English Literature: September 2017

Saturday 30 September 2017

How Can the Poem “Wild Nights-Wild Nights” be Regarded as a Poem of Mystic Experience?

“Wild Nights-Wild Nights” be Regarded as a Poem of Mystic Experience



The poem “Wild Nights- Wild Nights” apparently reads like a poem of sexual pleasures enjoyed with lover during nights. The poet says if she were with her lover, the wild nights would be a luxury. The wild nights would be a luxury means the poet will enjoy unbounded sexual pleasures with her lover during nights. On reading the poem, the first thing that occurs to a reader is this unbounded enjoyment. But is one level at which the poem can be interpreted in the way- in the way of sexual enjoyment. But it can be interpreted at another
Wild Nights-Wild Nights be Regarded as a Poem of Mystic Experience

level at which it can be seen as a description of mystic experience- experience of the pleasures of union with God. The mystic experience of the famous mystic have been described in terms of worldly pleasures like pleasures from drinking wine, or pleasures from sexual enjoyment. The poet of “Wild Nights- Wild Nights” may have tried to express her mystic experience through the medium of the description of sexual pleasures to an extent of unboundness. From that point of view, the expression “Were I with thee”, means if she were with God, and “wild nights” should be/ our luxury” means the poet’s experiences of intense pleasures in the company of God. The poem therefore has religious significance since mysticism is a term of religious connotations, having relation with God, and experience of God’s company.
 

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Discuss Langston Hughes as an Anti-Racialist.

Langston Hughes as an Anti-Racialist



Racism or racialism is any action, practice, or belief that reflects the racial worldview-the ideology that humans are divided into separate and exclusive biological entities called “races”, that there is a casual link between inherited physical traits and traits of personality, intellect, morality, and other cultural behavioral features, and that some races are innately superior to others. Racism was at the heart of North American slavery and the overseas colonization and empire-building activities of some western Europeans, especially in the 18th century.
 
Langston Hughes as an Anti-Racialist

Do You Find the Use of Any Symbol in Whitman’s Poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”?

Use of Symbol in Whitman’s Poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”



A symbol is anything that signifies or stands for something else. In this sense all words are symbol. Symbol may be public or conventional or private. “The cross”, “the red” etc are public or conventional symbols they signify objects of which the further significance is fixed and traditional in a particular culture. Private symbol are those whose significance the writers generate for themselves, and the readers are in difficulty in understanding them.
 
Use of Any Symbol in Whitman’s Poem When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
 

Friday 29 September 2017

Pain and Suffering and Growth are One of the Prominent Themes of Dickinson’s Poetry.

Themes of Pain, Suffering and Growth are One of the Prominent  Elements of Dickinson’s Poetry



Dickinson’s poetic world is permeated with pain and suffering and the struggle to evade, face, overcome and wrest meaning from it, or growing from it. Suffering is central to her poetic faith, and it is involved in the creative processes as well. It is part of her ambivalent response to the mysteries of time and nature. Suffering plays a major role in her poems on suffering. Her poems on the subjects of suffering and growth can be divided into three groups: (1) poems that focus on deprivation as a cause of suffering, (2) those dealing with suffering bring compensatory rewards or spiritual growth.
 
Pain and Suffering and Growth are One of the Prominent Themes of Dickinson’s Poetry

Discuss Dickinson’s Attitude Towards Life and Love

Dickinson’s Attitude Towards Life and Love


Attitude to life is a very comprehensive term which encompasses a great many aspects of life. Life consists of not a few elements, but almost an infinite variety of things. However, a poet usually does have some attitude towards life which in his/her case may mean he/she highlights some particular aspect of life – not too many, of course. In the case of Emily Dickinson we find that she has highlighted some important aspects of life - friendship, society, pain and suffering and growth in life, and the most potent factor of life, that is love.
 
Dickinson’s Attitude Towards Life and Love

Depict the Theme of Alienation in the Poems of Robert Frost

Theme of Alienation in the Poems of Robert Frost


The theme of isolation or alienation is a recurrent one in Frost’s poems. In Frost’ poetry we frequently find man isolated or alienated from his immediate environment. Even Nature appears extraneous to man’s physical existence. Man is isolated from other men from a sense of fear. Man is isolated in space from the stars and the sky. He is isolated from God and even from himself, that is, from his own self. Women’s isolation or alienation seems harder than men’s. According to Frost’s vision of life it is man’s lot to be alienated from all the other things and beings of the universe and destined to live alone, live a lonely existence.
 
Theme of Alienation in the Poems of Robert Frost

Do You Think Frost Was a Modern Poet?

Frost Was a Modern Poet


In spite of the Pastoral element predominant in Frost’s poems, he is still a modern poet because his poetry has been endowed with the awareness of the problems of man living in the modern world dominated by Science and Technology.

Critics have a difference of opinion over considering him a modern poet. Frost is a pastoral poet – poet of pastures and plains, mountains and rivers, woods and gardens, groves and bowers, fruits and flowers, and seeds and birds. They do not treat such characteristically modern subjects as ‘the boredom implicit in sensuality’, ‘the consciousness of neuroses’ and ‘the feeling of damnation’.  Cleanth Brooks says: Frost’s best poetry exhibits the structure of symbolic metaphysical poetry. Much more clearly than does of many a modern poet.
 
Robert Frost Was a Modern Poet

Evaluate Frost as a Poet of Nature

Frost as a Poet of Nature


We can form an idea of Frost as a poet of Nature from a study of the characteristics of his poetry. He can be called a poet of Nature though not in the sense that Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats were poets of Nature. He possessed an attitude to Nature entirely different from theirs, though on the surface he resembled them to a great extent.
 
Robert Frost as a Poet of Nature

Discuss How Whitman Has Used Imagery in His Poems

Whitman's use of Imagery in His Poems 

Whitman’s poetry contains a profusion of images and it is truly perceived in almost any of his poems. Imagery means the use of images or pictures in words to describe ideas or situations. An image is something that can be perceived through one or more senses-sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, the sense of motion or the sense of heat or cold. Imagery is the pictorial quality of a literary work achieved through a collection of images. It evokes a complex of emotional suggestions and communicates mood, tone and meaning.
 
Whitman Has Used Imagery in His Poems

Do you Consider Walt Whitman as a Modern Poet?

Walt Whitman as a Modern Poet


The American Civil War proved a turning point in her political and literary history. After that, the American nation ushered in a new era of modern reconstruction. The American literature during this period flourished in a fresh and free atmosphere. Some of the writers broke away from the traditions of the past and emerged as modern writers. Walt Whitman was one of them; he sang of the American nation and American people in his poetry. He brought about some innovations in the poetic art and technique which characterize him as a modern poet.
 
Walt Whitman as a Modern Poet
 

How Troilus Wins the Love of Criseyde?

Troilus Wins the Love of Criseyde


Troilus visit to the temple in the ceremony marked a serious change in his attitude to women and love. His love at the first sight was one-sided and he had to sorrow bitterly for her love, Pandarus, 'Troilus’ trusted friend and Criseyde s uncle comforted him by the promise of aid in the suit. By applying all his techniques, Pandarus induced Criseyde to return his love for his heroism and Criseyde took pity for his love-sorrow on her account. 

Difference Between Achilles and Agamemnon

Achilles and Agamemnon and their Difference


Achilles and Agamemnon are two epic characters. Both the characters have their distinct features and both of them are considered very strong.

Achilles is considered to be the central character of Homer’s Iliad. Achilles has been described as the strongest man and his fathers was god and mother a mortal being. He became almost immortal after he was bathed in Styx River. The only part that could be injured was his heel.
Difference Between Achilles and Agamemnon

Why Does Phaedra Say ‘Unreason Drives Me Into Evil’?

Reason Phaedra Say ‘Unreason Drives Me Into Evil’

Phaedra explains to the Nurse that she has been able to dig into the root of her trouble. She thinks that it is all due to the long absence of her husband. Theseus has gone down to the underworld for a wrong purpose. He has gone to help his friend Peirithous to abduct Persephone. She believes that her husband has gone there with an evil purpose, to seek lust and unlawful marriage. This is how he has broken his marriage vow.

Whom did Aristophanes Patronize Euripides or Aeschylus?

Reason  Aristophanes Patronize Euripides or Aeschylus


Aeschylus guided the growth and development of tragedy and exerted a great influence on the Greek drama. He represented and faced the conflicting forces quite boldly. Before Aeschylus the chorus occupied an important place. Narratives were addressed to 

What is the Significance of The Frogs as a Comedy?

Significance of The Frogs as a Comedy


In ancient Greece there were great writers of tragedy. The most eminent among them were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. In writing comedies Aristophanes stood out prominently. His Frogs is a remarkable Comedy. His purpose was social reform and in this sense, he was a social reformer. He was a comic poet and not a political propagandist. He was like a teacher and concerned with the well-being of Athens as well as the welfare of her people. He was a seeker of truth and a true patriot. His comedy The Frogs has stood the test of the time. Aristophanes was neither a rationalist, nor a septic. In this play he upheld the cult of Dionysus was the hero who went to the Hades to find out a great tragic dramatist who was then dead.
The Frogs as a Comedy

How did Medea Change Herself to Reach Her Goal?

The Way Medea Change Herself to Reach Her Goal


Euripides has begun Medea only after Jason’s betrayal. We can have a glimpse of Medea as a blushing maiden. She has been described as an unsophisticated maiden who has found her ideal man in Jason. But his betrayal brings about a complete change in her. She becomes firmly determined to avenge the dishonor and teach him a lesson. She is lamenting and cursing behind the veil. She changes into a distraught woman with Ms. Consult with the writer lips, and blood-shot eyes. We can easily realize that a terrible storm is raging within. Medea in her suffering transcends the personal level and becomes the symbol of the suffering women of all ages and climes.
 
The Way Medea Change Herself to Reach Her Goal
 

How did Medea and Jason React to the Killing of Glauce and Creon?

Medea and Jason React to the Killing of Glauce and Creon


Medea adopted some artful measures to get rid of Glauce and Creon. She asked her children to present a robe and a golden importunity compelled her to accept the gifts and she was immediately consumed by poison. Creon in a bid to save his daughter burnt himself to death.
 
Medea and Jason React to the Killing of Glauce and Creon

“Is Medea a Wife Only, or Also a Mother” Discuss.

Medea a Wife Only or Also a Mother


Medea was the Daughter of a king of Colchis which was a land of magic and enchantment. She was a sorceress, but at the same time was a symbol of maiden purity. She fell in love with Jason and subordinated everything to her love and passion. Jason, her husband, came across Glauce, the daughter of Creon, and secretly married her. It was a bitter betrayal and treachery which was a rude shock to her. Medea became furious and determined to take revenge on her husband.
 
Medea a Wife Only or Also a Mother

What for did Medea Kill Her Own Children?

The Reason Medea Kill Her Own Children


Medea was not only a wife but also a mother. Though a barbarian, she loved deeply her children. Medea loved her children as much as any mother of the civilized races did. Now her love of the children had been turned into the bitterest hatred. It was not hatred for the children but for their father. She hated her children, and seeing them felt no joy. The servants had a misgiving that the children might be slain. She had often turned her wild and blood-thirsty eyes upon them. So the Nurses as well as the servants advised them not to go in the presence of their mother. We hear the lamentations of Medea from within. As soon as she saw her children, she flared up. She sought to destroy the children only with the father and the whole race. She excited a feeling of horror and our pity and sympathy as well. Medea was a wronged mother and wife. She killed the children only to rend Jason’s heart which would prove fatal to him. He failed to save them and it was a terrible wound to his heart. He could never forget it which would be a long suffering to him.
 
Medea a Wife Only or Also a Mother
 

“Medea is More Sinned Against Than Sinning” – Justify the Statement.

Medea is More Sinned Against Than Sinning


Medea appears to be the mouthpiece of the oppressed women. She has given expression to her feelings very passionately. Euripides’ treatment of his subject irritates the simple man in two ways. He made his characters half-good and half-bad. He made a point of studying his characters sympathetically. Many regions of thought and character were exposed.
 
Medea is More Sinned Against Than Sinning

Bring out the Significance of the Episode of the Red Carpet in Aeschylus’ Play Agamemnon.

Significance of the Episode of the Red Carpet in Aeschylus’ Play Agamemnon


The Red Carpet plays a very significant role in Aeschylus’ play, Agamemnon. Agamemnon was the supreme commander of the Greek which besieged and destroyed troy. He was a great warrior and was enriched in exceptionally good qualities. At the same time he had many weaknesses. His besetting sin was his ‘hubris’ or pride. This evidently is one of the seven deadly sins from the point of view of the ancient Greeks.

Short Note on Homeric Similes.

Homeric Similes


Simile is a comparison between two different things dissimilar to each other. This similarity is shown with such words ‘as’ and ‘like’. Homeric similes are elaborate, point by point comparisons, giving an impression of magnificence. Homer has drawn his materials from the direct observation of life and nature around him. Besides, Homeric similes are strikingly picturesque. At times Homeric similes provide relief as well as suspense. For example Athens diverting an arrow aimed at Menelaus is compared to a mother. For describing a humble life a simile has great importance. These similes take us far away from strife-torn battle grounds to the humble life. A few similes relating to humble life are as a woman colors a piece of ivory for a bridle, a child makes castle of sand, diver dips into the water for Oysters carpenters building ships and so on. Lastly Homer’s similes are remarkable for this richness.