Symphony Of Verse 3rd Sem Notes

 🔥 Renaissance And Restoration Age Poetry

🔥The Canonization

💥The Renaissance period was a turning point as far as the man kind is concerned. The all areas of human life was enriched and nourished in this particular period of time. There are several important writers were born and brought up in this period. John Donne was an important one among them. He was born in 1572 and passed away in 1631.He was born on London.He holds a prominent position amoung the metaphysical poets.The literary world recognised their significance in the 20th century. His poems encompassed a wide range of secular and religious subjects. He renounced his Catholic faith and appointed in St. Paul’s Cathedral. He is considered as the most important English love poet. He wrote various sermons, love poems, religious poems, elegies, sonnets etc

💥The canonization depicts an intense love relationship and the act of love itself. The poem was enriched by argumentative tone, startling metaphors and images. The poem was published after two years of the death of John Donne. He used religious terms for describing. He is elevating his love affair to sainthood through the poem. The use of mixed metaphors and metaphysical conceits (an extended metaphor that used to combine two different ideas by the use of an imagery) is very common in this poem.Its rhyme scheme is ABBA CCC AA and its meter is Iambic Pentameter. The poem was written in the mode of monologue.The poem was written in five stanza.

💥John donne says that the true love between he and his lover makes them the saints of love. And the future lovers will pray to them. Just like his other poems this poem also a celebration of love.

💥 The first stanza was begin with a harsh tone. He says that the other can criticise his gray hairs or his ruined fortune or gather some money by doing a work. Please don’t interrupt his love. Please allow the speaker to love. These lines shows his anger to the society because they are interrupting his personal matters.

💥 In the second stanza poet asks that is anyone injured by his love? Did any merchant ships drowned by his sighs (നെടുവീർപ്പ്)? Did any place sunk by his tears? Did any spring removed by his colds? Did he add one more to the plaguy bill?(The heat of his vein didn’t increased the number of dead by plague) No everything is normal. Soldiers find wars, Lawyers gets their jobs by litigious (Disputations) men.And he and his lover still loving.

💥 In the third stanza poet says that you can call me and my lover according to your will. You can call them flees. They are also tapers too. A fly came near to the candle and die. They are also like that. But they are doing it with pleasure. They are eagle and dove. Eagle is representing masculinity and strength and the dove is representing feminine and peace. Then poet says about the Phoenix bird. It is a mythical bird. It will rose from its own ashes. The poet and his lover burnt by their love and rose together from their ashes.

💥The third stanza was enriched by metaphors to show love and lovers. He says that the love is a union of soul. One was killed by another and they join together. The unification of lovers was portrayed excellently in the third stanza by using the metaphors of. Fly and tapers, Phoenix and eagle and dove. It indirectly connected with the crucification and resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ.

💥In the fourth stanza poet says that if we cant live by love then they can die by it. Their love is unfit for monuments but it is fit for poetry. May be their love cant take part of history but he will write sonnets about it and It is enough for saving their love

💥The last stanza says that the love of the speaker and his lover is pure so the future lovers will pray to them. The world proclaim they as saints. Future lovers will sang for them. They future generation will say that their love was spiritual not physical. They died and resurrected for love. Their love was not ended by their death. It will reborn as saints not like the Phoenix.

💥John Donne’s love poetry was a revolt against the Petrarchan sentimental love poetry.The poem is erotic and spiritual at the same time

🔥Sonnet 130

💥 William Shakespeare was the most precious gift that given by the Elizabethan age. He was also known as Bard of avon. He is called as the national poet of England. He was born in 1564 and passed away in 1616. He wrote various sonnets, dramas and long narrative poems. The rhyme scheme of the sonnets in abab cdcd efef gg. Mainly three figures are appearing in his poems. A young noble man whom the poet loves, a dark lady whom troubled their relationship and the rival poet.

💥 In sonnet 130 poet gives a realistic description of his beloved. He exposes the artificiality of the common images of supreme beauty by confessing that none of them applies to his beloved. And then affirming that he considers her as beautiful as any woman. The speaker mocks the love poetry in his days by saying he has seen many roses in different colors including red and white but he cant see it on his lover’s cheeks.

💥 The exaggeration of the beauty of women was condemned by Shakespeare. He presented his lover in a very normal manner.

💥 his lover’s eyes are not like sun. Coral is far more red than her lips. Her breasts are not white as snow. Her hair are black ( In those days the term Wire is meant as golden thread.) And the poet says that his lover’s hair was not like that. It is just an ordinary one.His lover’s cheeks is only an ordinary one. He cant find any roses in her cheeks. The breath of his lover is not like the smell of perfume. He loves his lover’s speak but music has far more pleasing sound than it. He never saw the walking of a goddess but he saw his lover’s walk. It is only an ordinary one. When she walks she treads on the ground.

💥 In the couplet the speaker says that he loves his lover so much. She is not like goddess she is only a normal woman but he loves her so much with out any false comparisons

💥 Shakespeare neither insulted nor depreciate any other writers. He respects them. But he drawing a line between the reality and fantasy through his sonnets. The natural explanation is the literary style of Shakespeare

🔥One Day I Wrote Her Name

💥 Edmund Spencer

One day an island developed into an empire and a Germanic language became the vein of the communication that was English. And when the English language attained the prominent position among the languages in the material world the English Literature became an important part of the aesthetic world. Edmund Spencer was one of shapers of English literature. He invented a new writing style as his own which inspired his contemporaries as well as the poets who came centuries later. His language was very simple, beautiful,rhetorical and suggestive

💥 He was a master in making new word combinations

💥 He developed a new literary style for sonnets as his own. The rhyme scheme of Spencerian sonnet was ABAB BCBC CDCD EE

💥His famous Work was Faerie Queene. It was written to make an imaginary connection with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I with the legendary king Arthur

💥 Summary

One day I wrote her name is the 75th sonnet in Amoretti which means little loves. This poems are excessively filled with the beautiful moments which celebrated by Elizabeth Boyle and Edmund Spencer before their marriage.

💥The poem was written in Petrarchan style. Petrarchan sonnets are specially written for celebrating love. It was written is octave and sestet style. The problems which the poem wants discuss will be written in octave. Sestet will speaks about the solution

💥 He and Elizabeth boyle are sitting in a strand (beach) and the speakers trying to write her name on the strand but the waves came and washed it away. Elizabeth take a look to his action and ask that what he is trying to do. And she asks that how can he immortalize a mortal being. And she says that just like this waves wiping her name from the strand the time also wipe her name from the timeline

💥 Spencer replied. May be the earthly things die and became dust but you will be immortalized by my words. The poet is confident in the beauty and power of the poem and he firmly believed that his lady will immortalize through his verse

💥 The prophecy of the poet became true because still we are remembering Elizabeth boyle and Edmund Spencer while we read his poems

🔥 A Song For St. Cecilia’s Day

💥 John Dryden

The Renaissance age poetry had a various number of poets in her account. Each of them are entirely different from others. John Dryden is an important one among them. He lived in the puritan age. Which can be considered as the dark age of English Literature. All entertainments are banned in those days and the literary timeline was literally empty.

💥John Dryden was a literary Critic, Poet and a dramatist. A song for st. Cecilia’s day is the first two greatest odes written by dryden for celebrating St. Cecilia’s day. St. Cecilia is considered as the patron saint of music and is believed to have invented the organ. The poem was published in 1657

💥 Summary

The poem describes the involvement of music in the creation of universe as well as in human emotions.The divinity of music is conveyed by the poem. The poem is divided as eight stanzas

💥Stanza one

The first stanza talks about how this harmonious universe was created by the help of Music. The stanza invokes how the divine harmony being apart of all things. Music is considered as a divine art form. The speaker things that the framework of this universe was evolved by music. Music brought together the elements which needed for the creation of the universe. The atoms were disorderly arranged. The order comes from harmony and the harmony created by music. God commanded to all the disordered atoms through the symphony of his music. The occupied their preferred position by the music came from high. The poet believed that the universe came to existence because of this music. And at the end God created man. From the next stanzas onwards the poet starts to talk about various types of music which produced by various musical instruments

💥Stanza two

The second stanza speaks about calm music produced by a corded shell (A musical instrument like Harp) The poet says about Jubal a Bible character who mentioned as the father of the musicians in the book of Genesis. When he played the corded shell his brotheren stood around and wondered and they worshipped that music

💥Stanza three

In the third stanza poet speaks about Exciting and thrilling music which produced by trumpet. It is neither calm nor sweet but motivating and mainly used by the army bands. It is denoting anger and mortal alarms. The double beats came from drum also denotes the same.This stanza is differentiating itself from the others because of its context. The other musics are produced for make peace and calm atmosphere but this one is exactly opposite. The music from a trumpet is a signal of war,destruction, pain and tears

💥 Stanza four

The fourth stanza speaks about the soft music which produced by flute. It produce a sorrowful music

💥Stanza five

The fifth stanza speaks about the sharp music produced by violin. The music from voilin contains the wind of jealousy and fury. It had the power to express the depth of pains and height of passion

💥Stanza six

The six stanza describing the heart touching and heavenly music flowing from organ. The speaker asks that what art can teach or which human voice can reach the sacred organs praise. The music from organ is like the choirs of hosts

💥 Stanza seven

The last stanza comparing the Greek musician orpheus with st.Cecilia.When Orpheus sang the trees were uprooted and animals came to hear the magical music from his lyre but When St. Cecilia sang an angel came to hear that wonderful music and she misunderstood that earth as heaven because of st. Cecilia’s music.

💥 Grand Chorus

The grand chorus discuss about the importance of music and the second coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. When the hosts blow their trumpets on the sky the dead will resurrected ,the living will join with them and the world will end. According to the poet the universe was created by a music and it will end by an another music

🔥Lycidas

💥The puritan age is considered as the dark age of England. The literary scene was literally empty and all entertainments are banned. But there will be some faded light in every dark night. John Milton is considered as the faded light which bloomed in the Puritan age.

💥 His greatest work is Paradise lost. His Lycidas is a pastoral elegy which figuring the both mourned and mourning as Shepherds. It was written when he was studying in Christ College. In Cambridge he started a new friendship with Edward King but unfortunately Edward king was died in a shipwreck between he travelling from Cambridge to Ireland. This incident forced John Milton to write Lycidas.

💥 Lycidas is an elegy and a pastoral elegy at the same time. A pastoral elegy speaks about death and rural life. Both the died and Mourned as figured as Shepherds. We can see a procession of mythical creatures in a pastoral elegy. Pastoral elegy was first appeared in the Elizabethan age.

💥 Poem explains how the death of the dearest of the poet, effected the nature. We can see the acceptance of death and the hope for immortality in the poem. Poem speaks about corruption in the English Church. The poem was rhymed as irregularly

💥Summary

🔴Prologue

The poem starts by invoking the muses who lived on Mount Helicon. The reason and occasion for writing the poem are mentioned in the prologue. The reason was the death of Lycidas (Lycidas is the name the poet uses in the poem to refer to Edward King). Lycidas was an ancient Greek counselor who was stoned to death by his fellow counselors.

💥The second stanza speaks about the college days of both Lycidas and the poet. The poet questions the muses. They have superpowers, but they indifferently stand and silently watch the drowning of Lycidas. In the next lines, the poet says that even if they tried to help Lycidas, it wouldn’t have changed anything because it was his fate.

💥The third stanza comments on the precariousness of human life. Humans abandon worldly pleasures in pursuit of fame, but before we can achieve it, death comes and takes us. The death of Lycidas was like that. He had a wonderful career, but before his flowers could bloom, he was forced to retreat. His death was a great loss to the shepherds and to nature. Nature is also mourning with the shepherds. The woods and desert caves mourn. His death was like killing the canker (worm) to the rose.

💥In the fourth stanza poet asking about Nymphs (the spirit of sea). Poet says that if the nymph of the sea was there at that time Lycidas wouldn’t be fell into the hands of the death. In the next lines poet asks about the Druid priests. The speaker addresses the “Sisters of the sacred well” (the muses) and calls on them to sing in memory of Lycidas, who has died young and prematurely. The speaker acknowledges the bitter and sad circumstances that have compelled him to write the poem and appeals to the muses to lend their support to his efforts. He notes that he and Lycidas were raised together in the same place, and that they shared many experiences, including the pleasures of singing and playing music. The speaker laments Lycidas’ loss, which he describes as a devastating blow to the natural world and a tragedy for all who knew and loved him. Finally, the speaker wonders where the nymphs were when Lycidas perished and imagines what might have happened if they had been there it wont be happens

💥In this stanza, the speaker laments the futility of constantly striving for fame and recognition through the pursuit of the “thankless Muse.” They consider whether it would not be better to simply enjoy leisure activities like spending time with Amaryllis

( a kind of flower) or playing with Neæra’s hair.( A common name among ancient greeks and a mythical character in greek mythology) However, they acknowledge that fame is a powerful motivator for the noble mind, as it pushes individuals to lead laborious lives. The speaker questions the reward of fame, as they fear that it may eventually come to an end with the arrival of blind Fury with her shears, cutting their life short. In response, Phoebus touches the speaker’s ears and assures them that true fame is not a product of mortal soil but rather the result of being observed by the all-judging eyes of Jove. The speaker is told to expect their reward of fame in Heaven, where their deeds will be ultimately judged.

💥 The speaker addresses the fountain of Arethuse and the river Mincius, praising their beauty and the music made by their reeds. The speaker then recounts hearing a mournful song and wonders what tragedy befell the singer. The speaker asks the winds and waves for information, but they do not know the story. The answer is finally brought by Hippotades, who explains that the tragedy was caused by a treacherous ship, built during an eclipse and rigged with curses, that sunk the singer’s sacred head.

💥 The speaker describes the arrival of Camus, a reverend figure who walks slowly with a hairy mantle and bonnet woven with sad figures. Camus mourns the loss of his dearest possession and asks who took it. The final figure to arrive is the Pilot of the Galilean lake, carrying two heavy keys of gold and iron. He shakes his mitred locks and speaks sternly, condemning those who only care about satisfying their own hunger and ignore their responsibilities to the flock. These people sing worthless songs and do not feed the hungry sheep, causing them to grow sick and spread disease. The Pilot warns that a two-handed engine of destruction stands ready to strike those who harm the flock. This stanza is indirectly criticising the corruption in the church and it questioning the church leaders and clergy. St. Peter who kepts the keys of heaven is mentioned as the pilot of the Galilean Lake

💥The speaker calls upon the river Alpheus and the Muse of Sicily to return, and for the valleys to bring forth their colorful flowers and petals. The speaker asks for flowers like the primrose, crow-toe, jessamine, violet, musk-rose, woodbine, and cowslips to be gathered and strewn upon the hearse of Lycidas who is mourned. The speaker then reflects on the fact that Lycidas bones may be far away, either sunk deep beneath the sea or resting by the legendary mountain guarded by an angel. The speaker asks the angel to look back and feel pity, and for the dolphins to carry the unfortunate young man.(Dolphins are the symbols of Christ)

💥The speaker comforts the other shepherds and tells them that Lycidas is not truly dead, as the morning star sometimes dips below the ocean but eventually rises again. The speaker says that Lycidas has risen to a higher state and is now the spirit of the shore, providing aid to those who venture into the dangerous waters. The tears of the shepherds will cease, as Lycidas is now being entertained by the saints in heaven with singing and joy.

💥 This stanza describes the speaker, an unschooled shepherd, singing to the oaks and streams at dawn. He played his music on various instruments and sang in a Doric style. The sun has now set in the west, and the speaker rises, adjusting his blue cloak. He announces his plan to move on to new woods and pastures tomorrow

💥 Lycidas will be raised to the eternal life by Jesus Christ who walked on the waves he will be a guide and saint

💥 The Latin poetry treats the drowned man as Genius and he will became a guardian angel who protects the people from future drownings

🔥Romantic Poetry

🔥 Ode to the West Wind

Soon after the colonial age, people start to think about nature. Nature and individuals are closely connected and interrelated so the influence of nature on individuals became the core element of the aesthetic literature in those times this leads to the birth of a literary movement called Romanticism. Back to nature was the slogan of this movement and it significantly influenced the other literary movements that came after her. Poets described about the nature and it’s significance in humans. This poem is describing the beauty and it's effects on humans. This poem was written by a natural singing bird named Percy Bysshe Shelley.

                 Percy Bysshe Shelley was literally a singing bird who sang about the beauty of nature by his poems.He was born in 1792 and leave his nest in 1822. He rebels against the church,marriage, institutions of family and against the all forms of tyranny. He starts writing while he was in oxford. He circulated a pamphlet entitled the necessity of Atheism in the university and finally, it leads to his expulsion from the campus.His personal life was a failure. His wife committed suicide and he spent the rest of his life in Italy.Just like his contemporaries he also believed that the power of poetry can reform the world. Ode to the West Wind is one of the best lyrics of shelley. He considered autumn as the preserver and destroyer of life. The poet using the metaphor of west wind for representing the power of nature

💥 In the first stanza poet invokes about the west wind of autumn as the preserver and destroyer of life. By the west wind the seeds are preserved for the next spring. They may be nurtured and sprout the first leaves of life in the next spring. The same spring destroys the life also, it flees the dead leaves like ghosts. The poet calls the west wind as the dirge ( song or chant) of the dying year. He invokes about how it stirs (Changing the way) the violent storms and he implores (beg) to hear him. The speakers says that the wind stirs the Mediterranean from the summer dreams and cleaves (splits) Atlantic into making sapless ( fluid) and foliage (cluster of leaves) of the ocean trample and asks for a third time

💥 In the second stanza the speaker announcing the end of an era and the beginning of a new order that will offer freedom to all oppressed.He describes the wind as a revolutionary who scatters the dead leaves of the sky called as clouds. This is considered as the destructive power of the wind. The poet describes wind as the messenger of angles. The poet describes the west and as the funeral song of the dying year

💥 in the third stanza poet describes the west

Wind act as a caller who awakens the

Mediterranean from his summer dreams.The

Mediterranean was dreaming the old palaces and towers who sunk into her heart. The Mediterranean sea witnessed endless battles and the fall and rise of meny empires and kingdoms because the all first human civilizations are born and sprouts their leaves on her laps. Again the wind became a raving spirit when it crosses to the Atlantic. She divides the powers of Atlantic and frightening the vegetations in the bottom with her sound. She is a destroyer and preserver at the same time. This stanza indirectly refers to the enlightenment age in Europe.

 💥 In the Fourth stanza poet shows express his desire to fly with the wind. He says if he were a dead leaf the wind can carry him, If he were a swift cloud he can fly with the wind. Or he wish to become a wave. He needs to be controlled by the uncontrollable wind. When he was in his boyhood he can do anything he wish to do but in this age, he fall into the thorns of life. The burden of life and the heavy hours chained him. Today he doesn’t have such freedom that he enjoyed in his childhood.

💥 In the last stanza poet says to the west wind to convert him into a lyre. It may blow on his dead leaves (dead thoughts). It is a sign of regeneration. The new thoughts and insights will bear after the old thoughts lay on its deathbed. The sadness will be converted into sweetness. At the end of the poem, the poet claims himself as the spirit of the wind .therefore he is not an instrument of the wind anymore but the wind become a trumpet which announce his prophesy to the world. In the last lines we can see an everlasting hope .If the winter comes can spring be far behind. The Winter acts as a symbol of fruitlessness but the Spring is the symbol of abundance and joy. As in the case of human life, we also have these two times but we should remember that if we are in the state of fruitlessness or in winter of life there is a spring or abundance is near of us. By this lines the poet Persy Bysshe Shelley gives an optimistic though into the minds of his readers.

🔥 To autumn

💥 Back to nature movement was a significant literary movement which effected the every nook and corner of the intellectual field of the human beings. To autumn by John keats was a green blossom which appeared in the Romantic age.

💥 John keats was a young flower which bloomed in the Romantic age he was hatched in 1795 and fell out in his very young age by tuberculosis in 1821. But his memorable works are enough to make him immortal. Most of his works were Odes which enriched by sensuous variety of human experience is set against the transience life. The rhythm of thoughts and feelings conveys full range of sense impressions. To Autumn is keats last major poem. The three stanzas describes three stages and three aspects of the season

💥 In the first stanza the poet describes the specialities of the Autumn season. He describes the autumn as the mellow fruitfulness. Autumn was the close bosom friend of the maturing sun. Autumn is the season of melancholy and abundance. The summer fills the flowers with honey and the flowers and bees thinks that the warm days never come to an end.

💥 In the second stanza poet says about the availability of autumn. We can find her in the middle of the store. Sometimes whoever seeks outside can find him. Sometimes she is sitting careless on granary floor. This lines indicating the state after harvest. Sometimes the autumn as appearing as gleaner who covers a brook with a load of corn in her head. Autumn is also presented as a worker who works in a cider press extracting juice from apples and wait till the last drop is fallen

💥In the last stanza poet asks about the songs of spring. He can’t find them in anywhere and he advice us to not think about it because the autumn had its own music. The poet hear talks about the melancholic music which peculiar to the season. As the days comes to an end the clouds disappeared in the twilight of the setting sun. The wilful choir of the small nuts from the willows of the river bank. The bleating of the lambs, The song of the cricket are also ended with the season. These lyrics indicates the end of the season.

🔥Lucy Gray

💥 William Wordsworth is known as the poet of nature he was lived in the Romantic age. He was deeply influenced by the ideals of French Revolution. Lucy Gray is a ballad that tells the story of the death of a innocent young girl on wild moor. Lucy Gray is not connected to the Lucy poems in which Wordsworth laments about a woman also named as Lucy. Dorothy Wordsworth the sister of William Wordsworth was the person who told the story of Lucy Gray to William Wordsworth

💥 The poem speaks about an innocent young girl called Lucy. She was very beautiful but one day she goes missing

💥the first lines says that when the speaker was passing through the wild he saw Lucy Gray the solitary child (child who leads a lonely life)

💥She had have neither mate nor comrade. She was always alone.

💥In a stormy night her father said her to go to the town where her mother was working. He never forget to remind her to take a lantern

💥She had no oppositions she gladly went with the lantern. But the climate was very bad. She cant walk smoothly through the powdery snow. Unfortunately the storm became more and more stronger. She climbed the hill but didn’t reached the Town

💥 her parents started searching for her but they didn’t get a clue which can help them to reach Lucy. Finally the ended the searching for lucy and returned to home. Her father wept and say that “In heaven we all shall meet”.Fortunately her mother finds her footprints and the tracked it. Finally the reached a hill top but they didn’t find their girl in there.

💥Poet says that she is living till now. Sometimes people see the sweet lucy gray upon the lonesome wild and sometimes they hears a solitary song which whistles in the wind

🔥Christabel

💥 Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and a theologian. He and his friend Wordsworth was the founders of Romantic movement. He wrote three Major poems Kubla khan, The rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel. His works are enriched with the simplicity of their diction, the music of their verse and the pictorial description.

💥Christabel is an unfinished gothic ballad. It was written as two parts. The poem speaks about a young lady named Christabel and her encounter with an evil spirit. Poem discuss about the conflict between innocence and treachery and the battle between good and evil

💥The poem starts by explaining the background of the story. Time is midnight, owls hooting and an old toothless dog screaming outside.The story taken place in the castle of sir. Leoline. May be the dog might have been seen the ghost of Sir. Leoline’s wife

💥 It was a chilly night and it is not yet spring the moon was rised in the sky but it was covered by the thin gray clouds

💥The lovely lady Christabel the beloved daughter of sir. Leoline was standing alone in the woods which is one furlong away from the castle to pray for her future husband whom she was dreamed yesterday.

💥She kneels behind the huge oak tree and prayed. She heard moaning sound. But she think it was the sound of the wind but there not a slightest wind so she realized that the sound she heard was produced by a human. She came near to an oak tree and she saw a beautiful women near the tree. Her neck was in ghostly white.

💥She introduced herself. Her name is Geraldline. Her father is of a noble line.Five warriors caught her and rode her upon a white horse. They travelled so fastly so she didn’t know how far now she is.The tallest among them brought down her from the horse and informed that they will back soon and travelled away. The sleep catch her while she was standing behind the oak tree. Tonight she heard the sound of the castle bell

💥 Christabel felt pity on her and promised that she will send her guards with Geraldine to take care her home

💥Now Christabel and Geraldine crossed the moat. Christabel opens the gate the lady sank on her feet in pain. Christabel lifted her up.They crossed the court and now they are free from danger. Christabel asked the lady to pray to Mother Mary for her rescue. She said she was so weary that she cannot pray. The actual reason is she was an evil spirit so she cant pray.

💥 The mastiff bitch was asleep. Yet she made an angry moan which she never did at the sight of Christabel. Some fear had troubled her. All are in deep sleep. Her father Sir. Leoline was old and weak so he wouldn’t wake up while Christabel and Geraldine passing through the out side of the Baron’s room

💥 They entered the hall. The fire on the hearth died dow. Christabel saw the lady’s serpent eyes and her fathers shield on the wall. They went up the stair and passed the Baron’s room and reached Christabel’s chamber door.

💥 Her chamber was full of carved figures. The lamp with two fold silver chain was fastened to an angel’s feet. Once the lamp burns brighter Geraldine catches the clear look at the angel carving. In the swinging lamplight, the angel looks more lifelike. Geraldine being a creature of the night finds this extremely unnerving and sinks down to the floor in fear. Christabel gave her a cordial wine that her mother had made with wild flowers.

💥Christabel reveals that her mother died giving brith to her. However Christabel says she has heard from a friar (monk) that Christabel’s mother on her deathbed promised she would hear the castle bell strike twelve o’clock on her daughters wedding

💥Suddenly Geraldine cried out in altered voice

“Off wandering mother! Peak and pine! I have power to bid thee flee” ( oh wandering mother now I have the power to flee you from here)

💥Geraldine might be speaking to Christabel’s mothers ghost to go away. Christabel believes that Geraldine has been driven with fear by memory of the men and the white horses. So she tries to comfort her.

💥What Geraldine really means, though is that she has successfully driven away the ghost who was trying to protect the girl

💥 Geraldine had some more wine and stood upright. Geraldine is tall and lovely but in an exotic way like a lady from a country far away. Geraldine tells Christabel that the angels adore her and that she is holy and protected by them. Geraldine then says that she will repay Christabel for all the kindness she has been shown

💥 Geraldine says that she must pray before joining Christabel in bed and asks Christabel in bed and asks Christabel to undress. Christabel obeys her as if she were in a magic spell, she undressed herself and lay on the bed. Since she can’t sleep she decided to sit up propping her head up on her elbow to watch Geraldine as she prays.

💥 Geraldine drops her robes and reveals her to Christabel, who is still watching her. Her bosom and half her side were seen. It was a terrible sight. She lay down by Christabel’s side and took her in her arms she had Christabel under her magic spell. Christabel had no more power to speak except to say that she had found a lady surprisingly beautiful in the dim forest.

💥 In the morning, the magical spell that had bound Christabel was broken. The malevolent influence of Geraldine was eradicated, and Christabel awoke with a smile on her face.

🔥Victorian Poetry

🔥 Dover Beach

💥 The reign of Queen Victoria was an important political scenario which happened in the 19th century. That particular period of time is known as Victorian age in history. Matthew Arnold was an important poet and commentator who lived in the Victorian age he was born in 1822 and passed away in 1888.He worked as an inspector of schools for a long 30 years. He was appointed as the professor of poetry at Oxford. He spokes against Provincialism and materialism in English culture. Dover beach is an important poem which written in the mid of the Victorian age. The decline of faith was an important thing happened in the Victorian age

💥 The poem doesn’t have a proper rhyme scheme. It was written in the irregular iambic pentameter. But some random end rhymes are in this poem. The poem written in the form of dramatic monologue. The poet laments about the lack of true Christian faith in England.

💥 The poem starts by describing the calm English channel. The poet stands in the Dover coast and looks into the mainland of Europe. He saw a fugitive light in there. It represents the diminishing Christian faith. The change in faith is compared to the waves which washed ashore by the wind. He saw that the sea is not returning to cost it withdrawn into the straight. The Christian faith was ruled the world for centuries. It unified the people but now it was slowly disappearing. The poem concludes in a pessimistic mode. The poet says that beauty and happiness that enjoyed by the people is not a factual thing. The real world is a place that dominated by unhappiness

💥 The sea is now calm tides washed the shores with its full strength. In the french coast the lights glimpse and gone.The cliffs of the English coast was very tall and bright. The speaker addressing someone. The speaker says him to take a look into the sea and enjoy the fresh air. The speaker finds that there is something not quite right. The speaker notices the trampling sounds of the waves over the pebbles. He compare this to the eternal sadness.

💥Speaker thinks about the ancient play writer Sophocles. He also suffered the same sorrow when he stands in the Aegean sea. It indicates that the problems which we addressing now appeared in the Ancient times also. The word “ebb and flow” is used to indicate this concept. He compares the human misery to the roaring waves.

💥 The next stanza says about the another thought that appeared into mind of the speaker. The religious faith is also like this full tide waves. Religious faith was like girdle. It was covered the entire world like the girdle but now the speaker hears the melancholy long withdrawing roar. The sea of faith disappeared and the edges of the shores be like a naked man.

💥In the last stanza the speaker directly says that the companion that we see in the poem is his lover. Two of them need to treat each other with honesty and authenticity. The world does not providing clarity about itself. It doesn’t provides joy and peace to the human beings. The ignorant armies clash with each other because the human race didn’t have wisdom.

💥The decline of Christianity in Europe was the motivation to write this poem. The sea represents Christianity.

🔥Ulysses

💥 Alfred Lord Tennyson was a Victorian poet. His poetry is emotive rather than intellectual. Meny of his poems are dramatic monologues based on mythological themes

💥Ulysses is a dramatic monologue. Ulysses the speaker of the poem is one of the mythical character in Trojan War.Tiresias fortells that after the returning to Ithaca Ulysses will set out on a new voyage and his death will come from the sea.

💥 Ulysses is a zealous man who loves traveling. The poem starts as a flashback which explained by Ulysses. He likes to start a new voyage which ends with his death.

💥The poem opens by Ulysses comparing his youth in the wild seas amd his present life where he is lying interest in ruling a savage race. In his present life there is no change in his daily routine.

💥He says he cannot rest from travelling. It is his passion. It is good for an ideal king to sit in throne and rule the country but he doesn’t like it. A mariner should suffer a lot in his life but Ulysses enjoying that sufferings also. He faced that sufferings with his beloved people and alone. He imagine that in future he will became a symbol of travel. His eyes are familiar with the cities of men and manners climates, councils and governments. But they all honoured him. He loves fighting. Battle is his passion. He drunks battle to its almost delight in the Trojan War.He played his role in all things which he met in his life till now. He is considering all new experiences as an arch which explores the untravelled world.

💥He compares himself with a sword which is not used in war and rusting. He wished to travel beyond the stars and unexplored lands.

💥In the next stanza Ulysses mentioning his son Telemachus. He is different from Ulysses. He will do the activity decided to him, ruling and Ulysses will follow his passion, travelling. He leaves his sceptre to his son. He explaining the characteristics of Telemachus. He is a good soldier,He is a good ruler and his Judgment will not serve injustice. He is a devote too.

💥 Then he take a look into the sea. His vessel puffs its sail. He saw the gloom and dark sea. This helps him to remind his past. He remembered about his former crew. He says till death close everything we will go together. He calls them as souls who toiled in rain and sun shine. They are presented as demi gods not ordinary men. He remembers the obstacles came in their journey and how they overcome it by fighting together. But now they were also old like him. But they can still work hard and earn respect. He motivates them to start a new voyage. He said “Tis not too late to seek a newer world”. May be his ship will be wrecked by bloodthirsty waves but it is also a gain to him because if they were killed by the waves they will go to Happy Isles ( place after death) and they can find Achilles in there. (Legendary king who mentioned in Homerian epics)

💥 He accept the truth that his crew members not have strength which they had before but they have a strong determination. Poet ends the poem with a legendary couplet which says “ Made weak by time and fate but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”

🔥 A Hope Carol

💥 Christina Georgina Rossetti was an important poet who lived in the Victorian age. Her work ranges from poems of fantasy and verses for children to ballads, love lyrics, sonnets and religious poems. Her poems have a deep religious tone in it. A hope carol was her lesser known poems. The hope conveyed in the poem can easily be given a conventional religious meaning, but imagery also suggests a more complex state of psychological or spiritual awakening.

💥 Hope is a familiar word and most often a feeling as well. It is a belive in the unknown. It is a driving force. And a trust that things turn out well.

💥 The Hope Carol speaks about the salvation and redemption. The vivid imagery given by the poet colours it with a deep psychological meaning.

💥 The poem speaks about death. Poet says that she heard a sweet calling voice. Again she heard that voice again. It cames from below the stars and beyond the moon and between the night and day. She heard a rising falling tune. It is also calling her. She likes to see the heavenly hosts. All voices command or pray are calling her. Her heart is igniting by this dream

💥 The hope carol is a Twenty Four line poem with a rhyme scheme -ABAC DBDC

💥 The rhyme scheme gives the poem an airy and wistful feeling

💥 the poem can be divided as three, eight line stanzas. Each stanza describes about the liminal or in between space in which the speaker is existing. Initially she is between night and day then between the stars and the moon, and finally between today and tomorrow

💥 within each one of this spaces she listens to a sound which reminds her of something she “longs” for

💥 There are voices calling and sounds reverberating, falling and rising around her. They remind her of her birds and music played by minstrels. This elements in the poem indirectly pointing to her deep intension for salvation.

💥 The poem concludes with the speaker’s final acceptence of the fact that her future, and all the things she most desires may come today or may be tomorrow.

💥 She not used any unknown images but most familiar.

💥The poem ends with an optimistic view

🔥Porphyria’s Lover

💥 Robert Browning was lived in the Victorian age. He is considered as the master of Dramatic Monologue. We can see the psychological portraiture in his poems. His poems are will known for their irony, characterization, dark humor and historical setting. His first poem was Porphyria’s lover.

💥 Porphyria’s Lover had no stanza divisions. It is written in the long speech form. It is written in the ballad form. We can see a rhyme scheme in each four lines.

💥 The poem sets in the background of a countryside courtyard. There is a lake near to it. It is surrounded with trees and there is good whether also. But a storm cames in that time and it is represented as a bad sign.

💥 The man in this poem is a poor villager. But Porphyria the protagonist of the poem was rich. She reveals her sexual desire to him. Another context of the poem is the definition of power. Porphyria was rich so she is holding the power in the when the poem is starting. Then speaker completely changes the situation and he shows his cruelty to his own lover.

💥 Porphyria was killed by the speaker. He strangled Porphyria with her own hair and forcefully put her into the hands of death.

💥The word Porphyria was derived from a Greek word which means purple. Abnormal psychology of the speaker is explained in the poem.

💥 The speaker of the poem was living in the courtyard. A beautiful lady came to his house. The first four lines of the poem is explaining the climate not speaker The speaker doesn’t like that climate.

💥The fifth line gives a hint about the speaker. This line indicates the mental unstability of the speaker. There is no reason for a normal man to be upset about the storm. But he says that storm is increasing his heart beat.

💥 6 to 9 lines are mentioned about Porphyria. She enters to that house and ignites fire in the fire place and make the cottage warm. Speaker doesn’t gives any discription about Porphyria in the prologue. He says she is gliding not walking.

💥 10 to 20 lines says about the fire which Porphyria ignites. After igniting the fire she untied her soiled gloves and hat. She let down her damp (നനഞ്ഞ) hair through her shoulder and sat down by his side and called him. But he didn’t replied so she put his arms in her waist.

💥 She made her smooth white shoulder bare and she displayed her yellow hair. Porphyria murmured she is loving him. But speaker still sit indifferently.

💥 In the 31st line speaker starts interacting actively with her. He looks up at her eyes. Before that he is agreeing with what Porphyria like to do. He surprised in the style that she express her love towards him. But the speaker don’t know how to pay back. Finally he finds a solution

💥The 36th to 41 lines says about how the abnormal psychological condition of the speaker reveals itself. He decided to make her only for him. He repeats the term ‘Mine’ two times. He twisted her longer golden hair and strangled he neck with it. Three times he do this

💥 41 to 45 lines speaks about his abhorrent justification for his cruel act. He says Porphyria didn’t suffer with any pain. He carefully opens and closes her lids (കൺപോള). He compares this with a flowerbed that holds a bee. Again he opens her lids and noticed her eyes and says her eyes are laughing without a stain. According to the speaker, his lover’s eyes still have that happy and proud feel which it had before

💥 He untightened her hair and says her face is still like rose. It is not acceptable for a normal person so this lines also explaining about the abnormal mind of the speaker. He considered Porphyria as a thing not a human. He using the term ‘It’ instead of ‘She’. In the concluding lines he says now we will sit together no one can separate them because she is died!

🔥Twentieth Century Poetry

🔥 Easter 1916

💥W. B yeats was born om 1865 he worked as the senator of Irish free state in his last years. He was an important poet who supported the Celtic revival. The poem Easter 1916 explains about revolt which happened during the Easter day. Poet expressing his emotions about that incident in this poem.

💥The revolt was happened against the British rule in Ireland. The revolutionaries argued for an independent Irish state. The revolutionaries declared the independence of the Irish state by themselves. But the British government didn’t agree with it and they arrested the leaders of the revolutionaries and killed them.

💥 The first lines of the poem describes Ireland before the revolution. The speaker met the revolutionaries before the revolt. They are just like any common men. He met them with a nod of head or polite meaningless words which is only used for expressing to show he know them before. But it all are been changed by the revolution. He calls the revolution as a terrible beauty because it should be happened but at the same time it is painful also. It is a paradox.

💥 In the second stanza poet mentioning the names of the Revolutionaries which he knows. He describing their qualities also. First of all he mentioning the name of Countess Markiewicz. She is a prominent Irish nationalist. The British government excluded her from execution after they submerging the revolt. She is the person who leads these all others into a revolt but she escaped from the punishment. Poet strongly criticising this. She is not capable to leads the revolt in a mature way so this so meny souls thrust into hell before their time was arrived. She continued her speeches until her sweet voice turning into shrill.

💥 The next half of the second stanza mentioned about a man called Patrick Pearse. He is a poet and an educationalist

💥The mentioned person is Thomas Macdonagh. He was a poet and a helper of Patrick. Poet says may be he became famous in his future. But he also died. Next person in John Macbride. He is portrayed as a drunken because he married the lover of the speaker. But now he is a national hero. We can see the repetition of the last in the first stanza in here also.

💥 The speaker compares the mind of the revolutionaries as a stone. Their mind is strong in every situation like a stone maintaining its character in summer and winter. Freedom of the motherland that’s their one and only ambition. May be the things in the nature like horse, rider, birds, clouds etc are changing but their mindset is strong like a stone.

💥The fourth stanza asks a question to the readers. Was it needless death after all? This question is confusing the readers because how can a person who thirst for freedom can ask a question like this? But the speaker can,because the British government promised that they will give independence to Ireland after the first world war. So what is the relevance of this revolt? He gives an answer to this question in the next line. The answer to this question is a part of heaven (only God knows!) But he is not criticising the revolutionaries because they do this all for the sake of their mother land. So they should be considered as heros. In the final lines speaker mentioning the names of the revolutionaries and says that they will be remembered as the national heros of Ireland.

💥Poet ending the poem by repeating the last

Lines of the first stanza. But here the context is different. In the first and second stanza ‘terrible beauty’ is stands for revolution but here it stands for freedom. And remembering the souls those who submitted their dreams and life for the freedom of the Irish nation.

💥 WB yeats is personally standing against all kinds of violence so he is not supporting any violent revolts but here he is praising the revolutionaries

💥The poem ends in a confusing mode. Whether these struggles are necessary or not. The answer is a part of heaven!

🔥 Lady Lazarus

💥 Sylvia Plath is an American poet. She had a short life she takes her life by her own in 1963 in the age of 31. She was born in Boston. Lady Lazarus is one of a group of poems that Sylvia Plath composed in 1962

💥The poem written in the post modern age which discussed about the Nazi war crimes and the destructive power of war

💥Lazarus is a Bible Character who was the friend of Lord Jesus Christ. He was died and Resurrected by Jesus Christ in the fourth day of his death.

💥 Sylvia Plath compares herself with Lazarus because she attempted suicide three times and rescued by someone. So she calls herself as Lady Lazarus. She likes to die but the society is not allowing her to die peacefully. She loves death rather than living in a patriarchal society. She is considering the people those who saves her from the death as her enemies.

💥The first lines discuss about her suicide attempts. She done it again in every ten years she is repeating this. Others considering her comeback to life as a miracle

💥Next lines speaks about the Holocaust and Jewish persecution by Nazis. Her sufferings are also like the persecutions which nazis done to the Jews in the Concentration Camps. The Nazi officers skinned Jews in concentration camps and used them to make lamp shades. She says her face is becoming a featureless fine jew linen

💥 She says her body is like a decaying dead body. She says she is like a cat and she haves nine times to die. According to a common belief cat had nine lifes. So she would need to try for six times.

💥Her first suicide attempt was an accident. The second attempt was a purposefully planned one.

💥Speaker compares herself with a seashell. Death is offering her a solitude and peaceful protection but the society or other people are not allowing her to achieve that.

💥She says dying is an art like everything else and she can do it exceptionally well.

💥 In the next lines she is explaining her near death experience. She feels hell,she thinks that it is becoming real but she escaped from the doorsteps of hell in a second.

💥Next she imagine that what happen if she died. A crowd will came to see her. But she will not allow anyone to see her without paying. There is a charge to see her scars. There is a charge for hearing her heartbeat. There is a very large charge for a word or touch or a bit of blood or a piece of hair or her clothes

💥 She is considering her Doctor as her enemy because he is the one who saves her from death. At the same time this lyrics mentioning about the Nazi doctors who betrayed the medical profession and performed cruel experiments in human body. She says she is not underestimating her doctors great concern about her.

💥 Again she speaking about the Nazi war crimes. After executing Jews nazis burnt their bodies in Crematorium and the nazi guards will seriously search for Wedding rings, Gold fillings etc in that ash.

💥 She says to God and Lucifer the good and the evil to be aware. She is giving same consideration to good and evil.

💥In the last lines she says she will rise from her ash like a Phoenix bird and eat men like air. Because the present life is giving her sufferings. So she is trying to escape but the people are not allowing her to leave. Her wrath against the patriarchal society is shown in the last lines.

💥The poem discuss about the story of a woman who forced to live in a patriarchal society. The autonomy of women was declined by the patriarchal society and they keeps their control over women even in her right to die peacefully

🔥Whitsun wedding

💥seventh Sunday after Easter is known as Whitsun. The marriage parties which held in that Sunday are freed from taxation

💥The poet was late one twenty of Saturday. He is travelling in a three quarter empty train. He settle down in the train. It was the mid of the day. The windows are closed. They ran behind the backs of the houses. They crossed a street of blinding windscreens. They smelled some bad smells. Then they begans to move in the top a river. He feels the sky, river and that place are meeting in that point.

💥 The whole after noon was very hot. Suddenly train became slow and stoppy because of a stopping curve. Then he saw cattle shadows and Canals with floating industrial froth (പത).This line is showing how the modernization came to the villages. Then he see a hothouse. It is a village but the modernization is eating it slowly. Then he smells the smell of grass. The smell of the grass replaced the reek(unpleasant smell) of the buttoned carriage cloth. Then an another town cames. He saw the acres filled with dismantled cars.

💥 They see the next town. A procession of weddings are happening there. People are enjoying but the sun destroying the interest of the functions. The poet is reading a book. He is watching these all in between reading. He watched Some grinning and pomaded girls. They showed some irresolutly actions.

💥after the train begans to move the celebrations are also being over. The speaker take a look behind. In this time he saw a different thing. He see their fathers They are in their middle age. They are wearing broad belts under their suits. Their mothers speaking loudly. They are fatty. Their uncles shouting ugly words. The brides are very different from others they are using nylon gloves and jewelry. They decorated their hairs with lemons mauves and olive ochres.

💥 The speaker describes the end of a wedding and the departure of the guests. Fresh couples board a train while the rest of the guests stand around, throwing confetti and giving advice. The speaker notes that each face seems to define what it saw departing, with children looking bored, fathers feeling overwhelmed, and women sharing a happy secret like a funeral. Meanwhile, the girls grip their handbags tighter and stare as if they have been wounded religiously. As the train hurries towards London, the landscape changes from fields to building plots and major roads, and a dozen marriages get underway. The speaker thinks about the postal districts of London, and how they are all heading towards the city. The stanza ends with a sense of falling, like an arrow-shower becoming rain, as the train slows down and prepares to arrive at its destination

💥The poem also portraits the importance of marriage in the society. If a person likes to live with a partner he should marry a girl. The probability of extra marital relationships or living with a partner without marriage will not appear even in minds of the people. Philip Larkin was neither a patron of modernization nor traditionalism he opposed both. The poem was written in the modernist age but the traces of Victorian age is eminent in the poem. The poem is written in structured verse and strictly follows meter. It can be interpreted as a trace of Victorian age. The social division in the Victorian era also seen in the poem

🔥A love song for J. Alfred Prufruck

💥T.S Eliot was an important writer who lives in the modernist period. He was educated from Harvard and Oxford. He was an American citizen but he acquired British Citizenship and became a member in the Anglican Church.

💥The poem portraits modern man through using different symbols and images. Poem written in the form of dramatic monologue. Poem portraits the psychological overturns of a modern lover

🔴Summary

💥The prologue of the poem was taken from an another poem named “Inferno” by an Italian scholar named Dante. He lived in the Renaissance age. The prologue of the poem speaks about death and mortality. If a person departed from the living world he cannot come back again. No one can escape from the world of dead and come back here

💥The speaker is inviting someone to go for a walk with him through certain deserted streets. The streets seem dull and lead to a difficult question, so the speaker suggests they don’t think about it and just go along with him. Then, the speaker describes a scene in a room where women are talking about Michelangelo, which is a contrast to the deserted streets.

💥 Next stanza talks about a yellow fog that rubs against the window panes and moves around slowly. It carries soot on its back and moves around a terrace before finally curling around a house and falling asleep. The speaker observes the fog in a mysterious and eerie way, suggesting that something unsettling might happen. The fog’s movement and the softness of the night create a sense of foreboding, but the event might not be obvious or violent.

💥The third stanza of the poem acknowledges the many things that can be done with time, including constructive and destructive actions, everyday work, decision-making, and envisioning possibilities. The mention of a room where women are discussing Michelangelo creates tension between the lofty ideals of art and the demands of everyday life.

💥The fourth stanza acknowledges the potential consequences of daring actions and describes the speaker’s appearance, creating a sense of self-consciousness. The speaker poses the question of whether or not to disturb the universe, suggesting a desire for change but also a fear of the unknown. The stanza ends with the idea that decisions and revisions can be made quickly, but they can also be reversed just as quickly, highlighting the uncertainty of outcomes.

💥The speaker reflects on their life experience, suggesting they have already experienced everything, and measure out their life with coffee spoons. They describe knowing different sounds and voices and feeling unsure about how to proceed.

💥The speaker then uses the metaphor of being “formulated” and “sprawling on a pin,” suggesting they feel like a specimen being studied or displayed. They question how to express their accumulated experiences and memories, comparing them to “the butt-ends” of their days and ways. The repetition of the rhetorical question “And how should I presume?” highlights the speaker’s continued uncertainty about how to make sense of their life and experiences.

💥The speaker observes arms, bare and adorned with bracelets, along tables and shawls, and notices a fragrance emanating from a dress. The speaker questions how to react or understand what they are observing, and repeats the rhetorical question of how to presume.

💥The speaker contemplates walking through narrow streets at dusk and watching lonely men in shirt-sleeves leaning out of windows, but then shifts to the image of being a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas. This contrast between the mundane world and the surreal image of the ragged claws adds to the overall sense of disillusionment and existential crisis in the poem.

💥in the next stanza. Contemplates the futility of attempting to confront a moment of crisis and imagines a scenario in which his attempt at profundity would be rejected by others. The overall mood is one of frustration.

💥In next stanza , the speaker declares that he is not a heroic figure like Hamlet, but rather a minor player in life who is content to help others. The mood is one of resignation and acceptance of one’s limitations.

💥The speaker reflects on growing old and considers how he will present himself in his old age, including wearing rolled-up trousers and white flannel pants. He contemplates parting his hair behind and daring to eat a peach, suggesting a desire to take risks and indulge in pleasures. The speaker then describes hearing the mermaids singing, but feeling that they will not sing to him, highlighting his sense of loneliness and alienation. The final lines evoke an image of the speaker and others lingering in the depths of the sea with sea-girls wreathed in seaweed, but ultimately being awakened by human voices and drowned. The imagery suggests a sense of being lost and overwhelmed, as well as a longing for connection and meaning. The overall mood of the stanzas is one of introspection and melancholy, with a sense of resignation and acceptance of one’s own mortality

🔴Analysis

💥The poem discuss about the clash between artistic world and the daily needs of men

💥In the second stanza speaker sharing their experience of a yellow fog which covers their house and rubs in their windows. The yellow fog represents the isolation,decay and pollution in the modern society. It creates a confusion in the minds of people.

💥The poem written in the tone of melancholy. The speaker of the poem expressing his desire to make changes in the world. But he is fearing someone. The fifth stanza gives hints about person who is frightening the speaker. It is non other than death himself. He says he is measured his life with coffee spoons. It means he do not have enough time in the world of living. That’s why he is not doing anything to change the world.

💥The speaker observing arms which already decorated by different things. The arms are considered as one of the evils in the modern society.

💥The image of Loneliness and frustration is again and again appearing in the poem

💥Poet says he is not a great man but just an ordinary one. He is not a prophet. The eternal footman in the poem is the metaphorical representation of death. He approached the poet and he became frightened. The poet compares him with Lazarus who came from death. The allusion of Lazarus is a symbol of a soul which was spirituality and emotionally died and waiting for revived.

💥The poem speaks about both normal and emotional death.

💥 The poem is characterized by its fragmented structure, use of stream-of-consciousness narration, and the incorporation of a range of literary techniques, including allusion, imagery, and symbolism.

🔴Context of the poem

💥The poem was written in the modernist age. The twentieth century witnessed the rapid growth modernism and the decline of the values which men followed till that day. The advent of world war forced men to think differently and look into life in a various aspect. The traditionalism in the mind of T.S Eliot might be the reason for the birth of a poem like this.

🔴Significance of the title

💥The poem is not like a love song like the title suggests. It helps the reader to explore the complex ideas of the speaker. The poem speaks about the inability of the speaker to express his love. The title of the poem can be considered as an irony

🔥Contemporary Poetry

🔥Australia

💥AD Hopes is an Australian poet who is known for his sarcastic and satirical slants. Australia is a sarcastic poem which portraits the geographical condition, history and the people of the country Australia. In the poem Hope shows Australia as a mechanical land. The poem speaks about the spiritual poverty of the nation. The poem ends in an optimistic view.

💥In the first stanza the poet describing the appearance of Australia. He calls his nation as A nation of trees but it is not like an attractive outlook. The colors which he used to describe Australia is darb(uninterested) green and gray. Darb green and gray is not an attractive colors. These colors are used to portray sadness. These colors remembered him about the colors of military uniform. He says his country is confusing like Sphinx.

💥Everybody calls Australia as a young country. Australia was the most recently discovered continent so in the eyes of Europe she is a young country. But the poet doesn’t agree with that. Of course Australia was the last discovered continent but it was existed before it was discovered. He is comparing Australia with an old woman who look’s like young in her appearance. Like her,Australia cannot produce any new things. Most places in this country is empty.

💥He says Australia didn’t have its own Architecture, history and songs. It didn’t have its own emotions and superstitions. Only the coastal areas of Australia are inhabitable. The central portion is mostly like a desert. The hot climate in the middle of Australia didn’t allow any water sources to survive.

💥He refers to Cairns and Perth the two important cities of Australia. He refers the people living in that cites as monotonous (lonely) tribes they are same kind of people,there is no difference or diversity between them. Diversity is the thing which colors a civilization, without diversity it will be relegated (de promoting) as the repetition of daily routines. The lines also speaks about the lack of individualism. The Last people who arrived in the region said that they cannot live there but survive in there.

💥 Then the speaker refers to the five cities of Australia. They are Sidney, Melbourne,Cairns, Brisbane and Perth. He says they are like teeming sores. Sores are blisters on the body which puss filled in it. That shows it is like an infection. He says this cities are like robber states (കള്ളൻമാരുടെ നഗരം). It might be a reference to the gold rush which happened in Australia. In these cities the second generation Europeans were pullulate (breed). These are the regions were very unfamiliar for the Europeans so that the poet says these are like alien shores.

💥In the sixth stanza he says this is the condition of Australia but there is some people like him who are happy to be or comeback to Australia from the lush jungle of modern thought. This lines might be a reference to the time period which the author went to England for his studies. He is comparing Australia to the Arabian desert. He is waiting for the arrival of a prophet who is able to reform the nation. Most of the prophets like Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist etc are came from deserts.

💥 Australia had different colors, there are meny wonders of the nature but even though it was like a spiritual wasteland. He calls the civilization as the chatter of cultured apes. He is hoping that one day a person will think beyond the teachings of this so called civilization and bring spirituality to the nation

🔥 Digging

💥Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet and activist. In 1995 he got the Nobel Prize for Literature. The poem digging begins in a quiet way with the speaker about to write with his pen. Distracted by the noise of his father working in the field, the speaker gets back to his work. To understand the context of this poem, it is necessary to know why the potato is so important to Irish culture. The poet subtly brings in the art of composition through the image of digging. The Gaelic culture and history is reflected throughout the poem.

💥 In the first lines the poet compares pen to a gun. How a gun fits in the hand of a man,just like that this pen is being hold in the fingers of the poet. Pen is like a gun for a writer. It is his weapon. The weapon can destroy everything and reconstruct in new order.

💥 Under the window of the poet he hears a rasping sound. It was his father. He is digging. The poet looks down.

💥His father is working in their garden. After some time he bends low. The poet thinks about the things which were happens 20 years before. In those days his father was working in the potato drills.

💥He wore a coarse boot. He holds a shaft in his hand. He rooted out all potatoes. It was handled with care. If he done this in a hurry the potatoes will became useless. The poet and some others also helped the father to do this. The father didn’t considered this as a job. He simply enjoyed it.

💥He says about his father’s ability to handle spade with care. Poets father and his grandfather also do this well. He is considered this as the grace of God.

💥Then the poet starts to say about his grandfather. He cut more turf in a day than any man on Toners bog. Toners bog is a place. He is proud of his grandfather and describing his ability. One day the poet gives a milk bottle to his grandfather. He was working in that time. Suddenly he bring the milk and have it and he continued his work. He is a workaholic person. His dedication is seen in this lines.

💥he smelled the cold potato smell. He likes this all but he didn’t likes to became like them. He is decided to become a writer. Between his finger and thumb his pen rests he will dig with that. He will do his work just like his father and grandfather but he didn’t likes to do the same work which done by them.

🔥Phenomenal Woman

💥Maya Angelou was a well known American poet, story teller and black female director. She worked along with Martin Luther and Malcom X . In the poem Phenomenal woman the self confidant speaker reveals her attributes as a phenomenal woman. In four different stanza’s the poet explains her special graces that make her stand out in a crowd and attract the attention of both men and women. The poet asserts the fact that looks alone do not define beauty, but the whole human character and disposition constitute its parameters

💥 The four stanzas in this poem speaks about four different topics

💥The speaks about an extra ordinary woman she is also the speaker of the poem. The poem is filled with confidence

💥In the first stanza the speaker describing about herself. Other pretty women were jealous to the speaker but she is not cute, she is not like a fashionable model. When she starts telling this to them,they think she is lying. She is inspiring people to love themselves. A person should love himself first then he gets the confidence to present himself in anywhere and it will help him to attract more and more people to him.

💥 In the next stanza the speaker speaks about her influence in others especially in the case of men. When she walks through a place most of the men in that place will follow her. They will stand their or fall down in their knees to propose her. This time also the poet describes her physical appearance. Like honeybees follows their queen the men follows her. Fire in her eyes, flesh in her teeth, swing in her waist, and joy in her feet, these are the things which differentiates her from others

💥 In the next stanza she says even the men cannot understand what they see in her or what is the thing that attract them to her. They tried so much to touch her inner mystery but they failed. But when the time which she exposing it by her self they cannot understand what it is. In this stanza also she is confidently repeating that she is a phenomenal woman.

💥In the last stanza she is asking that now you could understand why her head was not bowed. Why she is not shouting, why she is not speaking loudly. Again she describes her body and repeating that she is a phenomenal woman.

💥She says if a person wants to became a phenomenal woman she would not do anything improper. The poem is a rebellion against the beauty standards which established by the society. The real beauty is based on self confidence and self acceptance.

🔥Stealing

💥Carol Ann Duffy is the first Scottish poet Lucreate was born in Glasgow. She was awarded the Poet Laucrate title by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. He poetry was combined by the tenderness and roughness, humor and conventional form. Stealing is a poem written against the political and social reforms of Margaret Thatcher in 1980’s. A snowman built by Duffy neighbor’s children was stolen overnight and this made her write the poem from the perspective of a delinquent ( a young person who commit illigal things). The speaker tells us about the most unusual thing she has stolen. The poem speaks about feeling of isolation, failure and boredom.

💥The poem written in the form of Dramatic monologue.

💥The story sets in the theme of 1980’s. In this time Margaret Thacher the British Prime Minister implied new privatization policies and it leads to mass unemployment. The poem was written in the form of short sentences. The poem had no rhyme scheme

💥The speaker and the poet is different persons. The speaker in the poem is a young man

💥 The most unusual thing she ever stole was a snowman. Robbery was held in the midnight. He looks like a friend like him. It looks magnificent, tall white mute beneath (under) the winter moon. He considered that snowman as a good mate. He is also like cold hearted like the speaker. In this stanza the speaker tells about his own character also. He considered himself as a emotionless cold hearted man.

💥In the next stanza the speaker says that it is better to die rather than not taking what we want. He is enjoying the coldness of the snow man.He is waiting to see the cries of the children and he is thrilled to see that.

💥In the third stanza the speaker says that sometimes he steal things that he don’t want. He makes accidents by braking houses using vehicles. He Enters into the houses of strangers and destroying their household these all are his hobbies. He is considered these all as an act of heroism

💥 The next stanza describes how the speaker destroy that snowman. In the first three stanzas the speaker expressed his hatred but in this stanza he is expressing his anger. By destroying the snowman he is destroying himself. He is showing the frustration in his life. He likes to get someones help and lead a more better life.

💥In the last stanza he says why he is doing this all. Boredom that’s his problem. He don’t have any motive so he is doing these type of foolish acts. Stealing and the thrill gets from it that is the only pleasure he gets in his life. The speaker doesn’t interested in anything. After some time he feels bore.

💥The last stanza of the poem is also a question. Here he is mentioning his strange behavior. His life was bitter, he needs the help of the society. The anger and dislike which we feels against the speaker is transformed into pity when the poem comes to an end.