A Critical Analysis of the Title of William Shakespeare’s Play "As You Like It"


  As You Like It is a light-hearted comedy which appeals to the readers at all stages and all in lighter moods. It pleases some by its idyllic romance, others by its optimistic philosophy of simple goodness, and yet others by its cynical ironies. Indeed you can take this as you like it.” G. B. Harrison {ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York: Harcourt, 1952 (Page 776).}

Indo European family of languages


Languages, which show some common features and some shared properties, are said to belong to one family. It is assumed that such systematic similarities cannot be accidental; these similarities are there because the concerned languages have ‘descended’ from a common ‘parent’. That is, at some point of time, there was a language spoken all over a given geographical area which over a period of time broke up, fragmented, into a number of ‘sibling’ varieties. With the passage of time these varieties become sufficiently different from each other to be considered as separate languages.

Porter Scene Act II, SCENE III.in "Macbeth" By William Shakespeare


Macbeth By William Shakespeare

Significance of ‘Porter Scene’ in Macbeth

Act II, SCENE III. Court of Macbeth's castle.(porter Scene)

Knocking within. Enter a Porter
Porter
Here's a knocking indeed! If a
man were porter of hell-gate, he should have
old turning the key.
Knocking within
Knock,
knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of
Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged
himself on the expectation of plenty: come in
time; have napkins enow about you; here
you'll sweat for't.
Knocking within
Knock,
knock! Who's there, in the other devil's
name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could
swear in both the scales against either scale;
who committed treason enough for God's sake,
yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come
in, equivocator.
Knocking within

GENERAL RULES OF ACCENTUATION


1.        Generally all the monosyllabic words are unaccented; but in metrical composition such words are often accented. The monosyllabic words having a diphthong such as “power”, “flower”, “our”, “shower”, are always accented.
2.        In metrical composition, monosyllabic ‘content’ words are almost always accented. On the other hand, the ‘structural’ words almost always remain unaccented.
3.        Each and every disyllabic word must have only one accent, on either the first or the second syllable.
4.        But the disyllabic words like “any”, “many”, and “very” sometimes may remain unaccented, whereas the monosyllabic words like “yet”, “still” and “all” are accented very often.
5.        In a long polysyllabic word, we may have one or more accents. In general case, either the first or the second syllable must have the accent. Very few exceptional words like “returnee” have the first two syllables unaccented, followed by the accent on the third (re-turn-'ee). In fact, the English tendency is to put the accent as near the beginning of the word as possible.
6.        In a polysyllabic word having no prefix or suffix (eg. “de'terio'rate”, “'chloro'form”, “Hippo'crene” etc) we may have two accents. Here the more emphatic accent is called ‘primary accent’ and the less emphatic accent is “secondary accent”. But the secondary accent more often falls on the non-roots.
7.        The primary accent must be on the root, while any accent on the suffix or prefix is always the secondary accent.
8.        The monosyllabic prefix may or may not be accented.

KEY TO SYLLABIFICATION


 
1. In matters of syllabifying, there are no concrete rules, no invariable guidelines or no supreme authorities. So, it is often seen that a word can be syllabified in two ways. But the number of syllables is always the same in a word, in spite of its different kinds of syllabification. Examples follow –
* Even = e–ven / ev – en:
* Passive= pass-ive / pas-sive:
* Familiar = fa-mi-liar / fam-I-liar
[In each case, both the ways of syllabification are valid.]

2. As the vowel sound is the heart of a syllable, we, whenever to syllabify a word, must be guided by pronunciation, by the sound of the word but never by etymology or the letters or the spelling of the word. Examples follow-

* Peruse = pe-ruse (but ‘per-use’ not acceptable);
* Running = run-ning (but ‘run-ing’ or ‘runn-ing’ not correct);
* Island = is-land (but ‘isl-and’ not acceptable);
* Iron = iron (but ‘I-ron’ or ‘ir-on’ incorrect. ‘Iron’ is monosyllabic);

"THE SUPERANNUATED MAN" by CHARLES LAMB---The Feeling of Charles Lamb Before and After His Retirement


"It is now six and thirty years since I took my seat at the desk in Mincing-lane. For the first day or two I felt stunned, overwhelmed. I could only apprehend my felicity; I was too confused to taste it sincerely. I wandered about, thinking I was happy, and knowing that I was not."--- The Superannuated Man

Charles Lamb in “The Superannuated Man” has given an account of his feeling before and after his retirement. Lamb served as a clerk for long thirty-six years and then retired. Lamb’s life as a clerk was tedious and boring. He, however, had a respite from work on a Sunday every week.

Critical Appreciation of Gerard Manley Hopkins's "Pied Beauty": The Devotional Element / Sensuousness and Religiousness/ The Religious and Spiritual Characteristics


(The Devotional Element--- Sensuousness and Religiousness --  The Religious and Spiritual Characteristics )

  Nineteenth-century English poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins is admired for the highly original use of rhythm in his poetry, a quality that can be seen in the following poems, “The Windhover,” “Pied Beauty,” and “Hurrahing in Harvest.” A windhover, also known as a kestrel, is a small type of falcon. These three poems express Hopkins’s devotion to the Catholic faith, as well as his fascination with the natural world. Like most of Hopkins’s poetry, the poems were first published in 1918, nearly 20 years after his death.

 In a note on the religious life of Hopkins (1840-1889) Humphrey House expresses the view that Hopkins was not a mystic and that there is nothing in the poem of Hopkins to show that he feels the immediate and personal presence of God. It is impossible to agree with Humphrey House in this matter, because reverse seems to be the case. Hopkins was by nature a deeply religious man; he was an ardent believer in God and in the divinity of Christ. What is more, he saw God everywhere and specially in the objects of nature. Every where in his poetry we find him expressing a fervent belief in God and Christ and invoking the deity;
            “Thou mastering me
            God! Giver of breath and bread;
            World’s strand, sway of the sea;
            Lord of living and dead”;

Hopkins being a keenly sensuous poet and a Roman Catholic priest at the same time his poetry bears the unmistakable stamp of his poetic sensibility and devotional fervour. The poet and the priest in Hopkins are often in conflict and generate a lot of tensions. There are only a few poems in which the contradiction seems to be resolved and the poet and the priest are in harmony. Hopkins’s “Pied Beauty” is one of such poems.

            “Pied Beauty” points to poet’s power of sensuous appreciation of the beauty of the things around, his poetic concentration, compassion and above all, his unquestioning faith in God.

            All nature is good;
            “Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
            World broods with worm breast and with oh!
                                                Bright wings”.

He believes that the created beauty is the reflections of God’s spirit, and the beauty of nature is constantly reborn and renewed through the brooding of the Holy Ghost over the bent world. The world has been twisted and bent by men. Nature has been polluted and violated by man’s industrial activities. Yet the beauty of nature is never exhausted because;
            “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
            It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
            It gather to a greatness, like the ooze of oil crushed”.
God is in and over nature like the dove brooding over its young ones with protecting care and affection. The Christian concept of God as love and protector is vividly expressed in the last two lines;
            “He fathers forth whose beauty is past change:
            Praise him”.

            The very expression “Pied Beauty” means multi-coloured beauty of things. The multi-coloured beauty of things with their ever changing (shifting) colour and forms is very much pleasing to the poet. But the realization that they all are the manifestations of the beauty and grace of the supreme creator feels his heart with wander and admiration.

            The realization that each and every ordinary object of the world of nature has on it the touch of a magic hand of the supreme artist includes one to worship, sing the glory and grace God. The sky of couple colour brings the association spotted cows. The trouts that swim have on them rose-spot on dots beautifully distributed. The chest nuts that falling from the trees is bright red in colour like glowing coal in a fire. No to landscapes and sky-scapes are ever alike; the lands being in plots and pieces and the sky ever changing its colour.

            Though God has created this ever changing and constantly shifting panorama around us he himself is past change. He who with paternal affection and crashing tenderness has created thins of bewildering diversity is himself subject to no change. All things that are strikingly different of the same creator who is above difference; He has created some contrasting things such as – swiftness and slowness, sweetness and sourness, dazzle and dimness.

            So the world of nature with its varied forms of beauty has its appeal to the sensuous poet, but he sees it in the light of his devotion. It appears definitely more beautiful. He finds that each and every object of nature glowing with the glory of God and carrying to him the intimation of divinity. Thus the poet concludes his poem with an invitation to all, to praise the glory and grace of God. 

T. S. Eliot's "The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock"--A Song of Frustration and Conflict, of Loneliness and Boredom


  T. S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock is an embodiment of split personality – a separation of head and heart, a paralysis of the will and too much worry regarding a love proposal. The poem marks a complete break of the modern civilization with all its ugliness – the never ending streets, smoking chimneys, yellow fog, dirty drains and smell of female bodies. It is urban in its theme and setting. In a series of paragraphs the lover analysis the reason for a resolution and indecision and tries to justify his cowardice and lack of nerves. Behind this, mental state is a disease of modern routine – the aimless life of the city dwellers and the monotonous sound of social parties.


                Prufrock is one of the victims of modern civilization. He is between the two sites of his personality, which thereby highlights the nervousness and neurosis. His neurotic nature, his inability to face the problems of life is reflected in his delay and procrastination. He does not want to clinch the issue of the marriage proposal. He thinks he has a lot of time to take a decision if any –
                "Time for you and time for me,
                And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
                And for a hundred visions and revisions,"

           
T. S. Eliot
     Prufrock refers to Hamlet and this enables to understand his psychological malady. He is like Polonius, middle aged conscious of his position, through doubled headed and sometimes ridiculous. Though he is old he wants to appear young with the latest clothes. Prufrock is unable to face the problems of life. He seeks an escape to a romantic world. He is dreaming about the mermaids and the sea-weaves, when he is awakened by the human voices around. The realities of life cannot leave him, although he is unable to face them. The poem highlights the dilemma and indecisiveness as well as the squalor and barrenness of modern urban civilization.

                Prufrock’s affairs with women are a device to escape the loneliness of his life. Like other lonely man he desires company and yet he is unable to make hay while the sun shines. The root cause of his loneliness is the lack of communication. He is more of introvert than an extrovert.
                “And should I then presume?
                And how should I begin?"
He musters courage to begin but his fancy leads him to the silent seas where he is “a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors” of the ocean. Even his pretended fear of the rejection of his love by the lady betrays his inherent lack of communication “It is impossible to say just what I mean”.

                Prufrock is bored by the mechanical routine by the trivialities of social life by his own indecision, by his own interests and laziness. There is a lurking death wish ‘and we drown’, a desire to escape from reality. Like the evening he is lazy and a. malingers to avoid action and duty. He is quite conscious of his own helplessness and frustration. He is so much fed up with life that he considers any action even the making of a proposal absolutely useless. He has been through action, but that has only added to his boredom. The trouble with him is that his ennui or sense of fatigue has dried up his volition and emotion. His intellectualism and sensitiveness has also sapped the source of his emotionalism.

                Prufrock’s personality colours his outlook and his reaction to his surroundings. The streets are like a ‘tedious argument’, the fog like a cat ‘rubs its back upon the window pones’, the yellow smoke ‘lingers upon till pull’. Prufrock is disgusted with arguing and anything requiring action because it will lead him to ‘an overwhelming question’
                “Then how should I begin
                To spit out all the but ends of my days and ways?”

                Prufrock suffers from a spiritual paralysis. His sterile and inert for anything requires an effort. His intellectualism has sapped his vitality and potentiality for action. This is the condition of the modern man living in a commercialized society.

Key Points Discussed Here

👉"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot is a poignant portrayal of frustration and conflict, where the protagonist's inner turmoil inhibits his ability to engage with life fully.
👉Loneliness permeates the poem as Prufrock grapples with isolation, unable to bridge the gap between his desires and social expectations, resulting in a profound sense of disconnection from others.
👉Boredom pervades Prufrock's existence, as he navigates a monotonous and mundane world. His repetitious routines breed a stifling ennui, leaving him yearning for something more meaningful and fulfilling.


References
1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot | Poetry Magazine. (n.d.). Poetry Magazine. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock
2. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - Wikipedia. (2010, July 9). The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Song_of_J._Alfred_Prufrock

How Did Language Originate?


 No one knows exactly how language originated. And because of this, there is no dearth of speculations about the origins of human speech.

Language is a ‘System of sounds, words, patterns, etc. used by humans to communicate thoughts and feelings’. (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1989).No one, however, knows exactly how language originated. And because of this, there is no dearth of speculations about the origins of human speech. Let us briefly consider some of these.

ORIGIN OF THE WORDS: PHILOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF 50 MORE WORDS


 ADVICE- This word is an example of French loan word. The middle English 'avis' got this form  French . Due to renaissance influence 'ad' Latin 'advisum' was added as original prefix to 'avis' and we have the English word advice. Read More Philology                                                                                                                                                
ALMS- Old English 'aelmesse' is derived from Greek 'eleemosune'. Middle English from of the word was 'almesse' and plural was 'almesses'. In fact ,'alms' is singular as 's' belongs to the original word.   

Short Questions from Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer"


1. Is it a Laughing Comedy in protest of Sentimental Comedy?

Ans:When the play was first produced, it was discussed as an example of the revival of laughing comedy over the sentimental comedy . Truly speaking it is a comic laughing comedy in celebration of fun, frolic and humour .The affectation of sentimentalism and moralization is altogether omitted here. 
                                     
 2.How is She Stoops to Conquer a Comedy of Manners?

Ans:The play can also be seen as a comedy of manners, where, set in a polite society, the comedy arises from the gap between the characters' attempts to preserve standards of polite behaviour that contrasts to their true behaviour.


Ans:It also seen by some critics as a romantic comedy, which depicts how seriously young people take love, and how foolishly it makes them behave (similar to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream); in She Stoops to Conquer, Kate’s stooping and Marlow’s nervousness are good examples of romantic comedy.      

Model English Test -3 for PGT , TGT and Other Competitive Examinations


1.What do you trace ‘Myth making faculty’ in Shelley and Keats? Substantiate your answer.
2. How do you know that Shelley’s Skylark is not a creature of ‘flesh and blood’?
3. What does the bird specially know in Hardy’s poem?
4. What was the last thought that was not in vain for the lover in The Last Ride Together?
5.      Why ‘the listeners’ in the Mare’s poem do not react?
6.      How do you explain the title strange Meeting?
7.      What historical period do you find as hints in The Lagoon?
8.      Why did Mrs. Thurlow remain unsympathetic towards her  husband?
9.      Ulysses provides an interesting study in contrast along with another poem of Tennyson’s The Lotos Eaters – discuss.
10.   “Drive my dead thoughts over the Universe like withered leaves to quicken a new birth” – explain the line with critical comment.
11.  Describe The Traveler in the poem The Listeners.
12.   “Della, being slender, had mastered the art” – What was the art that Della mastered?
13.  Define The Ox as a short story.

History of English Literature-The Revival of Learning (1450-1550)


History / Events

Literature
1455-85 Wars of the Roses begin

1492 Columbus lands in West Indies

1535 Sir Thomas More, St John Fisher, Anne Boleyn, William Tyndale executed.

1549 Book of Common Prayer.

1476 Printing press started.
1412 Governail of Princes by Hoccleve.

1422 The Kingis Quair by James I

1470 Morte D' Arthur by Malory (1085)

1516 Utopia by More (Latin)
1551 Utopia by More (English)

1557 Tottel’s Miscellany by Wyatt.

History of English Literature--The Inter – War years (1918-39)


Historical events

Literature
1936 – :Allen Lane founded The Penguin Books, B B C        starts.

1939 –: World War II begins.
1922 –: Ulysses –- Joyce
The Waste Land – -T. S. Eliot.
Forsyte Saga – -Galsworthy.
1932 –: Brave New World- – Huxley.
1935 – Murder in The Cathedral – T. S. Eliot

Rulers

1910-1936
George V
1936
Edward VIII


Authors

1888-1965
T. S. Eliot
1903-1950
George Orwell
1904-1991
Graham Greene
1907-1973
W. H. Auden
1914-1953
Dylan Thomas

Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brute Edward Thomas etc are war poets.
1906



Samuel Beckett

1.Name the important works published in 1922.

Ans. In 1922 the famous poem entitled The Waste Land created by T. S. Eliot, and the celebrated novel named Ulysses worked by James Joyce. The novel Ulysses marks the beginning of ‘Stream of Consciousness’ technique in the domain of writing novels.

G. K. Chesterton Reveals the Beauty of Gothic Architecture in "The Architect of Spears"


In the essay "The Architect of Spears", Chesterton makes an imaginative exploration of the charm and beauty of the Gothic Architecture. He discovers the very soul of the stone that he finds in Lincoln cathedral. And every stone appears to him alive, dynamic and thought provoking, full of abounding energy and spontaneity, bearing ample marks of the very beauty of Gothic Architecture. But the striking feature of this essay is the clarity of Chesterton’s imaginative vision happily wedded to his wit. The mingling of the richness of wit and imagination makes Chesterton’s style somewhat paradoxical, and yet all the more lively and interesting. So, in "The Architect of Spears", are do not find a simple narrative or a logically developed idea. Instead, “The talent of Chesterton has succeeded in instilling new life into many truism”.

Analysis of the Title of J. M. Synge’s Play---Riders to the Sea


 J. M. Synge’s one-act play on the life of the poor peasant and fisher folk of the Aran Island of the west –coast of Ireland has been named “Riders to the Sea”. Who are the riders and what past does the sea play in their life? The riders in the drama refer to those male members of the family of the poor peasant woman Maurya. They, one by one go on horse back to the sea-shore for boarding the ship along with horses, goats and sheep which they have reared up at home for selling in the neighboring market. The sea is the only link with the world outside. Hence these people have no choice of going by any other route. So in compelling circumstances, they are to journey across the turbulent sea staking their life.

                In “Riders to the Sea” because of the limited space of a one-act play, only the deaths of two riders – Michael and Bartley are enacted. But we are reported of the gruesome deaths of many other riders of the same family. It is the family of the old peasant woman, Maurya through whom Synge has projected his tragic mission. Her husband, husband’s father and four of her six sons were all riders to the sea. None of them had come back alive. They had been swallowed by the sea. The fifth son whom she has just lost is Michael. His body has not yet been found.

Quick and Easy Reminder For Your Five Major Types of Comedy


The main trends of English comedy can broadly be classified into Five groups, namely ‘romantic comedy’, ‘comedy of manners’, ‘comedy of humours’, ‘sentimental comedy’ and the ‘tragi-comedy’ or ‘dark comedy’.

The term ‘romantic comedy’ is a somewhat vague appellation, which denotes a form of drama is which love is the main theme and love leads to a happy ending. The team ‘romantic comedy’ is generally applied to plays developed by Shakespeare and some of his Elizabethan contemporaries. These plays are generally concerned with love affairs that involve a beautiful and idealized heroine; the course of this love does not run smooth, but ultimately overcomes all difficulties to end in a happy union. In the Anatomy of Criticism (P.P 182-183) Northrop Frye points out that some of Shakespeare romantic comedies involve a movement from the normal world of conflict and trouble into the ‘green world’ – the idyllic, pastoral world of the Forest of Arden as in As You Like It, on the fairy haunted wood of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – in which the problems and troubles of the real world are magically dissolved, enemies reconciled and true lovers united. Frye regards this phenomenon (together with other aspects of these comedies, such as their festive conclusion in the social – ritual of a wedding, a feast, a dance) as evidence that comic plots reflect Primitive myths and rituals celebrating the victory of spring over winter.

Different Techniques of Writing Novels


There is visibly a distinction between the scope of a dramatist and that of a novelist. A dramatist enjoys a very limited scope to unfold his purpose of vision of life. For, within two or three stage hours he must complete his dramatic design, complying with the principles of three unities the unity of time, place and action. But a novelist, on the other hand, can enjoy unlimited time and scope to build up the characters in his novel. And if he so wishes, he can also include long explanation in favour of his own philosophy. It is obvious, therefore, that a novelist can enjoy greater liberty and wider scope by adopting different technical devices in his novel, while the liberty of a dramatist is all too restricted. However, of the different narrative devices, mention may be made to the few important narrative models: omniscient view, the first person narrative, epistolary novel, dialogue in novel and stream of consciousness novel.

Omniscient view: - The most usual kind of narration adopted by a novelist is what we call an ‘omniscient view’. What we mean by the expression ‘omniscient view’ is that the novelist describes not only the outward behaviour in an action of his characters but also their thoughts and feelings. That is, an omniscient narrator describes his story with God like case, as it capable of seeing every event which concerns his characters. The novelist goes even to that extant of knowing their inner most thoughts and motives. Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga may be cited as an instance to this point.

The First Person Narrative:- There is another type of novel where the story is told in the first person. The narrator very often refers to himself as ‘I’. This technique is called the first person narrative. By using this methods, the novelist may make his story more realistic and more credible. Of course, the novelist can enjoy little scope in this method to look very deeply in to the minds and motives of the other characters. In David Copperfield for example, Dickens can only show us the world through David 's eyes, while the other people in the novel can only be observed from the outside. Steer forth is heartless and wicked, Emily is good and innocent. But the readers have no means of discovering why they were as they were, or what made then behave as they did. However, a novelist, who tells his story through ‘I’ must accept certain restrictions, though he can often make the narrative stronger and lifelike.
Epistolary Novel:- Sometimes a novelist decides to tell his story through a series of letters, that is, the unfoldment of story in the novel is made through the exchange of letters among different characters concerned. This method has some extra advantages. Richardson makes use of this form to concentrate to the characters psychology and moral judgment. But in Pamela the reader may find it in hard to believe that the heroine, a simple domestic maidservant would be able to write so eloquently and such lengthy letters. Richardson perhaps realized the incredibility of this, and therefore he somewhat alters his stance in his next novel Clarissa Harlawe. The same device of letter method is also adopted in this second novel too. But the heroine is selected from a family with good education and culture. Understandably, the letters in Clarissa Harlawe seems less improbable than those in Pamela.

Dialogue in Novel:- There is still another method of writing novel which is technically called ‘Dialogue in Novel’. Introduction of conversation in a novel raises a bubble of controversy among those who think that dialogue is the monopoly of the dramatists alone. But this is not at all a tenable criticism. For, a reader of a novel may feel bore if the entire novel is told with simple narration or description, without getting it punched with frequent dialogue. But if a novel is stuffed with frequent conversation among the characters concerned, or, it become much more interesting for the readers. But the introduction of dialogue in a novel gives rise to one important problem for the novelist. His problem is that how can he be sure that his characters will speak in the sort of dialogues he selects. That is, a doctor must be made to talk like a doctor. A farmer must be made to talk like a farmer. A woman of fashion must be made to talk like a woman of fashion. So the novelist, like a dramatist, must have a ‘good ear’ to catch and imitate the speech habit and ‘tone of voice’ or ‘intonation’ of the characters in conversation. This is, no doubt, a difficult taste  but when executed appropriately, it becomes much amusing and interesting.

Stream of Conscious Novel:- Barring the age old method of story telling, there are some ‘interior monologue’ or ‘stream of consciousness technique’. Writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf use this technique with a wonderful success, following the principles of Freud. These novelists believe that some of the most important activities of human mind take place below the level of consciousness. They feel that the traditional method of telling story in the chronological order gives a picture of life which is atone inadequate, incomplete and superficial. In the year 1922 Joyce’s Ulysses is published creating a storm of controversy in the literary world. But on a close scrutiny it is found that the novelist has simply invited us to enter into the mind of his chief character Leopold Bloom to share his stream of consciousness to feel the incessant shower of innumerable atoms. Virginia Woolf and other modern novelists strongly uphold the efficiency of this technique to lay the human hearts bare, the major parts of which, to quote D. H. Lawrence, remains submerged like a chunk of ice in our subconscious and conscious world.
                      
Ardhendu De

Reference:An Introduction of English Literature to Foreign Students, R. J.Rees 

W. B. Yeats' "No Second Troy" as a Love Poem


W. B. Yeats is generally regarded as a link between the decadent aestheticism of the nineties and a new realism of the modern age. He is also one of the greatest love poets of the English language and the complexity! The lyric grace and authenticity of feeling of his love poems along with his intensity and his expression of the sense of loss resulting from failure in love all go into ranking him with the other great love poets in the World Literature. Such a typical poem is his No Second Troy. The whole poem is framed out into four rhetorical questions as a means of coming to terms with the reality of his unrequited love relationship with Maud Gonne.

Critical Appreciation of Philip Larkin’s "At Grass"


          Philip Larkin’s ‘At Grass’ taken from ‘The Less Deceived’ is essentially a Movement Poem which depicts Larkin’s close scrutiny of life , its maturity and death.

          The poem is about the race horses in their retirement. However, Larkin himself announced that he has never seen any race horse in the field of horse – racing, in which people stock money. Perhaps, he was inspired by a news-reel film on Brown Jack, the race horse in its retirement. The race horses that he describes are no more in their glory; these superannuated horses no longer participated in race. With case and comfort under the cool shade of trees they are grazing:

“The eye can hardly pick them out
From the cold shade they shelter in,
Till wind distresses tail and mane;
Then one crops grass, and moves about
- The other seeming to look on -
And stands anonymous again”


These horses has now lost individual identity but once, fifteen years ago these race horses were famous, own distinction in races and achieved glamorous fits, a vast crowd of people including the noble ladies used to attain the field of race and stock their money on the horses of their choice. In the month of hot June they used to park their curse outside the arena of the race course and if their favourite horse won the race they felt jubilant:

“Yet fifteen years ago, perhaps
Two dozen distances surficed
To fable them : faint afternoons
Of Cups and Stakes and Handicaps,
Whereby their names were artificed
To inlay faded, classic Junes – “
 The poet is not sure about the fact that whether these horses are nostalgic of their glorious past or not. They no longer have to wait for the signal to run. Years rolled on, the horses are now enjoying leisurely. Their names remain in almanac only. No curious watcher stops to watch them. None looks at them through the window with a binocular. They are now waiting for the evening and the groom and his boy will come to bridle them away to the stable:

“Summer by summer all stole away,
The starting-gates, the crowd and cries -
……
Have slipped their names, and stand at ease,
……..
Only the grooms, and the grooms boy,
With bridles in the evening come.”

          The poem belongs to movement poem and underneath its simplicity it identifies the poet’s mentality which is stripped of its glamour and the poet becomes an ordinary man speaking in ordinary language which sounds prosaic. What Larkin tries to bring home is that like youth old age is a necessary part of life and we must accept it calmly when it apprehends us. ‘At Grass’ is a serene picture of old age. The bright days of youth have passed on and the sunset of life is approaching.

          The poem is also taken as a political allegory where there is emotionally complex treatment of contemporary English society. The superannuated race horses indicate England’s loss of power and glory. It is a post imperial poem and uses “language of imperial achievement and that of imperial loss”. The image of ‘squadrons’ are the long cry of England’s imperialism. The race horses, once famous, are English ancestors, famous generals, perhaps who can now ‘stand at ease’. The race horses symbolize something about success and failure and neglects to notice the threatening atmosphere of the modern social democracy.

          In ‘At Grass’ “provinciality perhaps always contains within in the sting of distance”. It is a poem of post-war period, and whether the landscape is native or not , it has usually been at one remove, and seen through the window of a train or even of a house. The poetry of place is usually poetry of displacements. Therefore, the distance theme has become the most important feature of the poem.

          The distance in space has become the very ground of freedom for the refined horses. Though their names have slipped into oblivion and anonymity the horses are not perhaps sad. They have reconciled themselves with the change of time and space. Larkin is here realistic and sensibly accepts this.


Notes & Some key points: 
  1. Philip Larkin is noted Movement Poet which refers to the group of poets of the 1950s. The other notable movement poets are John Wain, Kingsly Amis, Thomas Gunn, Donald Davie and Robert Conquest etc. In the poems of Movement Poets the inflated romanticism and stylistic excess of the 30s and 40s were replaced by ironic, realistic and anti-romantic stance. "At Grass" reflects on the lives of retired racehorses and their loss of purpose, highlighting the fleeting nature of life and the inevitability of death. 
  2. Larkin's use of vivid imagery to portray the horses' aging and decline
  3. The melancholic tone of the poem, which emphasizes the horses' lost glory
  4. The theme of mortality and the reminder that all living things must eventually face death
  5. The poem's commentary on the role of animals in human society and the consequences of exploiting them for entertainment or profit.

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