to say. Look up the meanings of difficult or unusual words in a thesaurus. The title of the poem is a key to the general meaning and summary of the thought presented. A poem might be about lost love, 'Lucy' (Wordsworth).

Rhyme Scheme- Find the rhyming words. These occur at the end of each line. Rhyming words might be present in the middle of the line also. Mark the rhyme scheme. For example, if rhyming words occur at the end of each line alternatively in a poem of 4 lines, the rhyme scheme will be 'a b a b'. In the poem, 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' by Robert Frost, the second stanza goes like this:
"My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year... "

In these lines, the rhyme scheme is 'a a b b'

In several poems, there are no rhymes. Such a poem is called a blank verse.

Speaker- Identify the speaker of the poem. It can be a child, an elderly, a shepherd, a swordsman, a student, a milkmaid, a sailor, an animal or even an object like a chair or a place like a house or a mountain. Each Speaker will speak differently.

Setting- Every poem has a specific setting. It might be a ship or a modern condominium. The setting is the background of the poem and contributes to its meaning. For example, the setting of a pastoral is very likely to be a grazing ground for a flock of ship. The setting of Eliot's 'Preludes' is a modern city with its people leading a mechanical life. The words also convey the same sense.
"And short square fingers stuffing pies,

And evening newspapers, and eyes,

Assured of certain certainties... "

Context- The context gives us the time and location of the poem. It is what prompted the poem. The context might be an event of great political significance like the French Revolution. It prompted P.B. Shelley's famous, "Ode to the West Wind." The poem beautifully upholds the spirit of the revolution and heralded the dawn of a new age.

Language- The language of a poem is the very vehicle of its thoughts and ideas. Study the language in terms of the use of figures of speech, its tone, use of loan words or archaic words, length of sentences, the rhythm (meters- iambic, Trochaic or any other), number of lines etc. Note the introduction of new ideas and mark the place where it occurs. For example, in the poem, 'The lamb' by William Blake, the lamb refers to both the baby sheep, the little boy who is the speaker and the Lamb of God. Here the word, "lamb" is a metaphor.

Intertextuality- While writing the critical appreciation of a poem, we notice that another poem is alluded or looked back upon. This is called intertextuality or reference. For example, Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' allude to Boccaccio's 'Decameron' in its structure of people narrating stories during a journey.

Genre- Genre roughly means the category of the poem. Each genre has set rules and characteristics. For example, a very long narrative poem, running into a several thousands of lines, dealing with divine figures or demi-gods or great generals of the past and describing a terrible war or an incredible journey on which the fate of humanity rests can be termed as epic. For example, the 'Iliad' (Homer), 'Paradise Lost' (J. Milton) and such poems. A short poem of 14 lines expressing intimate emotions is a 'sonnet'. For example, 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds' (Shakespeare) is a sonnet extolling real love and devotion. There are several genre- satire, mock-epic, ballad, lyric, ode, parody etc.
8 easy-to-use steps to writing an effective critical appreciation for any given poem with lots of examples from well known poems to make things lucid and graspable. For the use of all English literature enthusiasts!

Poetry Appreciation Methods
Critical Appreciation simply means to evaluate and analyze a poem in order to have its better understanding. It includes two steps:
Step 1
In order to write a critical analysis of a poem, one is required to first evaluate the poetic techniques used by the poet. It includes analysis of the genre: Genre simply means category. Every genre has its own distinct features. e.g. Sonnet has 14 lines divided into three quatrains and a couplet. Thus the poem could be a sonnet, ballad, elegy, ode, lyric, dramatic etc.
the rhyme scheme: It could either be abba, aabb, abab etc. However, some poems are blank verse as well i.e. without any rhyme scheme (Background, Casually by Nissim Eziekel)
the figures of speech: it includes imagery, simile, metaphor, personification, repetition, pun, oxymoron, alliteration etc.
the language style: It includes the use of figures of speech, rhythm, word length, number of lines, images, senses (e.g. in Happy Insensibility) etc.
the tone of the speaker: tone can be mysterious, provocative, ominous, festive, fearful, exuberant, hopeful etc.
the references to other works: it includes reference to works of other authors (like Eliot’s reference to Murry in his work The Function of Criticism)

Step 2

Second, the reader should evaluate the meaning of the poem. It includes
Speaker: Speaker could be the poet himself (like Wordsworth) or a hero (as in the poems of Keats) or a shepherd etc. Knowing about the speaker is important as every speaker speaks differently.
Title: it includes the relevance of title, its historical significance, etc.
Denotation: the literal meaning of the words. It helps to get the basic idea of the poem. e.g. in the poem The Good Morrow by John Donne, the meaning of the words help to understand the diverse knowledge possessed by the Metaphysical Poets.
Connotations: the ideas invoked by the words i.e. deeper meaning-the message or universal truth it conveys. This helps to understand the central theme of the poem. e.g. in the poem Ode to Autumn, the central idea is quite different from what the words perceive.
Purpose of writing: The purpose of writing could be to inform with facts or to persuade with an appeal to reason or emotions or just to entertain the readers.
Movements: A reader is required to have information about the movements that were trending during the time of poet. The movements have a significant influence on the writing of a poet. e.g. Romantic Movement influenced the poets of the early 19th century.
Having done all the analysis and evaluation, the reader should first write a description of the poem and then its comprehensive interpretation in his own words.

PREFACE TO THE LYRICAL BALLADS CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Preface to the Lyrical Ballads critical analysis
Introduction
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, written by
William Wordsworth, is a landmark essay in the history of English Literature. Considered to be the Romantic Manifesto on poetry and society, the Preface is a work that is crucial to our understanding of the progress of the Romantic literary thought, originating in 18th century Europe, which has been immortalized in our view of poetry and how we think of it today.
👉Historical Background
The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads first
appeared in the 2nd edition of the poetry
collection Lyrical Ballads (1801) and later
expanded in the 3rd edition (1802). It would be helpful for us to first familiarize
ourselves with this historical context of 18th century Europe:
i.) Massive industrialization and urbanization
– During this period, London became the
urban centre of industrial development and huge masses of people migrated to the cities in search of jobs.
ii.) The Backdrop of the Neoclassicals –
Neoclassical works were known for their
adherence to rules and regulations of satire and their strict definitions of what is poetry.
Their language was far from what people
used in daily conversations and they spoke of extraordinary subjects. Neoclassicism was followed by Romanticism.
iii.) Rise of Romanticism – Romanticism is different from romanticism (notice the
capital ‘R’ vs. the lower-case ‘r’)
Romanticism was a movement which sought to break away from old norms and beliefs by revolutionizing the way people thought about society in 18th century Europe.
Inspired by the ideals of the French
Revolution – to shake up the foundations of old hierarchical structures – and distressed by the rise of the choking city life, the Romantic Wordsworth set out to challenge old notions regarding poetry.
👉Main Ideas in Preface to # Lyrical Ballads
Wordsworth’s relation to Nature/Countryside
Wordsworth is celebrated as the nature poet because of his beautiful descriptions of nature and rural/countryside areas.
However, to reduce his work to just an
imitation of trees and flowers would be
immature.
Wordsworth admired nature/countryside
not only because it looked beautiful, but
because of the simplicity and beauty that
nature/countryside provided allowed people to be in touch with their soul and experience true beauty in life. Wordsworth believed that the city life made the masses dull and stagnant – it had reduced them to overworked machines who failed to appreciate the simple beauty of life. He
called this state of mental stagnancy as
savage torpor.
👉What inspires poetry?
Tired of the highly elevated topics of
neoclassical poets and their over-complicated language, Wordsworth wanted “to make the
ordinary extraordinary”. Wordsworth found inspiration from everyday figures of
everyday life. Whether it be the famous
Solitary Reaper or the Daffodils –
Wordsworth’s poetry flows to admire the
simple beauty that exists within daily life.
👉Who is a poet?
For Wordsworth, a poet is simply “a man
speaking to men” – a fellow human just like all of us trying to communicate his
perception and experience of truth and
beauty. However, the poet differs from
regular people because of his higher
sensitivity to the happenings around him and a deeper connection with his own feelings, moods and emotions as they arise in response to these outer happenings.
👉What is a poem?
Wordsworth famously defined poetry as “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which are recollected in tranquillity”. Simply
speaking, the highly sensitive poet is able to experience the beauty of ordinary life,
capture his own emotions as they arise and is finally able to sit in a calm, peaceful space to use his imagination to recollect these emotions and finally write about them.
👉What is the language in which a poem
should be written?
Wordsworth believed that the “real language of men” – ordinary daily language – should be used to write poetry. However,
Wordsworth refined this common language to a purer form without losing the essence of its simplicity.
👉The Egotistical Sublime
The Egotistical Sublime is a concept which simply means that a poet’s own subjective view of truth and beauty is extremely attached to his work. The poems they produce are filled with their own imagination and perspective on how they perceive things around them.
Wordsworth’s works are often said to be
examples of the EgotisticalSublime since his own experience of things is what he believes to be everyone’s experience of
things.
In Conclusion, it’ll be safe to say those
modern-day poets who hold ideas like self- expression and sensitivity so dear to their hearts truly owe it to Wordsworth’s works to reinforce ideas so simple yet so
revolutionary

The Winter’s Tale

The Winter’s Tale                                              When Leontes’ old friend Polixenes wishes to leave after a court visit, Leontes asks his wife, Hermione, to try persuading him to stay longer. Hermione succeeds, but Leontes then suspects her of having an affair with Polixenes. His jealousy getting the better of him, Leontes plots to poison Polixenes. Camillo, however, warns Polixenes of Leontes’ wrath, and the two escape to Bohemia. Meanwhile, Hermione is thrown in jail and brought to trial for adultery despite the words of the Delphic oracle (who has proclaimed Hermione innocent). While imprisoned, Hermione gives birth to a daughter, which Leontes promptly disowns. He also commands Antigonus, the husband of Paulina, to abandon the baby in the desert. Antigonus does so, but is devoured soon after by a bear.
Tragedy soon besets Leontes as the trial progresses. His only son, Mamilius, dies from grief over his mother’s predicament. Hermione too is reported dead by her waiting woman, Paulina. This is enough to make even Leontes realize what his jealousy has cost him; in mourning, he goes into seclusion. In Bohemia, a shepherd discovers the abandoned baby, Perdita, and raises her as his own daughter. Sixteen years later, the son of Polixenes, Florizel, has fallen in love with Perdita; Polixenes, however, is less than pleased that his son, a prince, is in love with a shepherdess. Florizel and Perdita make plans to escape to Sicilia, aided by old Camillo.
In Sicilia, Florizel and Perdita are welcomed at the court of Leontes. Polixenes soon follows (accompanied by the old shepherd), and he and Leontes eventually reconcile. Perdita’s identity as the king’s daughter is revealed, and Leontes and Polixenes are delighted that their children will be wed. Leontes’ new joy, however, is tempered by the bitter memory of Hermione’s death. Paulina then takes Leontes and the rest to see a statue of the queen that is actually Hermione herself—the queen has lived in hiding for the past sixteen years. Thus Leontes is reunited with his wife and daughter, his best friend, and his close advisor, Camillo. Even Paulina regains a husband when Leontes promises her hand to Camillo in gratitude for helping Hermione. Hence, everything is set back aright in Sicilia by the end of the play.
Dramatis Personae
Leontes, King of Sicilia
Mamilius, Prince of Sicilia
Camillo, a lord of Sicilia
Antigonus, a lord of Sicilia
Cleomenes, a lord of Sicilia
Dion, a lord of Sicilia
Polixenes, King of Bohemia
Florizel, Prince of Bohemia
Archidamus, a lord of Bohemia
An Old Shepherd; reputed father of Perdita
Clown, his son
Autolycus, a rogue
A Mariner
A Jailer
Hermione, Queen to Leontes
Perdita, daughter of Leontes and Hermione
Paulina, wife of Antigonus
Emilia, a lady to Hermione
Mopsa, a shepherdess
Dorcas, a shepherdess
Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen
Officers and Servants
Shepherds and Shepherdesses
Guards
Time, as Chorus
The Winter’s Tale

The Tempest

The Tempest
💐🌷☘️☘️👇🌿🌿🌿🌿
The Tempest , drama in five acts(act 1–scene i, Scene ii, act 2–scene i, scene ii, act 3–scene i, scene ii, scene iii, act 4–scene i, act 5–scene i) by William Shakespeare, thought to be one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote alone. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In act four, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-the play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language. Like The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest roughly adheres to the unities of time, place, and action.

The Tempest was first written between 1610-1611 and performed about 1611. The Tempest first appeared in print in 1623 in the collection of thirty-six of Shakespeare’s plays titled Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies; Published according to the True and Original Copies, which is known as the First Folio.

#Characters
•Prospero – The rightful Duke of Milan, though his kingdom and title were usurped by his brother Antonio.
•Miranda – daughter to Prospero.
•Ariel – A spirit of the island, over whom Prospero becomes master after ousting Sycorax.
•Caliban – a savage and deformed slave.
•Alonso – Alonso is the King of Naples. An enemy of Prospero’s, he accepted Antonio’s proposition to help the latter usurp Prospero’s throne in return for Antonio’s swearing Milan’s fealty to Naples.
•Sebastian – Alonso's brother.
•Antonio – Antonio is Prospero’s brother. He usurped the throne of Milan from his brother with Alonso’s help, willingly abandoning the sovereignty of the Dukedom to Naples.
•Ferdinand – Alonso's son, and heir to the kingdom of Naples.
•Gonzalo – an honest old councillor.
•Adrian – a lord serving under Alonso.
•Francisco – a lord serving under Alonso.
•Trinculo – the King's jester.
•Stephano – the King's drunken butler.
•Juno – the chief Roman goddess.
•Ceres – Roman goddess of agriculture.
•Iris – Greek goddess of the sea and sky.
•Master – master of the ship.
•Mariners
•Boatswain – servant of the master.
•Nymphs, Reapers

#Themes
=>Usurpation
=>Imprisonment and Freedom
=>Forgiveness and Reconciliation
=>The Charm of Colonialism
=>Illusion and magic
=>The difficulty of distinguishing Man from Monster
=>Good and humanity
=>Master/servant relationships

#Summary
Prospero uses magic to conjure a storm and torment the survivors of a shipwreck, including the King of Naples and Prospero’s treacherous brother, Antonio. Prospero’s slave, Caliban, plots to rid himself of his master, but is thwarted by Prospero’s spirit-servant Ariel. The King’s young son Ferdinand, thought to be dead, falls in love with Prospero’s daughter Miranda. Their celebrations are cut short when Prospero confronts his brother and reveals his identity as the usurped Duke of Milan. The families are reunited and all conflict is resolved. Prospero grants Ariel his freedom and prepares to leave the island.

In act 1, close to a Mediterranean island, a storm overcomes a ship that carries King Alonso of Naples, his son Ferdinand, and his brother Sebastian. They were on their way home home from Tunis to Italy when the storm hit and demolished their ship. Shipwrecked with them are the courtier, Gonzalo, and the Duke of Milan, Antonio.
From the island, Prospero, the former Duke of Milan, and his fifteen year-old daughter, Miranda, watch the storm and shipwreck. Miranda fears for the ship's crew, but Prospero assures her that everything is fine. He decides to open up about his past, telling her how twelve years previously, his brother Antonio had deposed him in a coup. With the aid of Gonzalo, Prospero had escaped in a boat with the infant Miranda and his books of magic. They travelled to the island, made it their home, and enslaved the only native islander, Caliban. The only other inhabitants of the island are the spirits including Ariel, whom Prospero had rescued from imprisonment in a tree. Since Antonio was on the boat that is now shipwrecked, Prospero hopes finally to rectify his past. As Miranda sleeps, Prospero discusses his role in the shipwreck with Ariel. They plot about what to do with the men now that they are on the shore.
The courtiers from the ship are cast ashore unharmed. But the King is near despair, believing that Ferdinand, his son, drowned. Ferdinand has actually arrived safely on a different part of the island where he meets Miranda and they instantly fall in love. Prospero, fearing for his daughter, captures Ferdinand and forces him to carry wood. In the meantime, Ariel seeks his freedom. Prospero promises that he will liberate Ariel from servitude following the completion of just a few more tasks.
In act 2, Ariel uses music to lead the courtiers astray, while Sebastian and Antonio plot to kill the King while he is asleep. Their attempt is foiled by Ariel. All the people from the ship become ever more confused as they wander around. In another part of the island, the timid court fool, Trinculo, has come ashore and discovered Caliban. Trinculo hides beside Caliban from an approaching storm, and the ship's butler, Stephano finds them.
In act 3-4, Stephano, Caliban, and Trinculo, at Caliban's suggestion, intend to kill Prospero and make Stephano lord of the island. They get very drunk before setting off to the cell to kill Prospero. Ariel, who saw the whole thing in his invisible state, reports this wicked plot to his master. Meanwhile, Prospero has relented and gives his blessing for Ferdinand and Miranda's marriage. Then he entertains them with a masque of goddesses and dancing reapers before he remembers Caliban's plots.
Prospero and Ariel then set a trap for the three plotters. Stephano and Trinculo fall for the plot and become distracted by gaudy clothes hung out for them. After they touch the clothing, they are chased away by spirits disguised as dogs.
In act 5, Ariel brings all the courtiers to the cell where Prospero, renouncing his magic, reveals himself. Instead of enacting his revenge, he forgives them and accepts the return of his dukedom. Ferdinand and Miranda are betrothed. Sailors come to announce that the ship is safe. Prospero fulfils his promise and frees Ariel while Caliban and the drunken servants are rebuked. The play ends as all go to celebrate their reunions, and Prospero asks the audience to release him from the play.

#Quotes
¶Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.—(Act II, Scene II)
¶We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life, is rounded with a sleep.—(Act IV, Scene I)
¶Where the bee sucks, there suck I - In a cowslip's bell I lie.—(Act V, Scene I)
¶O, brave new world that has such people in't!—(Act V, Scene I)
¶Let your indulgence set me free.—(Act 5, Epilogue)

Geoffrey_Chaucer_short_Questions

#Geoffrey_Chaucer_short_Questions
By ASMA SHEIKH

Q Give examples of nonalliterative verse romances of Geoffrey Chaucer?

Two important nonalliterative verse romances of Geoffrey Chaucer are Troilus and Criseyde (1385?), a tale of the fatal course of a noble love and The Knight's Tale (1382?.

Q. What are the source of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and The Knight's Tale?

Troilus and Criseyde is laid in Homeric Troy and is based on Il filostrato, a romance by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio;

The Knight's Tale is also based on Boccaccio.

Q Give examples of Geoffrey Chaucer’s French works.

Chaucer translates French works or writes under French influence several secular vision poems of a semiallegorical nature. Such as ,The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls etc.

Q. How many tales are there in The Canterbury Tales?

The Canterbury Tales consists of 24 stories or parts of stories mostly in verse in almost all the medieval genres.

Q. Who is the teller of The Canterbury Tales?

The Tales are recounted by Chaucer through the mouths of a group of pilgrims bound for Canterbury Cathedral, who were representative of most of the classes of medieval England.

Q What is Rhyme Royal? Comment on its use by Chaucer.

The Rhyme Royal Stanza  form of  using verses with seven lines of iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme ababbcc. the name was given such Because the form was used by James I of Scotland. In practice this stanza can be constructed either as a terza rima and two couplets (a-b-a, b-b, c-c) or a quatrain and tercet (a-b-a-b, b-c-c). This allows for good deal of variety especially when the form is used in long narrative poems.

Chaucer first used the Rhyme Royal stanza in his long poems – Troilus and Criseyde and Parliament of Fowls. He also used it for The Canterbury Tales in the Man of Law’s Tale, The Prioress Tale and the Clerks Tale and in a number of shorter lyrics.

Q. What are the subject matters of these tales?

These narratives cover the panorama of life and living. They concern a host of subjects: religious innocence, married chastity, villainous hypocrisy, female volubility—all illumined by great humor. With extraordinary artistry the stories are made to characterize their tellers.

Q Who is called “father of English poetry”?

Chaucer (1342-1400) was nicknamed as the “father of English poetry.” Chaucer wrote in the London dialect of English that later became the “literary standard.” He essentially set the course for subsequent English poets as well as he aspired to write an English poetry that could hold its own on this world stage, and he succeeded.

Q. Who composed Le morte d’Arthur and what is the theme of it?

Sir Thomas Malory carried on the tradition of Arthurian romance in his great work, Le morte d'Arthur (The Death of Arthur, 1469-1470). He loosely tied together stories of various knights of the Round Table, but most memorably of Arthur himself, of Galahad, and of the guilty love of Lancelot and Arthur's queen, Guinevere.
By ASMA SHEIKH

SHORT ANSWERS - HEART OF DARKNESS BY JOSEPH CONRAD

SHORT ANSWERS - HEART OF DARKNESS BY JOSEPH CONRAD

HEART OF DARKNESS BY CONRAD

(i) What elements in 'Heart of Darkness' appear to be drawn from Conrad's own life?
Ans. "Heart of Darkness" is a record of Conrad's own experiences in the course of his visit to Congo in 1890. Marlow's experiences and feelings are very much the same as Conrad's own had been. Marlow appears as a pessimist in the novel; and Conrad himself was a pessimist too.  Both in external and in terms of the inward mental life, Marlow meets the same fate which Conrad had met.
(ii) What are the unspeakable rites in 'Heart of Darkness'?
Ans. The unspeakable rites in "Heart of Darkness" concern human sacrifices and Kurtz's consuming a portion of the sacrificial victims. These sacrifices were established in the interest of perpetuating Kurtz's position as a man-god.
(iii) What does the Congo river symbolize in 'Heart of Darkness'?
Ans. The Congo River resembles a snake, and the snake symbolizes the idea of temptation and evil. The river leads Marlow and other Europeans into the heart of the continent where the temptations prove to be too much for many of them. Marlow's journey on the river represents a journey into one's inner spirit. As Marlow progresses further up the river in his search of Kurtz, he begins to learn more and more about himself.
(iv) How does Conrad complicate the idea of colonization being 'good'? What kind of negative effects does it have on both white and the black men of Africa?
Ans. Conrad complicates the idea of colonization being "good" by stating that the goal of European colonization of Africa is to civilize and educate the savages. The white men see the Africans as savages, and the Africans see the white men as unwelcome intruders. No party is happy in this situation.
(v) What does darkness represent in 'Heart of Darkness'?
Ans. Darkness is the inability to see: this may sound simple, but as a description of the human condition it has profound implications. Failing to see another human being means failing to understand the individual and failing to establish any sort of sympathetic communion with him or her. It also represents the inherent evil in humanity.
(vi) Trace the role of Russian in 'Heart of Darkness'.
Ans. The Russian is a devoted follower of Kurtz. The main purpose of the Russian is that he is the fool of the novel. He acts as a conduit of  information about Kurtz that neither Marlow nor the reader knew before.
(vii) What is the overall impression of the natives that Conrad produces?
Ans. When the narrator identifies natives as a sea of waving disembodied arms, it seems that Conrad produces a racist perspective on African natives. However, the narrator views the natives in groups rather than as individuals, and they seem to have very similar or identical intentions, but there is not necessarily any racist aspect of that interpretation.
(viii) How does Conrad depict Africans as different from Europeans?
Ans. Conrad depicts the Africans as dark savages and brutes, cannibals; dehumanizing them to mere animals. Kurtz repeatedly says, "Exterminate the brutes". In contrast the Europeans are portrayed as almost an Aryan race. Conrad depicts them as very proper and well groomed which is completely opposite of his description of the "savages".
(ix) Which literary devices in 'Heart of Darkness' are proto-Modernist?
Ans. Conrad uses an unreliable narrator, a hallmark of proto-Modernist writing. The narrator is not by his nature a liar but rather put under great pressure by his environment. As we learn at the beginning of the novel, Africa has driven mad a great many men. Themes of alienation, confrontation of the other, and disjointing of man from the natural world are also proto-Modernist.
(x) Who attacks the steamboat as it reaches the Inner Station?
Ans. As Marlow's steamship reaches the Inner Station in a heavy fog, arrows begin to fly out from the jungle. Marlow blows the steam whistle on the ship and scares off the attackers. Later, the Harlequin explains that the Africans attacked the ship because they were afraid the ship was coming to take Kurtz away from them.
(xi) Who is the Intended in "Heart of Darkness"?
Ans. The Intended is Kurtz's naive and long-suffering fiancee, whom Marlow goes to visit after Kurtz's death. Her unshakable certainty about Kurtz's love for her reinforces Marlow's belief that women live in a dream world, well insulated from reality.
(xii) What is the major conflict in 'Heart of Darkness'?
Ans. Both Marlow and Kurtz confront a conflict between their images of themselves as "civilized" Europeans and the temptation to abandon morality completely once they leave the context of European society.

Aunt Jennifer's Tiger - Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's Tiger - Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.
Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

MEANING OF DIFFICULT WORDS

1.      Prance – to spring from the hind legs; to move by springing, as a horse.

2.      Denizens – a) anything adapted to a new place, condition, etc., as an animal or plant   not indigenous to a place but successfully naturalized.
      b) an inhabitant; resident.
      c) a person who regularly frequents a place

3.      Sleek – smooth or glossy, as hair, an animal / well-fed or well-groomed.

4.      Chivalric - the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, includingcourtesy,
generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms / gallant warriors or gentlemen

5.      Ivory – the hard white substance, a variety of dentin, composing the main part of the tusks of the elephant, walrus, etc.

6.      Ordeals – any extremely severe or trying test, experience, or trial.

7.      Panel – a distinct portion, section, or division of a wall, wainscot, ceiling, door, shutter, fence, etc., especially of any surface sunk below or raised above the general level or enclosed by a frame or border.

POETIC / LITERARY DEVICES
1.      Form  This poem is a formal, structured lyric.

2.      Structure  It contains three stanzas of four lines each

3.      Language Most of the words are short and simple everyday words. The sentences are simple in structure and all take two lines.

4.      Diction The unusual word ‘denizens’ stands out and it shows how special the tigers are, unlike how Aunt Jennifer feels about herself. The word ‘chivalric’ shows that the tigers are proud and charming. It means they treat women with respect. The repetition of ‘prance’ [parade] is interesting and emphasises the happy, confident life of the tigers.

5.      Full Stops and Commas Full stops are placed regularly at the end of every second line. The poem is controlled, just like its subject, Aunt Jennifer.

6.      Comparison The tigers are compared to knights from the time of chivalry in the middle ages.

7.      Imagery The main images are of Aunt Jennifer as a fearful wife and, secondly, the magnificent tigers she creates in her panel. Images of precious substances run through the poem: ‘topaz’, ‘ivory’ and the gold of ‘wedding band’.

8.      Metaphor The poet compares the yellow stripes of the tigers to a precious stone, topaz.

9.      Contrast [difference] The main contrasts are between nervous Aunt Jennifer and her confident tigers. Another contrast is between the strong yellow and green colours. The words ‘prancing’ and ‘fluttering’ contrast as well.

10.  Mood/Atmosphere Fear is the main atmosphere in Aunt Jennifer’s life of ‘ordeals’ where her fingers tremble and show terror.  An air of freedom and confidence dominates the atmosphere in her artistic creations. The men beneath the tree create an atmosphere of mystery.  The image of Aunt Jennifer’s corpse from the future is a bit eerie or creepy.

11.  Hyperbole [Exaggeration]  The poet exaggerates the weight of her husband’s wedding ring to make a point about how dominating he is.
12.  Paradox [apparent contradiction]   Here a trembling and ‘mastered’ woman creates free and confident creatures in her artistic endeavours. ‘Fluttering’ fingers produce something that has ‘certainty’.

13.  Tone The tone appears to be positive and cheerful when the poet describes the tigers. See the comment on sibilance below. The tone becomes sad and even creepy at times in describing the life of Aunt Jennifer.

14.  Repetition The word ‘prance’ is repeated to emphasise the pride and freedom of the tigers. ‘Ringed’ echoes ‘wedding band’. There is repetition of various sounds as indicated in the next few bullet points.

15.  Rhyme Every pair of lines rhyme, like the ‘een’ sound in ‘screen’ and ‘green’ at the end of the first two lines. The rhyme pattern for the poem is: aabb ccdd  eeff. This rigid pattern mirrors the rigid life of Aunt Jennifer.

16.  Assonance [similar vowel sound repetition] Note the long ‘i’ sound in ‘find’ the ivory’. This creates a sad or mournful effect.

17.  Consonance [similar consonant sound repetition] Note the repeated ‘n’ sound in the first line and the  ‘f’ sound in the first line of the second stanza.

18.  Alliteration [repetition of consonant sounds at the start of nearby words] e.g ‘p’ in ‘prancing proud’ emphasises the feeling of confidence expressed in the tigers’ movements.

19.  Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound] Note how the five ‘s’ sounds in the first line create a smooth opening, suggesting an air of confidence within the artificial world of the panel.

STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS

Stanza 1: The relative, Aunt Jennifer, makes a panel with images of tigers parading proudly across it.  The tigers are free, unlike their maker. Her panel contains animals that are happier and more confident than she is. There is a ‘certainty’ about them that their maker lacks in herself. Aunt Jennifer paints confident, proud tigers. They are assured and confident dwellers, ‘denizens’, of their green world. ‘Denizen’ suggests independent citizen. It would seem that Jennifer is not an independent citizen of her own world. She is instead a wife, weighed down by duties as we learn in the second stanza. Jennifer uses sharp and contrasting colours, sharp yellow against a green background. Her tigers are as bright as topaz, a yellow gem. Her picture contains an image of men under a tree, though the proud tigers show no fear of the men. This is mentioned to show that they differ from Jennifer, who lives in fear of her husband to some extent. The tigers remind the poet of knights, full of courtesy and style. Chivalric men respected their women and acted kindly towards them. Again, this seems to contrast with how ‘Uncle’ behaved towards Aunt Jennifer according to the second stanza.

Stanza 2: The poet describes Aunt Jennifer’s nervous hands struggling to pull the wool with her ivory needle. The word ‘fluttering’ suggests trembling. We get the impression of a frail woman who finds it hard to pull the needle. It is interesting that if her needle is made of ivory it may have come from an elephant’s tusk. Ivory is a bit like topaz, a precious material. As ivory involves the killing of elephants for their valuable tusks, it would seem that Jennifer may not care much for tigers in the wild or know much about their reality. Thus, her artwork is unrealistic. Perhaps the poet feels it is a pointless and empty type of art. The poet humorously suggests that Aunt Jennifer’s fingers find it hard to hold the weight of her wedding ring and then pull the needle at the same time. The wedding band is another reference to a precious substance, probably gold. By mentioning that it is ‘Uncle’s wedding band’, the poet suggests that Uncle owns Jennifer too and that as a female she is the property of her husband. The words ‘massive’ and ‘heavily’ suggest Aunt Jennifer lives a demanding sort of life in which she has to attend to her husband’s needs and fulfill his commands. As a result she is somewhat worn out in her old age.

Stanza 3: The poet predicts that, when Aunt Jennifer dies, her hands will look worn from all her needlework as well as the hard time she has trying to please her husband. Aunt Jennifer is ‘ringed’, trapped in her marriage and controlled like an animal. Her husband is her master. Her artwork will live on after her as a reminder of the dreams she never fulfilled.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer Tigers" is a poem that concerns itself mainly with a woman struggling to accept the indignities of her daily life while being insatiably focused on attaining some sense of immortality once that life ends. Aunt Jennifer must find a way to deal with her unhappy and submissive station in life, and she does so by sewing exciting and memorable works of art. Sewing is her escape and in this case she's escaping to a jungle where wild animals rule the land and never show fear. The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are beasts demanding respect from even their predators. This demand for respect is something that Aunt Jennifer is incapable of doing for herself. In the meantime, she will deal with her problems by escaping from them.

This escape into her art is shown vividly in the opening stanza of the poem where the imagery is vibrant and alive and shows what Aunt Jennifer is capable of doing; it also provides a glimpse into Aunt Jennifer's subconscious in its portrayal of animals who don't allow themselves to be victimized by anyone. The tigers are literally prancing across the screen. The image of something prancing immediately brings to mind a being that is confident and self-assured and happy; all things that Aunt Jennifer is not. The tigers are not just simply tigers, of course. They are "Bright topaz denizens of a world of green" (2). The use of colors implies that Aunt Jennifer's tigers and their land are more vital and enjoy a sense of freedom far greater than she. Yellow connotes the sun and fierce energy, while green reminds one of spring and rebirth. Aunt Jennifer is longing for both energy and rebirth. She cannot find it at home so she goes on journeys into her sewing. The tigers are foreign and that also brings speculation that Aunt Jennifer would like to travel, which is just another form escape. That the tigers sense no fear of the predatory hunters is key. The assumption here is that Aunt Jennifer is afraid of her own predator: her husband. He has hunted her and captured her and keeps her in a cage from which her only escape is her sewing. The tigers, on the other hand, do not live in fear. No, rather they pace about as if they were kings of their domain. They are certain of their place in the world and will allow no one or nothing to interfere. The tigers are to Aunt Jennifer the ultimate creatures of self-actualization. They are exactly what she wishes she could be herself. And in creating them so resplendently, they will live on long after their creator has passed on.

Aunt Jennifer is doing what she can to cope with an unhappy lifestyle and this melancholy is made apparent in the second stanza of the poem, which deals in ambiguous images of rapidity and heaviness to symbolize the need to escape from the stagnancy of her marriage. Aunt Jennifer's fingers are "fluttering through her wool" (5) in the first line of the stanza and this suggests that Aunt Jennifer is trying to sew as fast as her fingers will allow. Complex questions arise from this simple description of Aunt Jennifer sewing. Why does she need to create something so fast? Exactly what is she afraid of that would spur her on so? Perhaps her fear is that she will not live long enough to finish the creation. Perhaps she fears she will be interrupted in the middle of her work. She is trying to do it as fast as she can, but then begin the images of weight, of carrying a burden. The fact that the "ivory needle is hard to pull" (6) insinuates that she's been sewing for a long time. In fact, sewing is probably what she does most of the day when she's not caring for her husband. The marriage to the speaker's Uncle is perhaps Aunt Jennifer's greatest weight. After all, "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band / Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand" (7-8). This bulk is probably more emotional and mental than physical. It is doubtful that Aunt Jennifer's wedding band itself weighs down her hand so much that she can't sew as fast as she'd like. The weight is probably one in which her marriage didn't turn out as she planned. Perhaps she wanted children and never had any. Certainly no mention is made in the poem of the speaker having cousins. Aunt Jennifer's marriage has most likely turned out to be her biggest disappointment and one that she would probably even like to escape. And for at least a little while escape she does, right into her sewing.

The final stanza argues for the successful grasping of a sense of immortality so eagerly sought by Aunt Jennifer. This final portion of the poem contains imagery that reflects back on the first two stanzas and completes the three-tiered approach to the poem as a consideration of the life-spirit of someone who has not led the life they wanted contrasted with the bid for a satisfactory afterlife. The stanza begins with a look forward to when Aunt Jennifer will no longer be alive and creating her artistic sewing pieces. The first line pointedly shows that Aunt Jennifer had terrified hands which "will lie / Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by" (9-10). The line clearly harkens back to the second stanza and its dealings with the burdens Aunt Jennifer lives under. What could possibly have terrified her hands? And what ordeals was she mastered by? The most obvious answer is made by connecting the ordeals back with the heavy weight of her wedding band spoken of in the second stanza. Aunt Jennifer is more than likely abused-at least emotionally-by her husband. She is quite literally mastered by her husband. Such is the need for escape into her art. The final two lines of the stanza-and the poem-reflect back on the very opening line. The tigers are still in the panel that she made and they continue to prance, "proud and unafraid (12). The tigers that she fought so hard to create despite the overwhelming burden of her life will, indeed, continue to prance forever. By the end of the poem, Aunt Jennifer has fulfilled her need and achieved her own little sense of immortality. Her life was not in vain, she created something out of nothing, something that will live on well after she is dead and buried.
The structure of the play "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is built upon the give and take of showing a woman's ability to create an everlasting work of art while dealing with the abject humiliation of a living a life that is built on worries and woe. In three small stanzas of just four lines each, the poem craftily builds toward the welcome conclusion that no matter how much life has to dish out to a person and bring a person down, each of us can still achieve some small measure of respect and immortality if we just have the discipline to do what we know we can do well. If a person can find out what it is that he does well, he can achieve it and create for himself something that will last long after he have created it. Aunt Jennifer successfully beat back the load that she was forced to carry and created a small wedge of life everlasting for herself.

Themes

1. Marriage is unequal due to male domination/Inequality

The woman at the centre of the poem, Aunt Jennifer, is a nervous and fearful wife. She lacks inner conviction or ‘certainty’, unlike the tigers she portrays. Aunt Jennifer is ‘mastered’ in her life. She lives a life of inequality. She is so nervous that her fingers ‘flutter’ through the wool she is using in her tapestry or panel. The poet portrays the marriage of Jennifer as an unhappy one for her. Aunt Jennifer feels the burden of duty and obedience. This is shown by the symbol of the wedding ring that she wears. It is described as her husband’s property: ‘Uncle’s wedding band’. It ‘sits heavily’ on her hand because he dominates her life. Her life with her husband is desctibed as a life of ‘ordeals’.  It is shown that Jennifer is terrified in her marriage. Her husband may be fiercer to her than the tigers she produces in her artwork.  The poem therefore provides a negative picture of marriage. The poem is probably saying that the ‘Uncle’ or husband is behaving like a tiger, and the tigers are ‘chivalric’ like the husband should be. Each world is the reverse of what it should be.

2. The world of art is happier than the real world/Dream versus Reality
Aunt Jennifer’s hobby is making designs and pictures from wool. Jennifer produces wool tapestries that she places on panels. The creatures she places there are free and proud, the opposite to herself. She is ‘ringed’ or mastered in marriage and therefore she is not free, but controlled.  It seems that she creates a happier looking world than the one she lives in. She makes precise and brightly coloured pictures like the sharp yellow tigers of the poem, pictured against a green background. These bright contrasting colours are probably much more vivid than Jennifer’s everyday world. Her artistic work will live on after she dies, as, according to the poet, her tigers will ‘go on prancing’. The figures she creates are stronger and happier than she is. They are proud and ‘prance’ about, unlike their creator, who is nervous and fears her husband. The word ‘prance’ or parade contrasts sharply with ‘fluttering’, meaning trembling. The tigers do not fear the men the aunt places under some trees in her tapestry. Therefore, the imaginary tigers produced by Aunt Jennifer live a type of proud and free life that she can only dream about. It is a ‘chivalric’ world, one where gentlemen treat women with great respect. Yet this is also a false world, as real tigers live out a battle for survival of the fittest, where the strongest dominate. Perhaps Aunt Jennifer uses art as an escape from her troubles. In her artwork Jennifer imagines the kind of life she would have liked.

***
The tigers display in art the values that Aunt Jennifer must repress or displace in life: strength, assertion, fearlessness, fluidity of motion. And the poem's conclusion celebrates the animal images as a kind of triumph, transcending the limited conditions of their maker's life. Accepting the doctrine of "ars longa, vita brevis," Rich finds in her character's art both persistence and compensation; she sees the creations as immortalizing the hand that made them, despite the contrary force of the oppressive structure of Aunt Jennifer's conventional marriage, as signified by the ring that binds her to her husband. This doctrine is utterly consonant with what was, according to Rich, "a recurrent theme in much poetry I read [in those days]. . . the indestructibility of poetry, the poem as vehicle for personal immortality" (Blood 168). And this more or less explicit connection helps show how deeply implicated Rich herself was in Aunt Jennifer's situation and her achievement, despite the "asbestos gloves" of a distancing formalism that "allowed me to handle materials I couldn't pick up barehanded" (Lies 40-41).

The problem, however, is that the tigers are clearly masculine figures--and not only masculine, but heroic figures of one of the most role-bound of all the substructures of patriarchy: chivalry. Their "chivalric certainty" is a representation by Aunt Jennifer of her own envisioned power, but it is essentially a suturing image, at once stitching up and reasserting the rift between her actual social status an her vision. Aunt’s name, after all, echoes with the sound of Queen Guinevere's; her place in chivalry is clear. Her tigers are only Lancelots, attractive because illicit, but finally seducing her to another submission to the male. So long as power can be envisioned only in terms that are culturally determined as masculine, the revolutionary content of the vision, which was all confined to a highly mediated and symbolic plane in any case, will remain insufficient. Indeed, the fact that assertion against the patriarchy is here imagined only in terms set by the patriarchs may be seen as this poem's version of the tigers' "fearful symmetry." And the "Immortal hand or eye" that framed their symmetry is not Aunt Jennifer's framing her needlework, but patriarchy's, framing Aunt Jennifer.

American Literture-I~ Explanation Of the Poem 'Morning Song By Sylvia

American Literture-I~ Explanation Of the Poem 'Morning Song By Sylvia

MORNING SONG

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

This poem is part of the collection Ariel and it is considered part of the so called Confessional poetry, a kind of poetry drafted by a group of poets of the fifties of the twentieth century in which Sylvia Plath has been framed and which works are composed in a mode of verse that reveals the poet's personal problems in a very frankly way. Long time it has been considered as a characteristic of the collection the theme of suicide, as a hint of the intimate subjects dealt with in the poems, but as in the previous research of this paper has been stated, death poems were not part of this collection, being the poems that express ideas on death not part of the original selection made by Plath before dying.

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The poem is composed in free verses; it does not seek a regular metre and rhyming scheme. It is composed by six stanzas of three verses each.

The first stanza begins with the word love, which is a good hint of the theme of the poem. It is, the birth of Sylvia's son and the feelings she experiments because of her maternity. This word, love, it is said to be the reason of the baby's coming to the world. This coming, the sense of movement of the action, is compared with that of a watch, as an object that starts working at a certain point, in the life of a person this certain point can be the moment of the birth. This mentioned watch is a gold watch, the adjective gold gives an idea of the importance of the concept compared to it, in this case the newborn. And the word fat, referring to this watch, alludes to the baby's shape, being babies often tubby and rounded in their shape when they are born. In the second verse Plath tells the moment the midwife slaps the footsoles of the baby, when babies are born, the midwifes or the doctors that help in the childbirths usually snap the baby's buttocks or, in this case, the footsoles to help them breath as they start crying. In the poem, this crying, described as bald, sets the moment the new person has come to the world. This idea is described as “[…] took its place among the elements”. Being these elements interpreted as the elements that compose the world, the natural elements, and, they may be as well, the elements human beings have created to conform the world as it is nowadays, or as it was in that moment of history when Sylvia Plath lived.

The second stanza describes how the arrival of the new born has been welcomed. The first verse talks about the echoes of the voices of the parents magnifying his arrival, these words give idea of the happiness brought to them by the birth. The child is described as “new statue in a drafty museum”, his nakedness is compared to a statue, this image can be easily evoked by the reader. The naked body of a baby, so delicate and soft, is comparable with the perfection of the statues chiselled by crafty sculptors. This image of the delicate baby is the cause of the parent's worries, of the end of the safety felt before the new born's arrival, because of the responsibility on the new person good development and growing. So Sylvia says they stand as blankly walls, just staring around the baby, expectant.

The third stanza begins comparing Sylvia's motherhood with the breaking of the clouds in rain. The rain, stated as a mirror which reflects the disappearing of the clouds themselves; extinction made by the action of raining and the blow of the wind. This expression may express the idea of motherhood not as a condition of possession by the mother. The baby belongs to the world, to itself, to the elements which surround his life in the world.

In the fourth stanza the worry of the mother as the baby sleeps is expressed. The breath of the baby is described as “moth-breath”, this comparison gives an idea of the speed and regularity of the baby's breath as it sleeps. As moths are characterized by the fast and constant movement of their wings and are nocturnal insects. Therefore, the movement of these insects is compared with the rhythm of the breath of the baby at night when it is sleeping. This breathing, expressed as a flying is described as flickering among “the flat pink roses”. These flat pink roses may be the decoration of the wall papers of the room where the baby sleeps as they are described as flat and walls are the limits of the rooms and the breathing, as the moths flying, collides with the limits of the room where it is taking place or as the verse says “Flickers among” them. The mother's worry and attention is expressed when she says that she wakes to listen to this breath and the sound that comes to her is said to be like the sound of the sea that moves in her ears. This description of the sound gives idea of the rhythm of the breathing, similar to the sound of the sea.

In the penultimate stanza the characteristic mother's state of alert is expressed when she says that if she hears a cry of her baby she stumbles from bed, in a clumsy way, being his clumsiness reflected by the composed term cow-heavy, and described as floral surely referring this term, floral, to the print of her Victorian nightgown. The mouth of the baby as it cries is described as a cat's mouth, this comparison may be because of the similarity of the baby's lament, surely longing for food, with that of the baby cat drawing for its mother attention. The last verse of this stanza links with the first verse of the next one and starts describing the moment of the daybreak

This last stanza as I said before links with the previous one where the window is mentioned. In this stanza it is said that the window square whitens, the day light is coming and in a poetic way she describes how the night ends by saying that it “swallows its dull stars”. The she describes the beginning of the baby's day. It starts babbling. This is a description of the baby's attempts to produce sounds, something characteristic of humans before we learn how to speak. These sounds are described as “The clear vowels rise like balloons”. The first sounds babies produce are most of all vowels. And the description of their production and heard like the rising of balloons in the air give clear idea of the constancy and intensity of the rising of these sounds.

TWICKNAM GARDEN

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

“Twicknam Garden” is a sonorous (resonant; high-sounding) and thoughtful lyric. It was

most probably addressed to the Countess Lucy of Bedford for whom Donne had a

profound admiration. The lyric is distinguished by highly condensed feelings of sadness.

The poet is obviously in a mood of dejection. He gives vent to the anguish of his heart

which neither nature can soothe nor poetry. Only Donne’s emotion is the subject of this

lyric. There is a sort of sting in the tail or in the last two lines. Donne calls the fair sex as

the perverted sex but excepting this no scornful or bitter comments are made on

women.

DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT

It is remarkable that the lady to whom the poem is addressed was never in love with

Donne. The poet probably mistook her friendly regard for him for love. The poet feels

irresistibly drawn toward this “one of the most accomplished and cultured ladies” of the

seventeenth century. Her truth kills him, because he is deeply involved in her charm and

personality.

The most distinguishing feature of the poem is the atmosphere of sombre desolation that

pervades it. This cold, bleak and cheerless atmosphere is in perfect harmony with the

anguish of the poet. The poem reminds us of Keats’s La Belle Dame Sans Merci and

Shelley’s song, A Widow Bird Sat Mourning. We find the same bleakness, loneliness, and

dry unrelenting aspect of a leaden skied winter. The poem is steeped in grim and

overwhelming despair. The poet strikes a piercing note of sadness with the very first

line.

Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears, the well defined and concrete images

drive home the utter despair and incurable pain of a love-lorn heart. For example the

cold hardness of a “stone fountain weeping out my tears” and “crystal phials” leave on

the mind an unforgettable impression of poignant sorrow. The frigid expression of tears

gives a unifying effect to the poem. The poet refers to tears in all the three stanzas.

Tears, in fact, control the diversity of imagery that we find in the poem.

The poem contains some of most marvellous of Donne’s “conceits”. In the first stanza we

have the startling conceit of “spider love”:

The spider Love, which transubstantiates all,

And can convert manna to gall.

Again, we have an equally brilliant conceit when Donne compares sad and poignant

memories of love to the serpent in the garden of Eden:

And that this place may thoroughly be thought,

True paradise, I have the serpent brought.

In the second stanza, the love-lorn poet yearns to be converted into the stone fountain

which would be shedding tears throughout the year. In the last stanza, ‘tears’ are called

“Love’s wine”. All these ‘conceits’ lend a peculiar charm to the lyric.

“Twicknam Garden” is a short poem, but it is one of the greatest expressions in literature

of poignant sorrow and piercing sadness.

Inspired by Lucy: - This poem was perhaps inspired by Donne’s passion for the

Countess Lucy of Bedford, a highly cultured and accomplished lady who did not feel

anything stronger than friendship for the poet. The poet has given a most powerful

expression to his frustrated (baffled) passion. His art which we can analyse to some

extent, deserves admiration.

An expression of disappointed love: - He comes to Twicknam garden in order that

the beautiful sights and sounds around him, might ease his anguish. But no, he finds

that his bleak and desolate mood does not yield to the soothing influence of the

atmosphere. On the contrary, the trees seemed to be laughing and mocking him to his

face. If the garden were as beautiful as the garden of Eden, the thought of love within

him was like the serpent to spoil the beauty of the place.

Contrast between the natural atmosphere and the poet’s mood: - Donne

expresses his mental state in a series of attractive conceits. He is a self-traitor, as he

cherishes in his bosom the spider love, which transforms everything, even the heavenly

manna can be turned into poison by it. If the garden is paradise, then his passion is the

serpent. He wishes to be a mandrake and grow there in the garden (for the mandrake is

a plant that feels pain) or a stone fountain, for he is always weeping,

Donne’s intellectual contempt for women: - In the third stanza, his intellectual

contempt for women is expressed in an intricate series of images. He is the stone

fountain and his tears are the true tears of love. Lovers should come and take away in

crystal phials these tears and compare them with those shed by their mistresses at

home. If those do not taste as Donne’s do, then they are not true tears of love. Thus he

implores lovers not to be misled by the tears their mistresses shed, for you can no more

judge woman’s thoughts by their tears than you can judge their dresses by their

shadow.

Paradoxical thought in the closing lines: - Donne ends his poem with a paradox

(anything that goes against the accepted opinion). The woman, he loves, is true and

chaste; she is quite honest, that is why Donne cannot enjoy her love. And it is the

perversity of the female sex that the only woman who is honest and true should be the

one whose honesty and truth kill the poet, otherwise, perhaps she would not be so

chaste and true. In Donne’s view, woman is a kind of plague devised by God for man.

CRITICAL COMMENTS

This poem was addressed to the Countess Lucy of Bedford—a cultured and accomplished

lady of the seventeenth century. She entertained a friendly affection for Donne the poet,

which could hardly be given the name of “love”‘. The poet, a sad and forlorn lover, finds

himself in a mood of dejection. Even nature fails to soothe his tormented soul. It is a

song of sorrow pervaded by nothing except the bleakness of despair. It expresses the

anguish of a lover’s heart who has fallen a prey to sorrow and who cannot drown it even

in nature. For its sombre atmosphere and intensity of grief, the poem has not been

surpassed by any lyric in English poetry. It is a passionate outburst of sorrow expressing

yearnings of unfulfilled love. The lady to whom it is addressed was never in love with

Donne. It is possible that Donne misconstrued her friendly regard for him. In its

poignancy of sorrow, the poem reminds us of Keats’s La Belle Dame Sans Merci and

Shelley’s lyric, A Widow Bird Sat Mourning.

Imagery and symbolism in Twicknam Garden

Religious conceitsFirst stanzaSecond stanzaThird stanza

Religious conceits

As with most Metaphysical poetry, the real matter of Twicknam Garden lies in its imagery, here a series of brilliant conceits. Many of these conceits have religious origins, and we soon become aware of Donne's use of the ‘religion of love' language.

First stanza

If we look at the first stanza, what we find is a complex conceit woven from a number of quite different religious sources.

• The Roman Catholic belief in transubstantiation (the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ believed to occur at the Mass)
• ‘Manna' is sometimes referred to as ‘the bread from heaven', a reference to the Israelites being supplied with a mysterious food whilst they were travelling through the wilderness (Exodus 16:14-15and Exodus 16:35)
• Here the ‘spider love' is the transforming substance, but, spiders, being poisonous, make it a sort of anti-transformation: from good to bad, from bread to ‘gall'
• ‘Gall', a bitter substance, often contrasted with food that is good to eat. The Gospel of Matthew describes gall mixed with vinegar being offered to Jesus Christ to drink while he was dying on the cross (Matthew 27:34)
• The final strand of the conceit is the reference to ‘True Paradise', or Eden (Genesis 2:8), the original perfect garden.
• The thing that transformed that from good was the serpent (Genesis 3:1-5). So now Donne is the serpent, turning a perfect place into a place of expulsion, grief and absence.

Andrew Marvell's poem The Garden uses similar imagery.

Second stanza

The conceits in the second stanza are more straightforward:

• the natural image of winter being obviously consonant with his own mood of desolation 
• Mandrakes had a symbolic meaning for the time: they were little plants with a forked root, often seen as symbolising males, sometimes females, especially anatomically. They were reputed to groan as they were pulled up. Some manuscripts have ‘groane', some have ‘grow' here. Since the groaning of mandrakes was an Elizabethan commonplace, this would appear the better reading.

Third stanza

• The third stanza's conceit of tears as something to be tasted is not unusual
• Donne manages to tie in the ‘bread' image of stanza one in his reference to ‘loves wine'
• Thus we have both the bread and the wine of the Mass.

But there is a reverse in the conceit:

• Whereas before he was the false presence, now his tears are the sign of the true
• The tradition of hearts being reflected in eyes is decisively rejected in Donne's cynical ending
• The comparison is made with shadows, which in fact tell us little about the actual clothes a woman may be wearing

The poem,  Twicknam Garden, by John Donne begins with his personal predicament. The poet is writing with agony and his lacerated self finds a succinct summing-up in the first two lines of the poem:

---

Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears,

Hither I come to seek the spring.

The poet feels so shrivelled and disconcerted that he decides in his mind to find something soothing for his afflicted nerves, and he comes into a garden, perhaps the garden of his patroness, Duchess of Bedford. The specific garden of his patroness to whom he has paid handsome tributes in many a poem, in no way sheds any significant light on the poet’s anguish that has unhinged him. The garden is not the garden of Marvell with multiple layers of meaning. In this poem, Donne’s garden is simply a place, luxurious and delighting to the tortured self of the poet. The poet expression, ‘True Paradise’ for the garden, he believes that the garden has magical property because he will receive such balms ‘as else cure everything’.

The panacea the poet presumes to discover is of no avail because in the last line of the stanza he says, “I have the serpent brought”. The image of the serpent has to be viewed in images: the image of the serpent and that of the spider love, have something   diabolical about them. The serpent in relation to paradise is the cause of the primal sin in the Garden of Eden, making Adam an exile into the world, condemned to live by the sweat of brow. The serpent is symbolic of the original sin bringing a life of travail for people. Spider love signifies something that is base and vile because the spider feeds on filth and dirt. In Donne’s poem, “Love’s Exchange” we find a similar low image for love: “Love, any devil else but you, Would for a given Soule give something too.”

In short, the deceitful nature of love impels the poet to bring in the two images: serpent and spider. The poet has at the back of his mind the disdain and indignity heaped on him by his lady-love and this unceremonious treatment at the hands of his lady-love is the cause of his disturbed state of mind. The poet lays blame at the door of love (love embodied in the mistress), and he adds another dimension to the treatment of the idea of love which has become the cause of his undoing. The lines: “The spider love, which transubstantiates all, and can convert manna to gall,” have three keywords, ‘transubstantiates’, ‘Manna’, and ‘gall’. The first two words impart scriptural reverberations to the poem.

Transubstantiation is the doctrine in Eucharist church which means that bread is the flesh of Christ and wine is His blood. It is an important ritual in church. The partaking of bread and wine recalls minding the crucifixion of Christ and Judas, one of Christ’s disciples instrumental in putting Christ on the cross. This is nothing but betrayal of love. Manna is food provided by God for Israelites during their long stay in the desert, when love and trust are not there sustaining the bond subsisting between man and man.

John Donne’s poem begins with his private emotion of grief, but the sensibility of the poet is such that instead of luxuriating himself in sorrow, he contemplates the idea of suffering with a genesis in loving a wider perspective.

In Donne, there is an affirmation of cool detachment and self-possession in the face of something that upsets him. He shows a response and congeals at worst into cold self-righteousness. Donne’s wit exhibits a cool sanity and a wary openness which goes much beyond the refusal of facile commitment or sardonic amusement at the way the world goes. He probes and sifts experiences and analyses with remarkable candour the various possibilities in a given situation without aligning himself summarily with a soft option of acceptance or rejection.

Twicknam Garden Analysis

Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears,

Hither I come to seek the spring,

And at mine eyes, and at mine ears,

Receive such balms as else cure everything;

But oh, self-traitor, I do bring

The spider love, which transubstantiates all,

And can convert manna to gall,

And that this place may thoroughly be thought

True paradise, I have the serpent brought.

In the first stanza of Twichknam Garden, the poet who is lovesick and is sunk in the slough of despondency keeps his wits about himself and contemplates the reality of love in multiple facets: the love that is naïve, the love that that is pure and immaculate, and the love that has a seamy side. The telescoping of images in the brief compass of the first stanza – the images of spring, balm, paradise, serpent, spider and transubstiation roll into unity under the intensity of artistic process, giving the impression of the ruin wrought by love that works in an unbridled way and knows no moderation.

‘Twere wholesomer for me, that winter did

Benight the glory of this place,

And that a grave frost did forbid

These trees to laugh, and mock me to my face;

But that I may not this disgrace

Endure, nor yet leave loving, Love let me

Some senseless piece of this place be;

Make me a mandrake, so I may grow here,

Or a stone fountain weeping out my year.

The second stanza presents an awful prospect starting the poet in the face. The poet who came to the garden in search of balm finds that his expectations are shattered and the garden becomes a menace with a sinister design, and he, therefore, wants that the garden be folded in darkness: ‘Twere wholesome for me, that winter did, Benight the glory of this place.”

The poet wants to be some senseless piece of the garden. He wants to be a mandrake or stone fountain, and this impulse of regression to the world of rocks and plants is prompted by something in the poet that he fails to come to grips with. He finds that the trees glistening with bright foliage mock him and the poet makes a very despairing disclosure:

But that I may not this disgrace

Indure, nor leave this garden…

This is a galling experience in the sense that the poet finds himself in impasse and does not know how to overcome it. He does not feel anger towards the lady-love who is not responsive to his amorous advances. He wants self-effacement by merging himself into nature without giving vent to pent-up anger to his mistress. Here this state of mind of the poet has kinship with the Astrophel of Sidney’s sonnet sequence, like many other Petrarchan and Petrarch himself, reflecting the grim plight they are in, and thus powerless to amend it. In this universe of lovers, anger is not consonant with the attitude of the poet-lover. The response is nearer to simple human respect than to reverence or hatred.

However, it is certainly not genuflection before a semi-deity in the form of a lady-love. The point worth noting in respect of Donne’s treatment of the disdainful attitude of the mistress to him is that Donne deals in all the battery of sighs and tears supposed to be flimsy stock-in-trade of the Petrarchan mode of idealizing the ‘Impossible She’. Donne’s distinctive merit lies in a finely discriminated fidelity to natural experience, and he refrains himself from the Petrarchan adulation of lady-love.

Hither with crystal phials, lovers come,

And take my tears, which are love’s wine,

And try your mistress’ tears at home,

For all are false, that taste not just like mine;

Alas! Hearts do not in eyes shine,

Nor can you more judge women’s thoughts by tears,

Than by her shadow what she wears.

Oh perverse sex, where none is true but she,

Who’s therefore true, because her truth kills me.

The third stanza is an intensification of the probing and analytic mind of Donne making an inquisition on the experience of frustration in love. This stanza abounds in hyperbole when he says that lovers with crystal vials would come to him for collecting his tears with the injunction from the poet to compare his tears with tears of their mistresses at home. The poet cannot forbear himself going into high-faulting utterances that tears of all are false that taste not just like his. He indulges himself in making extravagant claims of being pure and steadfast in love and makes a brutal exposure of sham and pretence underneath the veneer of naïveté:

Alas! Hearts do not in eyes shine,

Nor can you more judge women’s thoughts by tears,

Than by her shadow what she wears.

Though the poet appears to have spared his Lady-love the ignominy he has heaped on the rest of woman folk, he, in fact, with a remarkable sleight of hand brings his mistress in the net of wide-ranging censure of women when he says, “O perverse sexe”. The expression, ‘perverse sexe’ is also severe indictment of capricious and scorn, and this contemptuous mien of his lady-love offers an affront to him. She is a pervert because she has outraged the first primal state of nature in which love for love is an innate condition of life.

In short, the poet wants the naturalness of impulses seeking their fruition without, in the least, being impaired and warped by the massive indifference and nonchalance of the lady-love.

On the surface Twicknam Garden appears to share the strain of idealization in the Petrarchan mode in the light of the over-ceremonious gravity of manner. But there is no denying the fact that there are continual deflating touches of hard realism perceptible in the images of self-traitor, spider love, transubstantiation, Manna and gall, and it makes the poem a huge, high, comic hyperbole.

Like Donne’s poem ‘Love’s Deitie’, flouting the accepted pieties and denying the basis of courtly servitude of the Petrarchan mode, ‘Twicknam Garden’, too, asserts that an unreciprocated love is no love, and therefore, he breaks into the damaging exclamation, “O perverse sexe”