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Showing posts from June, 2011

John Osborne's Jimmy Porter is a Modern Hamlet- A Comparative Analysis

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John Osborne (1929-1994), British playwright and motion picture screenwriter, is known for his sharp criticism of modern British life. His play Look Back in Anger (1956), about rebellion against traditional mores, is regarded as a landmark in post-World War II British drama and made its author famous as the first of “the angry young men”.
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The Lucy poems by William Wordsworth: Few Important Short Questions

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The Lucy poems by William Wordsworth: Quick Facts
The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composedby the English RomanticPoet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) between 1798 and 1801. In the series, Wordsworth sought to write unaffected English verse infused with abstract ideals of beauty, nature, love, longing and death. Common traits in "Lucy poems": In all of the"Lucy poems” Lucy is given the embodiment of lady nature with all her spiritual powers and blessings. She is also depicted heavenly and beyond earthly. Again her memory is a fountain of poet’s joy. In the subjective world of Wordsworth, she is indeed the princess.
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Analysis of Robert Burns' "A Red Red Rose": Adaptations of Traditional Scottish Ballads and Folk Songs

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Introduction: Burns's literary output consisted almost entirely of songs, both original compositions and adaptations of traditional Scottish ballads and folk songs. He had used the Scottish lowland vernacular to rhyme in about then neighbors and their scandals, their loves and their church. Himself at the confluence of the two streams, the national and the local, he has such favorites as “Auld Lang Syne,””Comin' Thro' the Rye, “Scots Wha Hae,””A Red, Red Rosé, “The Banks o' Doon,” and “John Anderson, My Jo.” His “Red Red Rose" ,first published in 1794 in A Selection of Scots Songs, edited by Peter Urbani , is a love poem also written to be sung. Ballad in form it is an adaptation of old Scottish folk song.
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The Place of English in the School Curriculum at the Present Set up in India

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Place of English in School Curriculum in India  is  an important issue in modern utilitarian principles. English in India in 21st century is no more a colonial burden, but a real wings of hope and prosperity. Now let's bullet the points of importance.
A Bridge to Higher Studies: English should continue to occupy an important place in the curriculum of secondary schools so that at the end of the secondary stage the pupils will attain good working knowledge of English. The pupil learn English efficiency at secondary level it will not be difficult to catch higher studies.
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Teaching English in the Secondary level : Aims and Principles

ENGLISH is the subject in which teachers and parents are most vitally interested, for it is not only the groundwork of all the other studies but the foundation of career.This article aims to give teachers of elementary and high school English as well as mothers and all others interested in child training knowledge of the English language , types of literature and the most representative classics. It is intended to show definitely how to present the various skills of English language so that classes will appreciate the type, and will acquire a liking for the language.  By means of concrete teaching suggestions the application of practical methods to the various secondary classics is made clear.
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Critical Appreciation of H.W. Longfellow's Nature

Introduction
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) is one of the most popular and celebrated American poets .Longfellow's poetic work is characterized by familiar themes, easily grasped ideas, and clear, simple, melodious stylish language. His beautiful sonnet Nature is a popular example of his simple yet melodious lyricism. It is not hard, then, to show in the poem Nature the general structure: the rhyme-scheme; the sustained simile expressed by the two great waves of thought, one in the octave and the other in the sestet; and the complete impression in few words.
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Critical Appreciation of P. B. Shelley's THE MOON

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P. B. Shelleyis considered by many to be among the greatest, and one of the most influential leaders of the Romantic Movement. Of no poet in English, or perhaps in any other tongue, could it be said with more surety, that the pursuit of the spirit of beauty dominates all his work. For Shelley it inter-fused all nature and to possess it was the goal of all endeavour. The visible world and the world of thought mingle themselves inextricably in his contemplation of it. For him there is no boundary line between the two, the one is as real and actual as the other. It is in The MoonP. B. Shelleyaddresses the basic question of romanticism: what is beauty? How is it enjoyed? The Moon is a superb example that shows that everything depends on the eye of the beholder. What strikes most is the contrasting feature that the poem offers.
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Tips for UGC- NET English Examination

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Approaches to UGC- NET English Examination Some of the most widely administered tests for Teaching Job in India include the UGC- NET, SET, State level teachers’ recruitment programmers like SSC etc. UGC- NETuse standardized tests to assess literature achievement, to determine lecturer placement, and to reach specific skill- oriented men. PG students wishing to prefer lectureship continue their efforts after PG generally take these tests, since most INDIAN colleges and universities require test results in applications for lectureship. The most common of these tests include the general aptitude and knowledge of a specific subject.
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Sir Philip Sidney’s "Loving In Truth" in Sonnet Series "Astrophil and Stella" as a Typical Love Poem

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Sir Philip Sidney’s Loving In Truth taken from his sonnet series Astrophil and Stella, isa typical Elizabethan sonnet based on Petrarchan figurative devices. In fact, it is characteristic piece of Sidney’ well known sonnet series and adequately represents his theme of love and impressive technique.  As a Petrarchan form of sonnet, Loving In Truthhas love as its central theme. Sidney, the celebrated ideal courtly poet of the Elizabethan Age, reportedly had a love relationship with Penelope Devereux, a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. His Astrophel and Stella tells the story of the poet Astrophel’s unrequited love for Stella, a high-born and virtuous woman. Loving In Truth, The first sonnet from the cycle conveys the changing emotions of Astrophel, in whose voice the poem is written toward Stella.
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Critical Analyses of Henry Vaughan's poem " THE RETREAT"

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Introduction:The poems by which Vaughan is remembered are contained in Silex Scintillans, which appeared in two parts in 1650 and 1655 respectively. This is largely religious inspiration and its title is significant for the emblem on the title page that reveals its meaning to be a heart of flint burning and bleeding under the stroke of a thunder bolt and so throwing off sparks. It is of course the light of divinity.
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Critical Appreciation of Spenser's Sonnet No. 75 in Amoretti (One day I wrote her name upon the strand)

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"So let us love, dear Love, like as we ought,
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught."
Edmund Spenser (1552? - 1599) English poet. Amoretti Introduction:
Spenser’s Amoretti, a finest specimen of Elizabethan sonnets, is addressed to Elizabeth Boyle whom Spenser marries later. Thus his is the Amoretti a saga of love, without sin or remorse, its changing fortune, and the sighs of the lover until lies accomplishment and final joy. Though we do not find in Spenser’s sonnets Sidney’s unquietness or Shakespeare’s complaint against his mistress, his Sonnet No. 75(One day I wrote her name upon the strand) highlights a traditional question of transience and permanence.
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UGC NET Solved Paper II ; Subject -- English ;December : 2009

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Paper – IINote: This paper contains fifty (50) objective type questions, each question carrying two (2) marks. Attempt all the questions.
(ALL THE ANSWERS ARE COLOURED. I HAVE TRIED TO GIVE LOGIC BEHIND ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS. WITHOUT SYLLOGISTIC FORMAT YOU NEED AN ELFIN TOWER TALL HEAD.)

1. A classical influence on Ben Jonson’s Volpone is (A) Juvenal (B) Aristophanes (C) Plautus (D) Terence
Ben Jonson (1572-1637), English dramatist and poet, whose classical learning, gift for satire, and brilliant style is exhibited in his brilliant comedy, Volpone (1606) is modeled upon classical writer Aristophanes
2. Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” is addressed to (A) The American imperial mission in the Philippines. (B) The Belgian colonial expansion in the Congo. (C) The British Imperial presence in Nigeria. (D) The British colonial entry into Afghanistan.
At the conclusion of the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States annexed the Philippines, which had been a Spanish colony since the 16th …
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Dr. West’s New Method of Teaching English :Its Merits and Demerits

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Dr. West conducted an extensive research and experiments on the problems of teaching English as a foreign language in India. Read More Teaching EnglishThe new method is the outcome of his research. It stood as a reaction against the Direct Method.
                Dr. West approached the problem of teaching English not from the standpoint of pedagogy, but from the standpoint of social needs of the Indian people. He holds that, “Indian boys need most of all to be able to read English, than to write it, and lastly to speak it and understood it when spoken”. Read More Teaching EnglishMoreover, he maintains that “learning to read a language is by far the shortest road to learning to speak and write it. “According to him it is easier to acquire a reading knowledge of a language than to acquire a speaking. So the teacher’s chief concern should be to develop the habit of purposeful silent reading in the children and not the habit of oral reading.
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Significance of the Prologue to She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith

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The ‘Prologue’ to She Stoops to conquer was written not by Oliver Goldsmith, but by David Garrik, a member of Dr. Johnson’s literary circle, and a friend of both Johnson and Goldsmith. The prologue was meant to be read by a popular contemporary actor, Woodward, who was also supposed to have played the key part of Tony Lumpkin. However, although Woodward withdrew from the play, the ‘prologue’ was actually read by him. Unlike many other prologues of contemporary dramas, the ‘prologue’ to She Stoops to conquer is not a declamation but it is in the nature of a dramatic scene. Woodward enters the stage dressed in black, the colour of mourning, holding a handkerchief to his eyes, and the very first thing he says is that the reason why he is crying is that the Muse of Comedy (Thalia), who had been ailing for a long time, is now on the verge of death. If she really dies, his tears will not stop flooding, for it would mean the end of his carrier as an actor, well versed in the art of comic cha…
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