AD's English Literature

The Sonnet as a literary form, inferior to none in variety or extent, is superior to many in nobility of thought, in sanctity of spirit and in generality of comprehension. In beauty or prolixity, it can vie with any other literary genre ancient and modern. Despite of the various experimentation, internal and external, Sonnet had to encounter ever since the dawn of its birth, she has successfully held up to the world her archaic literary beauty. Sonnet , derived from the Italian word ‘Sonneto’ meaning a little sound or strain, is a lyric poem of 14 lines with a formal rhyme scheme, expressing different aspects of a single thought, mood, or feeling, sometimes resolved or summed up in the last lines of the poem. Originally short poems accompanied by mandolin or lute music, sonnets are generally composed in the standard meter of the language in which they were written—for example, iambic pentameter in English, and the Alexandrine in French. Such outburst of lyricism in English li...

  14th-century English poet  Geoffrey Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales"  (probably written after 1387), the crowning achievement of Chaucer's life, is of perennial importance, invaluable alike to the student of poetry, to the historian who aspires to delineate the social life of the period, and to the philosopher. The  Tales  is a collection of stories set within a framing story of a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket. The poet joins a band of pilgrims, who assemble at the Tabard Inn outside London for the journey to Canterbury. The Host of the inn proposes a storytelling contest to pass the time; each of the 30 or so pilgrims (the exact number is unclear) is to tell four tales on the round trip. Ranging in status from a Knight to a humble Plowman, they are a microcosm of 14th-century English society.  Chaucer completed less than a quarter of this plan. The work contains 22 verse tales (two unfin...

  V irginia Woolf in her Modern Fiction makes a fair attempt to discuss briefly the main trends in the modern novel or fiction. She begins her essay by mentioning the traditionalists like H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett and Galsworthy, who, while they propound new ideas and open out new vistas to the human mind, still follow the Victorian tradition as far as the technique of the novel is concerned. Read More Essay They believed that a great force on the individual was environment. However, they differed from one another in subject matter – in Arnold and Galsworthy the socialist point of view dominated and Wells, a brilliant writer of scientific romances. Read More Essay Mrs. Woolf marks these three as ‘materialists’. While defining the term Woolf states that these writers as well as their writing is stuffed with unimportant things; they spend immense skill and dexterity in making the trivial and transitory a boost of truth of life. As life escapes, the worth of the literary piece i...

Symbolic Tapestry in T. S. Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" Introduction The term ‘symbolism’ can be defined as the practice, system and art of representing ideas by means of symbols. The term ‘symbol’ although is a word, a phrase, an object, or a clause even, yet it always represents an abstraction. So the thing represented is an idea, quality, condition, or any other abstract thing.  T. S. Coleridge's renowned poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," weaves a complex tapestry of symbolism, captivating readers with its profound imagery and allegorical depth. Published in 1798, this narrative masterpiece employs a plethora of symbols to convey deeper meanings and explore themes of guilt, redemption, and the human relationship with the natural world. This critical essay delves into the rich symbolism embedded within "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and elucidates its significance within the poem's broader context. Kinds of symbols ...