English literature and linguistics with ASMA SHEIKH: TED HUGHES PAST PAPERS CONTEXT N PAST PAPER

English literature and linguistics with ASMA SHEIKH: TED HUGHES PAST PAPERS CONTEXT N PAST PAPER: TED HUGHES PAST PAPERS CONTEXT You went on and on. Here were reasons To recite Chaucer. Then came the Wyf of Bath, Your favourite char...

Hyperion: Critique and Analysis/ Major Themes/ Human Sufferings in Hyperion/ Discuss “the agonies, the strife of human hearts.” In Hyperion 😊🌷🌹👇👌

Hyperion: Critique and Analysis/ Major Themes/ Human Sufferings in Hyperion/ Discuss “the agonies, the strife of human hearts.” In Hyperion
😊🌷🌹👇👌

Hyperion” is an uncompleted epic poem by John Keats. It is based on the Titans and Olympians, and tells of the despair of the former after their fall to the latter. Keats wrote the poem for about one year, when he gave it up as having “too many Miltonic inversions.” He was also nursing his brother Tom, who died in January of 1819 of tuberculosis. Hyperion relates the fall of the Titans, elemental energies of the world, and their replacement by newer gods. The Olympian gods, having superior knowledge and an understanding of humanity’s suffering, are the natural successors to the Titans.
Keats’s epic begins after the battle between the Titans and the Olympian gods, with the Titans already fallen. Hyperion, the sun god, is the Titans’ only hope for further resistance. The epic’s narrative, divided into three sections, concentrates on the dethronement of Hyperion and the ascension to power of Apollo, god of sun and poetry. Book I presents Saturn fallen and about to be replaced and Hyperion threatened within his empire. The succeeding events reveals the aftermath of the situation and the Titan’s acceptance of defeat after Oceanus’ speech. In Hyperion, the quality of Keats’s blank verse reached new heights, particularly in the opening scene between Thea and the fallen Saturn:

            “Deep in the shady sadness of a vale,
            … Sat gray-hair’d Saturn, quiet as a stone”
Many themes introduced in the Hyperion are identifiable as those associated with Romanticism. Hyperion, which marks the exchange of the old powers for the new, addresses ideas about poetry, beauty, knowledge, and experience. Hyperion’s dominant themes address the nature of poetry and its relationship to humanity and the sublimity of human suffering the knowledge gained through it. The narrative suggests a thematic consideration of progress, particularly toward enlightenment and depictions of beauty, even as it evokes classical ideals found in Greek mythology. Visual and verbal representations, in the use of language and of Greek sculptural forms, contribute to this exploration. Through his representation of gods, Keats’s commentary on Romantic opposites includes the real and ideal, history versus myth, finite versus infinite. The theme of truth is also prevalent. The speech of Oceanus and the ascension of Apollo both point to Hyperion’s concern with truth and its relationship with beauty, knowledge, and suffering. Truth is closely associated with knowledge and both are acquired through pain, which results from the understanding and acceptance of change and impermanence. However painful, truth is pure and beautiful, and what is beautiful is eternal. It is this honorable truth that the human spirit strives to attain. That is why Keats calls Hyperion:
            “the agonies, the strife of human hearts”
The poem is tragic with most of the qualities of a tragedy. Oceanus is working as a chorus giving the poem’s moral and working as a mediator.  Keats says: All I hope is that I may not lose interest in human affairs. In his later poetry, the realm of Flora and Old Pan are gone. His early poems were sensuous, but later he became aware of human sufferings. He thought that poetry of escape is not the real poetry. Real poetry deals with human beings. The function of poetry according to Keats is a friend to soothe the cares of man and lift up his thought. In the poems, gods have been given human qualities symbolizing sufferings of man. Gods are huge and Titanic, but have been given human characteristics effectively and realistically. Saturn’s misery, Thea’s stature all perfect human as exemplified in the line, ‘I have no comfort for thee, no, not one’. Keats has humanized the gods to reveal human sufferings as frther in Saturn’s speech:
            “Who had power
            To make me desolate? Whence came the strength?”
For Saturn, dethronement is a question of identity as Napoleon or any human being, may be Nawaz Sharif or Musharraf, could have felt. Thea’s reassurance to Saturn is a typical human activity. The suffering of Titans is the collected suffering of humanity at large.  Hyperion is a militant whose spirit is dampened by danger. So Keats, unlike other poems, has human concern in this poem. The Confidence with Saturn reminds us of Duke in “My Last Duchess” by Browning as “I gave commands and all smiles stopped”. Saturn is like Milton’s Satan who doesn’t want to establish his own kingdom for sovereignty as much as to take revenge on God. So the gods are all humanized. This is also visible in the Hyperion’s apprehensions about his dethronement and mock-determinations.
            “I will advance a terrible right arm
            Shall scare that infant thunderer, rebel Jove”
He has seen certain omens which indicate that his downfall may be imminent. Human beings feel apprehensive when they hear a dog howling or an owl screeching; and this god is feeling apprehensive because the wings of eagles darkened his palace and because the neighing of steeds has been heard which had never been heard before “by gods or wondering men”. The omens are different no doubt, but Hyperion’s reaction to the omens is the same as that of human beings is. And just as a human being might still resolve to fight against a coming danger, so Hyperion too says that he will use his terrible right arm. He feels most restless to think of the fate which might overtake him. But his restlessness is human restlessness under the pressure of a coming danger. Just as a wealthy man is afraid lest he should become bankrupt, so Hyperion is afraid lest he should lose his ‘‘lucent empire”. Just as a wealthy man is afraid lest he should be deprived of all his gains, so Hyperion is afraid lest he should lose “the blaze, the splendour, and the symmetry”. Hyperion is at this time like a fish out of water. Ha would like to begin the day sooner than usual, but the laws of Nature do not permit him to do that. He picks up courage only when his father whispers to him from somewhere in heaven and urges him to go and join his fellow-Titans on the earth; another human activity.
Keats suffered from the two experiences of entirely different nature: imagination and reality.  It is evident, then, that Keats was grappling with the problem of human suffering and with a human dilemma. He even suggests the simple formula: What cannot be cured must be endured. Human beings should face the facts squarely and calmly, and such a calm acceptance of realities shows not a defeatist mentality but a manly or even a divine frame of mind. Having arrived at this stage in his thinking, Keats went on to write the great odes in which his human concerns find a full utterance. Keats has like Apollo, acquired the tragic vision and become a great poet. Had he lived longer, he would have written even greater poetry and it would have been a poetry marked by profound thought, intense emotion, and a portrayal of the stern realities of human life.

Seamus Heaney Poem Personal Helicon From the book “THE DEATH OF NATURLIST”

Seamus Heaney
Poem Personal Helicon
From the book “THE DEATH OF NATURLIST”

As a child, they could not keep me from wells
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss

One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top
I savored the rich crash when a bucket
Plummeted down at the end of a rope
So deep you saw no reflection in it.

A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
Fructified like any aquarium
When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
A white face hovered over the bottom

Others had echoes, gave back your own call
With a clean new music in it. And one
Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.

Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhym
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing

Context:
Seamus Heaney was born in a rural area of Northern Ireland. As we expect he was living in a country side meant that he had more chance of playing in the nature and another important thing to keep in mind is both my grandfather and father were farmers, they had dedicated their whole lives to farming because they were responsible for our family. Although, he admired and had high respect for them farming was just now my thing, instead. He was more into writing poems. Therefore, this led his father and he a relationship.
About Personal Helicon:
Before we look at it as a whole, Helicon can refer to two different things, one of them can mean an instrument while it is also a mountain located in the region of Thespiai in Boeotia, Greece. This mountain is greek mythology is where the muses live. Muses are known as the inspirational goddess of literature, science and art and mountain where Apollo was in and was the source of inspiration of Apollo’s poem and music.
First Stanza:
In the first stanza he is trying to focus on his childhood on the well. He uses dictions that provoke imagery of the features of the well. For example, in line 2, Old pumps, buckets, and windlasses, in line 3, dark drop and trapped sky and in line 4, waterweed, fungus, and dank moss. Therefore, by using these detailed dictions we are able to image the well that Seamus Heaney grew up with in his childhood.
Second Stanza:
In stanza 2, Seamus Heaney brings in a different well into the poem and this time it seems like this well is when Heaney is a little bit older than the first well, showing that there has been a shift of how Heaney’s thoughts have changed from stanza 1 which is more of Heaney wonders and curiosity that Heaney has towards the world, while stanza 2 talks more about the way how Heaney thinks about himself and tries to find who he really is. Seamus Heaney used the word savoured to describe the conflicted thoughts that he was holding inside due to what he wanted to be, but his family tradition from his grandfather to his father kept him from holding in the thought of being a poet. To add in the conflicted thoughts he described the well really deep to show that he cannot see who he really is and what he wanted to be. Rat appears on his face, well, since Heaney and Jay said everything in conclusion, Heaney used realistic diction to talk about the conflicted thoughts Heaney has. For example, savoured, so deep, rotted board top.
Third Stanza  :
In stanza 3, Seamus Heaney bring another well, which shows another shift in the morning. However, in line 11, he mentioned that he has dragged out the long roots from the soft mulch, in this line the long roots symbolize tradition of his family of being a farmer to help the family out. Therefore, it shows that he is trying to be different from his grandfather and father. Also in line 12, he refers his own reflection as a white face. This shows that although I have got the conflict out of my way, I don’t know who he really is still and that he has not made the exact decision of who he wants to be. Well overall, this stanza uses euphemistic diction such a dry stone ditch, fructified, dragged, soft mulch, to show the action that Heaney had towards finding who he wants to be and also it shows the way how Heaney was closed to the nature due to the place where he lived and how he spent more time in the nature because of the conflict he had with his dad, which is not wanting to be a farmer.
Fourth Stanza:
Now in stanza 4,there is another shift which is shown by the changed of the well. This time, Heaney focuses on the life or the journey he went through being a poet. For example, in line 13, he looks into the well and shouts, the well echoes and in return gives back Heaney with ideas of music, which can also mean poems.
It shows that how the wells were the source of inspiration to Heaney’s poem. He actually had an obstacle along the way even if he decided to be  a poet. For example, in line 15, there is another shift that has a different mood compared to the previous one. Inside this well, a rat comes in and slaps the reflection of me. Overall, the 4th stanza stars off with a joyful diction but changes into a dismayed diction to show the troubles that still stand in front of Heaney becoming a poet.
Lastly the 5th stanza brings in Narcissus that who is a figure in the greek mythology who fell in love with himself after looking at his own reflection. Heaney also refers himself as Narcissus and tells that under his reflection , he sees all the dignity that an adult carries. This stanza shows he is finally accepting who he is as a poet and that by rhyming words, which truly shows that who he is between being a poet and a farmer. In addition, the last line shows that when I rhyme, that is how his poems are created.
So to conclude things, Heaney uses multiple wells and to talk about his growth and his source of inspiration as he gets older. Therefore, we can tell what the title represents. The title “HELICON”  is treated as the home of the muses and where Apollo gets his inspiration. Therefore, since this poem talks about the inspiration Heaney for his poems. It is referring the well as Heaney’s personal source of inspiration just like how “Helicon” is an inspiration for Apollo.
Structure:
It is in ABAB CDCD! However, for each stanza the 2nd and the 4th line does not rhyme and this illustrates the conflicted thoughts that is going through Heaney’s head from whether to become a farmer or a poet. However, in the last stanza, all lines are in perfect rhyme, which shows that Heaney finally decided that who he wants and who he is. In addition, this rhyme scheme also makes it sound like an echo, where when I make an echo that is how he gets inspiration for his poems. He used many shifts between time and the setting of the well.
Enjambment
In this poem enjambment suggests that the things in his life does not go the way he particularly wants. Heaney also keeps brining in the reflection that he sees in the well. The purpose of this poem to show the life Heaney went through being a poet and the inspiration that he got from the well. So the author is very reflective through his poem because he keeps looking at his status and the way he is right now.

THEORY OF INSPIRATION IN THAT MORNING BY TED HUGHES

consonant chart