AD's English Literature

"The Listeners"  by Walter De La Mare : Echoes from the Haunted House The Listeners: An Enigmatic Journey into Supernatural Realms "The Listeners"  by Walter De La Mare is a fine supernatural poem . It is, as T S Eliot called it, an 'inexplicable mystery'. It is a poem of haunting and the subtle way in which the poet binds the world of the supernatural is really worth praising. It is superb not only from the standpoint of artistic beauty with pretty words in a rhythm or rhyme , but also from that of the presentation of details and arrangement of incidents of the two worlds – the worlds of the humans and world of phantoms, a glimpse of something deep, another world created by words - never merge in the poem. The closed door nicely symbolizes the eternal gap between these worlds. Unanswered Echoes: The Mysterious Encounter at the Moonlit Door A Traveller comes to the deserted house outside at night in a forest on skittish horseback and knocks on the on ...

From: Sesame and Lilies. Lecture II.—Lilies: Of Queens’ Gardens Examining John Ruskin's Observations on the Superiority of Women in "Sesame and Lilies: Of Queens' Gardens" John Ruskin's Perspective on the Dignified Place of Women in Society According to John Ruskin  (1819 - 1900) , the place of women in society is much more dignified than even that of men. Ruskin hates the idea of treating women as mere shadow and attendant image of their lord.i.e. men. Really there is no difference between man and women. According to him, a woman is a dignified creature. He corroborates his opinion with the testimony of the great authors regarding the true dignity of women. Shakespeare's Heroines as Paragons of Virtue and the Role of Women in Shaping Shakespearean Tragedies In his lecture Of Queens’ Gardens he first takes Shakespeare , “Shakespeare has no heroes; he has only heroines”. Ruskin says, there is no one entirely heroic figure in all his plays, except the slight ...

Man’s eternal quest is to know the unknown, to see the unseen and is to discover the undiscovered things. That’s the very spirit of the Elizabethan age . They have the nostalgia to sink into the historical past and fetch the pearl of spirit undaunted. Thus , Christopher Marlowe , the excellent Elizabethan writer squares the juice of historical background and unlocked them in full-throated ease in his play Edward II . He just poured the ‘new wine into old bottles’ and stimulates the dozing spectators into frenzied drunkards. So if anyone raises the question ‘Edward II – as a historical play’ , we must not hesitate to apt for other answers.

"From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die." William Shakespeare  (1564 - 1616) English poet and playwright. Sonnet 1,  Exploring the Essence of Shakespearean Sonnets: Unveiling Originality, Technique, Tradition, Convention, Dramatic Elements, and Style Shakespearean Sonnets: Redefining Tradition and Embracing Unconventional Originality The ‘suger’d sonnets of Shakespeare ’, as Francis Meres lovingly called them, is and yet is not, in the tradition petrarchan or even Elizabethan sonneteering. Shakespeare’s involvement in techniques, structures, and themes that recurs the sonnets of his predecessors – in Petrarch, Spenser, and Sidney, for example – invariably bring Shakespeare’s uniqueness into relief. Shakespeare is seen to define himself in opposition to the conventional medium he ploys. Thus Shakespeare can be appreciated as a poet is deviates from, rather than conforms to, the norms imitate and modify: ‘when he is ...

Exploring Tradition and Progress: The Character of Natraj in R. K. Narayan's "Man-Eater of Malgudi" Tradition, Nostalgia, and the Conflict of Progress: Exploring the Character of Natraj in R. K. Narayan's "Man-Eater of Malgudi" It is generally seen that the heroes of R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) are broad, reflective and going back to the past, grown nostalgic. In the " Man Eater of Malgudi" (1961) the central character Natraj similarly broods, reflects and grows nostalgic. S. R. Ramteke regards Natraj a timid cowardly person – “he is portrayed as cowardly submissive and good for nothing fellow”.  Natraj plays a significant role in the narrative. Natraj is the central character and owner of the printing press in the fictional town of Malgudi. Through Natraj's experiences, the author explores themes of tradition, modernity, and the conflict between progress and preservation. Natraj's Journey: Confronting the Clash of Tradition and Moder...

The York and the Lancaster group in the classroom: The Yorks and the Lanceasters were the opponents in the famous War of the Roses (1445 – 1485) – The symbol of York group was a white rose while that of the Lancaster group was a red rose. Here the class has been intentionally divided into two groups to stimulate competitiveness between the students. Stephen was the leader of the York group while Jack Hawton was the leader of the Lancasters. In Father Arnall’s class the competition was to solve a difficult sum. But Stephen was defeated. Book of Sir Walter Scott FASCINATES Stephen: The Bride of hammer moor. Pernobilis et pervetusta familia : An illustrious and old family tradition. “darkness falls from the air” and “brightness falls from the air": These lines are taken from Nash. Stephen’s mother's Wish : Stephen’s mother wishes him to perform his easter duty. Stephen refuses by saying ‘I will not serve’ imitating Satan’s infamous ‘non serviam’. How many children: Alth...

Q. Do you find Kubla Khan a broken dream unfinished? Ans. Written in 1798, Kubla Khan was like Christabel unfinished and it also remained unpublished until 1816. It is the echo of a dream the shadow of a shadow. Coleridge avers that he dreams the lines, awoke in a fever of inspiration, threw words on paper, but before the fit was over was distracted from the composition, so that the glory of the dream never returned and Kubla Khan, remained unfinished. The poem, beginning with a description of the stately pleasure dome built by Kubla Khan in Yanadu, soon becomes a dream like series of dissolving views, each expressed in the most magical of verbal music, but it collapses in mid-career.  

a. An epic has been generally described as a long narrative poem, on a grand scale about the deeds of warriors and heroes, kings and gods. It is a polygonal heroic story incorporating myth, legend, folktale and history. Epics are mostly of national significance, since that they embody the history and aspirations of nations in a lofty or grandeur manner. An epic is a culture mirror with a fixed ideological stance, often reflecting the best noblest principles of nation’s ethos. b. T.S. Eliot in The Waste land and Thomas Mauve in The Magic Mountain have both told the death knell of heroism, divinity, love and all nobler virtues in the post war modern world which portrayed, rightly enough, as a fragmented, hellish insubstantial circle of spiritual vacuity and ideals .  c. Old and Middle English alliterative poems are commonly written in form of four-stress lines. Of these poems, William Langland’s The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, better known as Piers Plowman , ...

  A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers ( Victorian Novel) a. Charles Dickens was the most genuine story-teller of the complex life of London of his time, the greatest romancer of the life of the streets, workshops, and slums of which he had a direct personal knowledge. b. The most impressive in Charles Dickens’ works is humour blended with pathos. Crime and villainy play a large part in his novels for he had a peculiar weakness for the ugly and eccentric characters. c. Thackeray recaptures the Addisonian style, full of typical homely humour and light burlesque.

The fragment of Shelley Stephen would recall repeatedly at the beginning of his adolescence:             Art thou pale for weariness             Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth             Wandering companionless …….. ? [To the Moon] A great Fisher of souls: St. Ignatius Loyola. The three forms of beauty mentioned by Stephen from Aquinas:           Wholeness (integritas), harmony (consonantia), radiance (claritas). Arnall delivers his lecture on theology: Father Arnall lectures on theology in the Belvedere Chapel on the occasion of the annual retreat preceding the feast day in honour of St. Xavier, the ‘apostle of the Indies’ and the patron saint of the college.

Record Stephen’s prayer to his old father, the cunning artifice: The entry on April 27. Entry  refers to Stephen’s meeting with Emma: The entry on April 15.  Stephen’s motto: ‘Non – serviam’, the motto of Satan.             ‘I will not serve’. The significance of the name Stephen Dedalus : The name Stephen Dedalus conjoins the first Christian martyr St. Stephen, stoned to death outside Jerusalem in 34 A.D. and the great pagan artificer – artist hero, Dedalus. Like St. Stephen, the hero of the novel is or atleast sees himself as, a martyr, a person whose potential spiritual dedication is thwarted by Ireland. His surname, however reminds us of the cunning artificer Daedalus who built for himself wings of wax and escaped from the labyrinth of crete. Stephen will also emancipate himself from the prison which Ireland has become to him. And he will do this not literally by going abroad but also spiritually soaring on the wi...

A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers ( Victorian Novels) a. Charles Dickens is easily the first of the Victorian novelists both in point of time and quantity. He made use of the novel as an instrument of social reforms; his novels are novels with a purpose. b. Charles Dickens’ remarkable novels include Pickwick Papers, A Tale of Two cities, Hard Times and Oliver Twist,  David Copperfield.   c. David Copperfield is Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, - a fiction tinged with some autobiographical elements.  d. Thackeray is the next novelist with whom Dickens is often contrasted. His scope is vast; the church, the army, the civil service, the fashionable public school, Fleet Street, in short, the whole world of London – against these entire he hurls his satirical arrow. e. Thackeray ’s Vanity Fair is supreme in its minute analysis of an entire community – the parasitic gentry of the Victorian era. If character value be the test of a great novel, Vanity Fair ...

Stephen’s University friends: Davin, Lynch, Cranly, Mc Cann. The Jesuit school Stephen was admitted for the second time: Belvedere College. Athy: Athy is Stephen’s companion in the infirmary at Clongowes. His father is a race horse owner. The founder of the Jesuit Society: St. Ignatius Loyola. Stephen travel to with his father : Stephen traveled to Cork with his father and found the word ‘Foetus’ etched on the desk of the college where his father had studied. He realized as a consequence that it was not he alone who was preoccupied with sexual themes. sodality: A sodality is a devotional society in Roman Catholic Church. Stephen belonged to the sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary which was founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, who was the founder of the Jesuit society. Stephen was the leader of the sodality.