JSSC PGT 2018 (pgttce) English Subject Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

His Life

Thomas Carlyle was a multifaceted personality: historian, biographer and essayist. He was born on 4 Dec. 1795 in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. He went to Annan Academy for his early education then the University of Edinburgh and became a mathematics teacher. He taught mathematics first in Annan then in Kirkcaldy where befriended Edward Irving. Having taught mathematics, he returned to the University of Edinburgh, where he was suffering from an intense crisis of faith and conversion. Subsequently, Carlyle developed stomach ailment that went with him until his death. He was much influenced by German idealism. He was much interested in German literature that brought his life of Schiller appeared in the London Magazine in 1823-24. He studied the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and translated Gothe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. He proved his mastery over Germany literature by contributing a series of essays for Fraser’s Magazine. As a mathematics teacher, he gave a method used in quadratic equations so-called Carlyle Circle.

Thomas Carlyle married Jane Baillie Welsh in 1826.

Carlyle’s Works

His early works cover periodically, these are Cruthers and Jonson, Life of Schiller following the Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. In addition to essays on German literature, he commented on modern culture resulted in Signs of the Times and Characteristics. Moreover, during these days he also wrote few articles on the great men of letter, including Goethe, Voltaire and Diderot. Followed by his first major work Sartor Resartus, he moved to Chelsea where he worked on his History of French Revolution, it established a landmark in his career as an author, honoured as the Sage of Chelsea. Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities was written using the events of the French Revolution in the novel. Apart from these, his some of the frequently discussed works are: Chartism (1839), past and Present (1834). Carlyle explored himself to what he called ‘the condition of England Question’

Sartor Resartus

 His first major work appeared as Sartor Resartus or The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdrokh (meaning the tailor repatched ) followed in Fraser’s Magazine in 1833-34. It was penned under the influence of a German Romanticism, particularly indebted to Richter. It was written in two parts: a discourse on the philosophy of clothes, leading to a conclusion that all symbols, forms, and human institutions are properly clothes. Some of the notable chapters are The Everlasting No, The Centre of Indifference, and The Everlasting Yea.

Heroes, Hero-Worship and Heroic in the History

It based on a series of lectures on the role of heroes in history published in 1841. Like some his other works, it was too, influenced by a German Philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814). As the title itself points out that, it is a record of some great men of letters. It is a version of history ‘ the biography great men’. Carlyle has termed the great personalities of their fields as hero, categorised into six namely Divinity, Prophet,  Poet, Priest, man of letters  and King, and gave the examples from the history as Dante, William Shakespeare, Martin Luther, John Knox, Samuel Johnson, Jean Jacques, Rousseau, Robert Burns, Oliver Cromwell, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Previous Posts:

Shakespearean Drama
The Tempest

As You Like It

Hamlet

Henry IV

Paraphrases of the poems

Sweetest Love I do not Goe

My Grandmother’s House

 Autumn Song

Macavity the Mystery Cat

Miscellaneous

Anita Krishan - the visionary contemporary novelist!

BSEB, Intermediate (10+2) English Paper

How reading Poetry is different than reading Prose fiction?

Literature and Criticism and Literary Theory

JSSC PGTTCE English Paper Hamlet by Shakespeare

 As per notice published on JSSC website, JSSC PGT (PGTTCE) exam is going to held in the month of March; we have very less time to complete or thorough study of the text of prescribed books. Therefore, we have decided to come with the Daily Notes of English subject. We will be publishing each day with a new author or new topic, so that within the limited days we will have a good collection of materials.

Previous Posts:

 As You Like It 
 Henry IV.

Source

The chief source of this play is Saxo-Grammaticus’ narrative in Historaie Danicae, as retold by Belleforest in his Histories Tragiques.

Major Characters

King Hamlet – king of Denmark and husband of Gertrude, killed by his brother Claudius.

Hamlet Junior- a university student, son of King Hamlet who later swears to take the revenge.

Claudius- King Hamlet’s brother and marriages Gertrude.

Ophelia- Hamlet Junior’s beloved who dies by drowning herself.

Gertrude- King Hamlet’s wife who later on marriages Claudius.

Polonius- Ophelia’s father who works for Claudius as a spy but is mistakably killed by Hamlet the junior.

Horatio- one of the Hamlet’s friend who keeps the secrecy of Hamlet’s plan and madness.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern- both work for Claudius who have been instructed to kill the Hamlet the Junior but failed to do so and both killed by Young Hamlet.

Summary  

Hamlet is one of the greatest tragedies written by Shakespeare. Somehow, it is distinct from other great tragedies, unlike others, its hero or protagonist is a university student who has come recently after hearing the news of his father’s death. Here, Hamlet Junior is often overwhelmed by conflictions in reaching on any final decision. In the beginning, he was not ready to accept that his uncle Claudius is the murderer of his father, when he encountered the ghost of his father and ghost’s accusation of his murder by Claudius is left Hamlet Junior in confliction believing on it. He was also shocked to know that his father’s murderer has become his step-father; Gertrude, Hamlet Junior’s mother marriages the Claudius. Claudius killed the king Hamlet by pouring the poison into his ear. Now young Hamlet determined to kill the murderer of his father, he was looking for the chances to avenge. He plotted a plan and warns his friend Horatio and the Guard Marcellus that he pretends to madness, and swears them to secrecy.

Dubious Hamlet and his famous speech of deliberation ‘to be or not to be’, he rejects Ophelia, whom he loves more than anyone. On the other hand, Polonius, Ophelia’s father is working for Claudius as spy. Meanwhile, the young Hamlet welcomes a troupe of visiting players, and arranges a performance of a play ‘the mouse trap’ about fratricide, which Claudius breaks off, in completely fearful and with guilty temperament, when the player Lucianus appears to murder his uncle by pouring poison in his ear. Hamlet refrains from killing Claudius while he is at player, but stabs Polonius through the arras in his mother’s closet. Claudius sends Hamlet to England with sealed orders that he should be killed on arrival. However, Hamlet outwits him, somehow, returning to Denmark, having arranged the deaths of his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were his uncle’s agents.

Ophelia became insane after the rejection and then the death of her father, and is found drowned. Her brother Laertes, having returned from France, is determined to avenge his sister’s death. They fight in her graveyard where Ophelia is to be buried. Claudius arranges a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, giving Laertes a poisoned foil; an exchange of weapons results in the death of both Combatants. Gertrude drinks a poisoned cup intended for her son, and the dying Hamlet succeeds in killing Claudius.

Some Important Extracts from the Play

O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2

Neither a borrower nor a lender be, 
For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
(Polonius, Act 1 Scene 3)

...though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom 
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 4)

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
(Marcellus, Act 1 Scene 4)

That one may smile and smile and be a villain.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)

Brevity is the soul of wit.
(Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2) 

Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.
(Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2) 

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
(Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2)

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! 
(Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2)

To be, or not to be, that is the question.
(Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1)

The lady protests too much, methinks.
(Gertrude, Act 3 Scene 2)

How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge. 
( soliloquy by Hamlet Act 4 Scene 3)

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest.  
(Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 1)

If it be now, 'tis not to come: if it be not to come, it will be now: if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.  
(Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 2)

The rest is silence. 
(Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 2)

Goodnight, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
(Horatio, Act 5 Scene 2)

  

JSSC PGT 2018 (pgttce) English Subject Paper II Study Material

 As per notice published on JSSC website, JSSC PGT (PGTTCE) exam is going to held in the month of March; we have very less time to complete or thorough study of the text of prescribed books. Therefore, we have decided to come with the Daily Notes of English subject. We will be publishing each day with a new author or new topic, so that within the limited days we will have a good collection of materials.

                             Henry IV by William Shakespeare

Title & Publication

Henry IV is written in three parts, each has specific title: Part I was remained unpublished for a long period, the title was doubted throughout 18^th and 19^th century, and finally published in the First Folio 1623. Part II published in 1594 anonymously entitled as The First Part of the Contention betwixt the Two famous Houses of York and Lancaster…, and the Part III published in 1595 as The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York, and the Death of Good King Henry the Sixth.

Source

The main sources of this play are the Chronicles of Edward Hall and Holinshed.

Major Characters

King Henry IV -  The ruling king of England.

Prince Harry -  King Henry IV’s son, who will eventually become King Henry V.

Hotspur -  The son and heir of the Earl of Northumberland and the nephew of the Earl of Worcester.

Sir John Falstaff -  A fat old man between the ages of about fifty and sixty-five who hangs around in taverns on the wrong side of London and makes his living as a thief, highwayman, and mooch.

Earl of Westmoreland -  A nobleman and military leader who is a close companion and valuable ally of King Henry IV.

Lord John of Lancaster -  The younger son of King Henry and the younger brother of Prince Harry. John proves himself wise and valiant in battle, despite his youth.

Sir Walter Blunt  - A loyal and trusted ally of the king and a valuable warrior.

Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester -  Hotspur’s uncle. Shrewd and manipulative, Worcester is the mastermind behind the Percy rebellion.

Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland -  Hotspur’s father.

 Edmund Mortimer, called the Earl of March  - The Welsh rebel Owain Glyndwr’s son-in-law.

Owain Glyndwr -  The leader of the Welsh rebels and the father of Lady Mortimer.

 Archibald, Earl of Douglas -  The leader of the large army of Scottish rebels against King Henry.

Sir Richard Vernon -  A relative and ally of the Earl of Worcester.

The Archbishop of York -  The archbishop, whose given name is Richard Scrope, has a grievance against King Henry and thus conspires on the side of the Percys.

Ned Poins, Bardolph, and Peto -  Criminals and highwaymen.

 Gadshill -  Another highwayman friend of Harry, Falstaff, and the rest.

Mistress Quickly -  Hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern, a seedy dive in Eastcheap, London, where Falstaff and his friends go to drink.

Summary

Part I

 The play begins with the Funeral of Henry V, on the other hand a war was going on in France in which Talbot, a very energetic leader from English side, and the Joan of Arc, La Pucelle, from the France. The war resulted as the deaths of gallant Talbot and with his valliant Son Talbot near the Bordeaux. A very important event take place in the Temple garden confirms the opposition of Plantagent and York in the subsequent wars through the plucking of red and white roses. An arrangement for a marriage is arranged by earl of Suffolk between the Young Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, daughter of king of Naples.

Part II

This part begins with Henry’s marriage to Margaret. Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, the lord protector becomes angry when he came to known about the giving of Anjou and Maine to Margaret’s father for her marriage. Eleanor, Humphrey’s wife is banished as a witch and Humphrey is arrested on a charge of high treason, against the king’s better judgement, and murdered. Suffolk is banished and, after a farewell to queen Margaret, murdered by pirates on the Kent Coast. Meanwhile, Richard, duke of York, pretender to the throne, instigates Jack Cade to rebellion; after considerable success, Cade is eventually killed by Alexander Iden, a Kentish gentleman. The final act concerns the Battle of St. Albans, in which Somerset is killed, a victory for the Yorkists.

Some Important Extracts from the Text

Part I

In those holy fields,
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed
For our advantage on the bitter cross.
(King Henry IV, Act 1 Scene 1)

Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon benches in the afternoon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.
(Prince Henry, Act 1 Scene 2)

Let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon.
(Falstaff, Act 1 Scene 2)

Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world.
(Prince Henry, Act 1 Scene 2)

By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap,
To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks.
(Hotspur, Act 1 Scene 3)

It would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.
(Prince Henry, Act 2 Scene 2)

There lives not three good men unhanged in England, and one of them is fat and grows old.
(Falstaff, Act 2 Scene 4)

That trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend Vice, that grey Iniquity, that father Ruffian, that Vanity in years?
(Prince Henry, Act 2 Scene 4)

Falstaff: Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
Prince Henry: I do, I will.
(Act 2 Scene 4)

While you live, tell truth and shame the devil!
(Hotspur, Act 3 Scene 1)

He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
Heard, not regarded.
(King Henry IV, Act 3 Scene 2)

This sickness doth infect
The very life-blood of our enterprise.
(Hotspur, Act 4 Scene 1)

Food for powder, food for powder. They’ll fill a pit as well as better.
(Falstaff, Act 4 Scene 2)

Can Honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No. What is Honour? A word. What is that word ‘honour’? Air.
(Falstaff, Act 5 Scene 1)

O, Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth!
(Hotspur, Act 5 Scene 3)

Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remembered in thy epitaph!
(Prince Henry, Act 5 Scene 4)

Part II

Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it.
(Rumour, Induction)

Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not Nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confined! Let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage
To feed contention in a ling’ring act.
(Northumberland, Act 1 Scene 1)

I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.
(Falstaff, Act 1 Scene 2)

Since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf.
(Lord Chief Justice, Act 1 Scene 2)

We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.
(Hastings, Act 1 Scene 3)

Past and to come, seem best; things present worst.
(Archbishop of York, Act 1 Scene 3)

He hath eaten me out of house and home.
(Hostess Quickly, Act 2 Scene 1)

Let the end try the man.
(Prince Henry, Act 2 Scene 2)

Thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.
(Prince Henry, Act 2 Scene 2)

He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
(Lady Percy, Act 2 Scene 3)

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
(King Henry IV, Act 3 Scene 1)

A man can die but once: we owe a death.
(Feeble, Act 3 Scene 2)

We have heard the chimes at midnight.
(Falstaff, Act 3 Scene 2)

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
(King Henry IV, Act 4 Scene 2)

Commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways.
(King Henry IV, Act 4 Scene 4)

His cares are now all ended.
(Warwick, Act 5 Scene 2)

Falstaff: My king, my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!
King Henry V: I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers.
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
(Act 5 Scene 5)

Presume not that I am the thing I was.
(King Henry V, Act 5 Scene 5)

YOU ARE IN: ABOUT SHAKESPEARE

< BACK TO ABOUT THE PLAY

YOU ARE IN: pABOUT SHAKESPEARE

  

All About As You Like It by William Shakespeare

 

                             As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Source:      Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde, is the major source of the play, but characters, such as Jaques  

                           and the Clown Touchstone are Shakespeare’s own creation.

Characters:    Orlando, son of Rowland de Bois and loves Rosalind.

                             Oliver, Orlando’s elder brother, becomes his guardian after his father’s death.

Rosalind, Orlando’s beloved, daughter of exiled duke and she lives with her cousin,   Celia.

Celia, daughter of Fredrick, loves Oliver and stays all along with her cousin, Rosalind.

Fredrick, brother of the exiled duke and father of Celia, seeks chance to kill the duke but was     converted to restore the dukedom.

Duke, brother of Fredrick and father of Rosalind, usurped by his brother Fredrick but at the last they reunite.

Jacques, Duke Senior's noblemen who lives with him in the Forest of Arden. 

Touchstone, court jester of Duke Frederick.

Summary:          Fredrick has disinherited his brother duke who is living with his faithful followers in the forest of Ardenne. Rosalind, duke’s daughter and Celia, Fredrick’s daughter, living at the Fredrick’s court. Rosalind is permitted to stay there, on her request. They are watching a wrestling match in which Orlando defeats his opponent. Rosalind and Orlando fall in love and they promise for further dating. Oliver disinherits Orlando and drives him away from the house. He becomes the guardian after the death of Orlando’s father, treats him very poorly. Fredrick, knowing that Orlando is the son of Rowland, a friend of the exiled duke, banishes Rosalind from his court. Celia accompanies her. They appear into the forest as disguised; Rosalind assumes herself as a countryman’s dress and calls herself Ganymede; Celia calls herself Aliena, his sister. They live in the forest of Ardenne, and meet with Orlando, who joined the banished duke. Ganymede persuades Orlando to keep watch over her because she is as his own Rosalind. Oliver, hunger of Orlando’s life, comes to the forest, somehow Orlando save him from a lioness. He is filled with remorse. Oliver also falls in love with Aliena, and their wedding is arranged for the next day. Ganymede assures to Orlando that she will produce Rosalind at the same time to be married to him.

When all gathers to celebrate the double marriages, Celia and Rosalind leave their disguise and appear in their own characters. However, news is brought that Fredrick, who was seeking for duke to kill, converted by a religious man and has restored the dukedom.

As we read the play, noticeable, the plots dominates throughout the play, the plots in which the reflections of Jacques and Touchstone, by the large number of songs.  

Some Important Extracts from the Text

By my troth, thou sayest true; for since

the little wit that fools have was silenced,

the little foolery that wise men have makes

a great show.   (Act I Scene II)

—Touchstone said to Celia.

Wear this for me, one out of suits with Fortune,

That could give more, but that her hand lacks means. (Act. I Scene II)

—Rosalind offers Orlando her necklace, and adds that she would give him more, but she has little.

Alas, what danger will it be to us,

Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. (Act. I Scene III)

— Celia tells Rosalind

'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man

knows himself to be a fool.' (Act. V Scene I)

— Touchstone has asked William.

My affection hath an unknown

bottom, like the bay of Portugal. (Act IV Scene I)

— Rosalind hides to Celia that her love for Orlando is infinite.

  

men are April when they woo, December when they wed:

maids are May when they are maids, but the sky

changes when they are wives.  (Act IV Scene I)

— Ganymede speaks Orlando concerning love.

 I had

rather have a fool to make me merry than

experience to make me sad . . . .  (Act IV Scene I)

— Ganymede speaks his opinion of Jaques' precious melancholy

I pray you, do not fall in love with me,

For I am falser than vows made in wine (Act III Scene V)

— Ganymede (Rosalind) arguments to Phebe.

           Time travels in divers paces

with divers persons. I'll tell you who Time

ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time

gallops withal and who he stands still withal.  (Act III Scene II)

— Rosalind,  wearing cross-dressed as Ganymede, told Celia.

Do you not know I am a woman? when

I think, I must speak. Sweet, say on.  (Act III Scene II)

— Celia has criticized Rosalind.

Sir, I am a true labourer: I earn that I eat, get

that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man's

happiness, glad of other men's good, content

with my harm.  (Act III Scene II)

— Corin told to Touchstone.

O Rosalind! These trees shall be my books,

And in their barks my thoughts I'll character,

That every eye which in this forest looks

Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where.

Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree

The fair, the chaste and unexpressive she.    (Act III Scene II)

— Orlando says to the Rosalind.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind.

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude   (Act. II Scene VII)

— Lord Amiens sings before Duke Senior.

 All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's …  (Act II Scene VII)

Under the greenwood tree

Who loves to lie with me,

And turn his merry note

Unto the sweet bird's throat,

Come hither, come hither, come hither:

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.  ( Act II Scene V)

— Amiens sings a merriment song, call all who love to sing like birds "under the greenwood tree."

 We that are true lovers run into strange

capers; but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature

in love mortal in folly. (Act II Scene IV)

 Contemporary Indian English Literature 

Autumn Song by WH Auden

Paraphrase

Autumn Song is a very unusual poem composed by WH Auden, unlike other poets who have treated this season as pleasant or productive, presents a scene of autumn as though it is indifferent to him. Perhaps, he is right on his own hold, autumn is not only a season but also a transition, the transition of time along with the meaning of life that we assign differently in different times. For the poet, autumn symbolises the departure of old things and waiting for the new things, the time between these two transitional phases creates a world of hopelessness, nothingness and a nightmare of death and decay. Most probably, the poet talks about a brief gap that has overwhelmed the present. Indirectly, the poet wants to relate the gap with the human generation, the generation, which is undergoing dreadful nothingness.

The poet has painted the scene of the season very lucidly, all the stanzas are arranged very sequentially. However, by observing more closely, twofold meanings are woven throughout the poem; one goes apparently that describes or illustrates the autumn and the other goes parallel to human life generation to generation. In the poem, it is the peak time of shedding all the leaves, so that the new leaves will come there. It is an incessant process of the world; each one has a fixed time to stay, comes and goes, momentary glimpse everything is temporary. However, these entire, short spans indicate the arrival or give the space for another. Once all these leaves used to be active, active enough to feed and maintain the proper health of the flora and have made them capable to grow newly. Moreover, it is the fate or misfortune to go into the mouth of time inevitably. It is useless or meaningless to think about anything, which is the ingredients of timelessness. Furthermore, the poet confirms that they are not the first to come on this way; many more are in the queue, perhaps hundreds in number awaiting for their part. In stanza third, a direct reference to man’s cremation move which, in the end, we assemble to hold or raise for the last time.

The poet, in stanza third, has painted leafless trees in the painted garden, hanging the photo frame before the eyes. In such pitiable condition, no nightingale will come and chant, nor any spell of the magic bond will work. A very desert-like situation, lifeless, hopeless and nothingness has enveloped it. Now the winter came, came the hope, hope for life, heralded to resurge everything to begin a new life. The mountain raised its head, quenched the thirst of all those who were waiting for a long time. A revival, revival of all living organisms, and revival of a new human generation.

  Author Note:

   Wystan Hugh Auden (21 Feb. 1907 – 29 Sep. 1973) was born in York, England, studied at English Independent School and Christ Church, Oxford. His father’s name is George Augustus Auden (1872 – 1957), a physician. He began writing poems at thirteen in the old fashion but was later influenced by TS Eliot and adopted his style. He published over four hundred poems, including seven long poems. His some memorable poems: Funeral Blues, September 1, 1939, The Shield of Achilles and The Age of Anxiety. The present poem talks about the Autumn Season. It is also an illustration of changing the course of nature, everything on the earth is subject to change, nothing is constant.

We have launched a new literary forum, here we can have to raise questions, discussions related to English Literature. Please have a look at the forum here

The enthusiasts of the literary world are informed that I have launched a platform separately for Contemporary Indian English Literature.

My Grandmother’s House

Paraphrase

The poem ‘My Grandmother’s House’ is a very compassionate poem. The gravity of the poem is rest on the degree of transmission of emotions that often we relate to ourselves. We often come across the memories of grandmother; her narration of tales and above all a grandmotherly care. This poem is a painful record of poet’s longing of past. She is unfolding the closed chapters of her early life; gone are the days, the days of her unquestioned happy moments with grandmother altogether. Poet is narrating her own true story that the house is very far away and the house caretaker is no more, where, once she was loved. She says the house has drowned in deep silence, and snakes crawling here and there, where, once she used to be. Now, the poet took us to the place where used to go and stand against the window and feel the blowing unbearable cold wind.

Most probably, the poet is talking about her old aged grandmother who often needs somebody’s help to move within. The Poet’s assistance to her grandmother leaves her often unhappy or despair. The sorrow envelopes her when she looks her grandmother becoming old day after day. Now, the poet turns to her husband and she tries to assure about her darlingness for her grandmother. She feels proud to think of her or to be part of such lovable family. Grandmother’s affection is very supreme in degree; the intensity of her emotion is very high. Undoubtedly, as we say grandmother for her seniority in the family, as a child we say grandmother to seek or grant all the permissions that we do not find frequently from our parents.

The poet has brought us to her husband’s house where she has to persuade each or everyone to seek his or her affection. Here, she finds love or compassionate treatment after some compromises. She often relies on the wishes of others who could not understand her yet. Thus, she is assuring her husband about the manner or treatment received by her grandmother. She is contrasting the culture of these two houses.

Paraphrase of Snake Written by D.H. Lawrence

The poem begins in a very storytelling manner, throughout the poem, poet (narrator) narrates the story very plainly. The poet says that a snake came to water trough to drink the water. The poet waits for his part to collect the water and he does so without any complaint or disturbance to the snake. The poet thinks himself as if he is the second one to come and stand in the queue for his part. The snake, feeling hot, rested its throat on the cool stone surface.

It is a very hot month and somewhere (Sicilian, July month with Etna Smoking) active volcano, makes the surrounding hotter. The snake is drinking the water very silently, sometimes, raises its head to keep a watch on the poet as generally cattle do. Due to unbearable heat, the snake stops for few moments and then resumes to drink little more. Now, the poet’s mind and heart are at regular conflict, as the typical human, poet chooses to kill the snake, then just another moment he said “No”, he listens to his heart and spare the snake. However, the poet draws the decision based on the analysis of black and gold snakes; black snakes are not dangerous but gold one is very venomous.

The poet overwhelmed by feelings regarding the snake. It came then went away thankless and peacefully. The snake, as a guest is liable to hospitality. This time, the poet has become very dubious and doubts about himself. A number of questions is raising in his mind. He uses some degraded words like “cowardice”, “perversity” to criticize. However, at last, he felt so honoured, to honour the snake. Again, the poet asserts that if he were not afraid of the snake, he would have killed the snake. However, he asserts more strongly that he was most afraid yet he felt most honoured too. The poet illustrates the snake: thrice dream, curving round, and easing shoulder.

Thinking for a while, the poet keeps his pitcher picks up a log and threw at the water trough. However, the log could not hit the snake but it hastened the snake to go faster into the fissure. Somehow, it manages to get into with a sense of defiance. Now, the poet was very shameful for his act, he was regretting and accursing to human nature. Here poet has used Mariner’s Albatross as an allusion. He fears of the worst that has befall over Old Mariner, he repents leaving an opportunity to serve. The poet promises for atonement in future.