AD's English Literature

What is the right time to begin something?  Which people should he listen to?  What is the most important thing for him to do? A s at the core of the Buddha’s enlightenment there was the realization of the Four Noble Truths, Tolstoy’s story of Three Questions puts forth fundamental reality of life. While working on the later parts of his life, Tolstoy began experiencing bouts of depression, which at times were so severe that he considered suicide. He was tormented by the need to find a meaning for his life that would not be annihilated by death. His Ispoved’ (1882; A Confession, 1885) describes this spiritual struggle and the solution he found: to practice what he saw as the essence of Christianity—that is, universal love and passive resistance to evil. A series of religious writings amplified this new faith. In these, he urged people to live according to the dictates of conscience , which meant practicing universal love an...

"A well chosen anthology is a complete dispensary of medicine for the more common mental disorders, and may be used as much for prevention as cure." Robert Graves  (1895 - 1985) British poet and novelist On English Poetry An anthology, derived from the Greek word meaning "flower gathering," is essentially a collection of literary works, usually from various authors, chosen for their cultural, artistic, or historical value. These curated collections date back centuries, with notable examples like Meleager of Gadara’s anthology in 90 BC, which compiled poems from various Greek poets, and Tottel’s Miscellany (1557), featuring works by Nicholas Grimald, Thomas Wyatt, and Henry Howard, showcasing the early development of English poetry. Anthologies such as The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics by Francis Turner Palgrave and The Oxford Book of English Verse compiled by multiple editors reflect the tastes, sensibilities, and cultural aesthetics of their time...

  “ T ask Based language T eaching” refers to the system where the language is acquired through practice. Teacher sets various types of tasks to the students, where they can find the opportunity to use the language either orally or in writing. T eachers ask our students to do something in class which they would do in everyday life using their newly learn ed language . Participation of the student in various task based activities wi ll make the students active and a feeling of success. T his will help the students to enjoy the class and give them a feeling of satisfaction. The teacher can set various types of works to the students- activity in which students use language to achieve a specific outcome. He can set task on alphabets, literature, language, composition, vocabulary and so on. In other words, language learning task is an exercise which causes anything that a pupil might be asked to do in order to practice, learn, revise, test etc. The tasks will generate their o...

"No one has written worse English than Mr Hardy in some of his novels...but at the same time so strangely expressive of something attractive...that we would not change it for the perfection of Sterne at his best." Virginia Woolf  (1882 - 1941) British novelist and critic. Referring to Thomas Hardy and Laurence Sterne. The Moment Hardy believed that a marriage should not be the result of momentary impulse or a passing fancy. He was thus against a marriage based on love at first sight. A marriage to be successful, to be most candid to the happiness of the married couple, should be based on a harmonic of taste and temperaments. Angel Clare wants to marry a dairymaid because she is likely to be a true helpmate to him in his vocation of farming. He feels, and he reflects the views of Hardy that a fashionable woman of high society would not be a good wife for him, for she would not be of help him any way in the vocation that he has chosen for himself. He there...

 “ I t is my aim as an artist . . . to bring . . . wonder into myself, to prove beyond doubt to myself that the flesh that covers me is the flesh that covers the sun, that the blood in my lungs is the blood that goes up and down in a tree.” --Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas’s ‘Poem in October’ (1944) is a birthday poem  that  celebrates the poet's thirtieth birthday in the Welsh seaside town of Laugharne . It celebrates the joy a person feels on the arrival of such a day in course of time. But the poem is more than such a celebration. Its theme, a closer look at the poem will convince us, is pantheism—‘a belief that God is everything and that everything is God’. Though the poet has used certain terms of Christianity (such as parable, chapel, mystery, truth etc) in it, his use of them is such that we shall be definitely off the track if we take them is indicative of Christianity. The poem’s message , if it does have any, is not Christian but pantheistic. It gets corroborate...

A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers UGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK 1.      Alexander is the author of An Essay on Criticism (1711) and Matthew Arnold is the author of The Essay in Criticism (1865). 2.      Two philosophical poems of Pope: To Lord Bathurst and An Essay on Man . 3.      In Dunciad Pope attacks Theobald who pointed out some mistakes in Pope’s edition of Shakespeare.

T he culture clash in this Fielding’s A Passage to India is wide enough to be bridged so easily. The culture clash, however, is not only between Indians and British, but also between two distinct groups of Indians—Muslims and Hindus . However, Fielding’s tea-party plays a vital role in shaping the mood of the novel.   Whereas the Collector’s Bridge Party is a failure in achieving its objective of harmonizing and bridging the Englishmen and the Indians , Fielding’s tea-party is a success. Fielding is also an Englishman. But he is kind and genial; he believes that the world is a globe of men who are trying to reach one another by the help of goodwill plus culture and intelligence. He has none of the racial arrogance of the local Britishers and is therefore disliked by them. He does not behave like the sahibs, and is not liked by the Anglo-Indian ladies. The narrative makes it clear that these two groups have very different traditions. Dr. Aziz is proud of...

Geographic Exploration is the process of conscious discovery by human beings of the world around them. The human species is highly mobile, migrating and traveling to every corner of the globe. In this, we are not unique. What sets human beings apart from other living creatures is our ability to discover. Many other creatures share humankind’s curiosity, but we alone can communicate our discoveries. Human societies acquire a collective awareness of their known world, and the most adventurous have the urge to discover what lies beyond and to return to describe their findings. Taking that philosophy, Gerald Gould’s ‘Wander-Thirst’, like that of Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’ the intense longing for travel does not allow the poet to remain at home. The sun is the friend and the Pole Star is the guide of a man on his voyage. The voice referred to here is the call of every object of Nature that tempts the poet to set out for a journey. Actually the poet’s inner urge is reflected in this ...

J im Corbett’s  My India is a splendid story that reinforces the notion that people must learn to live together in harmony where actually the seed of communal discomfort at pre independence is fermenting. Here is well documented and written at the British India when the peoples of the India looked forward to a time of freedom fight through Gandhian peace and prosperity . The story of the coming of the new railroads, to live among the Indian populace   symbolizes the optimism of these years. Jim Corbett does not, however, allow the development of his theme to rest on sentimentality and false hope. In fact, Jim Corbett become a trans-shipment Inspector for the Bengal and Northwestern Railway where he spent 21 years, working with hundreds of simple, loyal and hardworking labourers. Most of the stories in My India revolve around this period he spent in Mokameh Ghat. The book includes twelve dashing description of Jim’s motherland and Life at Mokameh Ghat is his 12th or...