Happy New Year!

Playwright Harold Pinter dies

Nobel Laureate, playwright Harold Pinter died on Christmas eve. He was 78 and had been struggling against Liver Cancer. I especially liked the author for his marvellous 'The Birthday Party' (which I read in my post-graduation) - a drama with an underlying message that is as true today as ever. Pinter, considered an author of the Absurdian tradition, received Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. He has many art pieces - in the field of literature, theatre, films etc. - but  he will be remembered the most for his drama 'The Birthday Party' and 'The Homecoming', both regarded as the finest by the critics.

Visit Pinter's homepage at: Harold Pinter

'A Search' - poem

We have all read the English proverb 'Seeing is Believing'. But we do not apply this in case of God. Probably because we have our tasks or list of wishes that can be fulfilled by God only. At the same time it is not wholly true that we are being selfish all this while believing in something we cannot even observe. This is so because although we cannot see God in concrete form but we can still feel His Presence around us, especially when we need help the most and all the earthly aids have failed. It is then that we realize that we have someone who takes care of us, and doesn't make us feel so isolated and dejected after all. 

I would like to share one of my poems with my readers. I penned down this poem way back in 2001.

When there was darkness all around
When the black sky did surround
When every hope of light was drowned
Where were you all the time?
When nobody was there to lend a shoulder
When tears too did smoulder
When no one was to be the candle-holder
Where were you all the time?
When by words was the heart broken
When nobody else could offer a love token
When all made me lonely and forsaken
Where were you all the time?
Probably You were within me
Guiding and protecting me
Through the tough times You carried me
That no one else could have done for me.

© Amritbir Kaur., all rights reserved.

The Fading Memories

We can call our memories the profit we receive on the investment made or they can prove to be the interest we have to pay out of our pockets for the future. It depends on the kind of the crop we sow. After all, as we sow so shall we reap (as goes the old English adage).

Memories have the strength and ability to change our lives. Some memories tend to fade but some just hang out there, flashing in front of the eyes of our mind every now and then. To some extent we can control our memory - in the sense that we forgot only those things that we want to forget. Moreover, this forgetting is a sort of boon for the human mind. If our little mind were to remember all those things, we would soon be tired of the lingering thoughts. It is only because of this forgetting that life goes on and is as beautiful as it ever was, sans those painful and the remorseful memories - those that we always wanted to get rid off.

Leaving behind...

"What you leave behind is

not what is engraved

in stone monuments,

but what is woven into

the lives of others."

Pericles,

Greek Statesman

This is exactly how the world remembers a dead man. They leave a part of themselves here on this Earth with us before 'leaving'. I say 'a part' because after death a man is not remembered as one unit. We often stay attached to his memories, the moments, the smile in his eyes - all those lingering thoughts that stay alive in our minds as fresh as ever.

After all it is not the footprints that matter, it is the imprints on our minds that stay on forever. And sometimes they cannot be blown away by the sands of time, they just stay there...

The Yardsticks of Life - Success and Failure

Life is not a thing that can be measured or weighed. But we often try to evaluate it in terms of success and failure. It is the basic human nature that we try to estimate our profit and loss in each and everything we do. We often try to divide life into two watertight compartments of success and failure. But that is not to be. Life is not presented to us in definite shades of black and white, rather we have varying shades of grey.

Although we can separately define success and failure, yet we cannot draw a line between the two. They are often overlapping or at times one may replace the other. Sometimes we lose even if we have won. At other times, even being a loser we might turn to be a winner in the end.

On some occasions it happens that when we win, there's a sense of guilt lurking in some corner of our heart, which keeps our success incomplete - we means we fail inspite of the success. Sometimes we fail to keep our relationships intact - at that particular moment we succeeded as a businessman but failed badly in being a human being. We fail to justify our existence as a man at the cost of feelings of others.

Basically success and failure co-exist. The victory of one person is to be attributed to the defeat of the person in opposition. If we study these two terms from the point of view of the sportspersons we can say that - no matter how successful a person might be in any sport, if he doesn't retire at the right time, when he is at the peak, very soon the journey downhill begins - this might turn his success into a failure (failure in terms of his decreasing popularity, people might remember him for his failures in the last matches). This is only another aspect of success and failure.

In general, we often hear people remark about a wealthy person, "He is a very successful man". Can we define success in monetary terms? Definitely not. Just before Alexander, the Great breathed his last, he had asked that his hands be kept out of his grave so that people might realise that he too went away empty-handed from this world.

The sooner we absorb this message in our lives the better it is. Otherwise we too will have to lament like Hamlet: "Had I but time, O! I could tell you, but let it be". The time once past cannot be recalled and reshaped, so the time to act is here and now.

Omar Khayyam writes:

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it"

'Vibrations' - the blog

Recently I discovered a blog entitled ‘Vibrations’. The blog is about the general outlook towards life, the little ramblings about life. The word vibrations set my mind thinking. Normally we can observe the various hues of life (as life is not presented to us in only black and white), but we fail to feel the vibrations of life. The quotes posted on the blog, especially those coined by the author himself are, indeed, very meaningful. The collage created by the blog author, Harneet Singh in the post : Dear God is very nice.
Enjoy travelling through this blog and feel the vibrations!

Woof Contest Top 5 - dated Nov. 7

Poetry
Penelope Anne Bartotto - “Never” - 100 words on being true to yourself.
Robert Bourne - “Shadowed Soul” - A poem of how I grew after years of hiding what was inside.
Dragon Blogger - “The Taste Of A Hamburger” - A poem based on a twitter contest where I write a poem based on random words. This one turned out to be a poem about a hamburger.
About Writing
Writing Nag - “7 Ways to Keep the Passion for the Writing Life” - Like any relationship your writing life needs to be nurtured. Find new ways to fall in love with writing again.
Non-Fiction, Philiosophical, Opinion
PieceMike Fried - “Proud To Be An American” - The Writer’s thoughts on the Presidential Election.

R. L. Stevenson's Poetry - A Tribute on his Birthday

R. L. Stevenson, the famous Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer, was born on November 13 in the year 1850. Although wrote many short stories, poems, travalogues, novels, he is especially known for his novels: ‘Treasure Island’ (1883) and ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’(1886). Among other famous novels are ‘Kidnapped’ (1886) and Master Of Ballantrae (1889).
The aim of this post is to highlight the poetic masterpieces that have been created by Stevenson. We have all read much about his novels especially, the most about ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. (I had written a post earlier about it: ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’
I would like to share one of his poems here for my readers:
As from the house your mother seesYou playing round the garden trees,So you may see, if you will lookThrough the windows of this book,Another child, far, far away,And in another garden, play.But do not think you can at all,By knocking on the window, callThat child to hear you. He intentIs all on his play-business bent.He does not hear, he will not look,Nor yet be lured out of this book.For, long ago, the truth to say,He has grown up and gone away,And it is but a child of airThat lingers in the garden there.
Robert Louis Stevenson

Among his more famous poems is ‘Requeim’ that was published in his collection of poems called ‘Underwoods’

UNDER the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you 'grave for me:

Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

R. L. Stevenson died on December 3, 1894, which left his last writing ‘Weir of Hermiston’ unfinished. It was later on published in 1896.

This is what we can in the end (in Stevenson’s own words):

Leave not, my soul, the unfoughten field, nor leave
Thy debts dishonoured, nor thy place desert
Without due service rendered. For thy life,
Up, spirit, and defend that fort of clay,
Thy body, now beleaguered; whether soon
Or late she fall; whether to-day thy friends
Bewail thee dead, or, after years, a man
Grown old in honour and the friend of peace.
Contend, my soul, for moments and for hours;
Each is with service pregnant; each reclaimed
Is as a kingdom conquered, where to reign.

Albert Camus (7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960)

Albert Camus was born today (that is, November 7) in 1913. He was an Algerian-born, French author, philosopher and a jouralist. He won the Nobel Prize in 1957. He is remember for his especially remarkable 'The Stranger' (often titled as 'The Outsider'); among his other novels are - 'The Plague', 'The Fall'. He also wrote plays, short stories and essays.

Today as a tribute to this author on his birthday, I have created a poster with his picture, which I would like to share with my readers.

Reflection - a viewpoint

The word ‘reflection’ according to dictionary means different things – it is ‘a calm lengthy intent consideration’ (that is, contemplation) and ‘a remark expressing careful consideration’ (that is, observation) to quote only two of the various meanings of the word ‘reflection’.
If we take the word in terms of our life and our personality, we will find that what kind of life we are leading is nothing but a reflection of the type of personality we have. The fact that the scene of life changes the moment we change our outlook and attitude towards it, stand testimony to the declaration made in the previous sentence (to quote myself: “life is but a reflection of our personality”). Just as the image in the mirror reflects what we present before it, similarly our life is what we make of it.
We, as humans, are often apprehensive of the ‘self-assumed’ oncoming problems of our future life, so much so that sometimes the problem itself does not exist or is very negligible, and it is only our thinking that makes it all the more profound and so ensnaring. Charles Dickens has rightly remarked, “Reflect upon your present blessings - of which every man has many - no on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
To save ourselves of this trap of unhappiness or misfortune we should reflect upon the moments of joy that we have experienced in the past times. And we would find a sudden transformation. There would be miraculous escape from most of the problems and tensions of our life. This is possible because of that ‘inward glance’ because basically the answer lies within us; as it is said ‘It is all in mind’.
Trying knowing yourself and you’ll know the world in a much better way!

Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'

The name of Oscar Wilde needs no introduction. He was a poet, a playwright and the author of many short stories. But all of us are not aware of the fact that he tried his hand at writing a novel too. The only product of his penmanship in the form of a novel was ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, which was published in 1981, after being published as a story in a monthly magazine (Lippincott's Monthly Magazine) in 1890.

The novel is a classic example of the gothic horror fiction. The theme of the novel has a Faustian theme – the protagonist Dorian Gray wishes that his portrait would age rather than himself. And his wish is fulfilled. Then there is a series of sins.

The novel begins on a flowery note. What I mean by this will be obvious from the following opening lines:
“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.”

Here is another of the memorable quote from the book:
“ . . . there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

Expressionism

Expressionism is an anti-realistic mode of artistic expression that flourished in Germany from about 1910 through the 1920’s. The German Expressionist painters employed expressive devices – like sharply angular lines unknown in nature and objects endowed with unnatural colour – in an attempt to suggest a new perception of reality.
German expressionist dramatists such as Georg Kaiser, Ernst Toller and the early Bertolt Brecht, inspired by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg, avoided depictions of individualized characters in realistic settings. Strindberg’s ‘Dream Play’ with its fragmented, stylized action and its flowering castle, had shown the way to a new theatrical symbolism.
In general, the Expressionists rejected the imitation of external reality in order to express either a private, inner vision or a wider political one of a world often depicted as bizarre and violent.
In American drama, some of Eugene O’ Neill’s plays, particularly ‘The Emperor Jones’ (1920), ‘The Hairy Ape’ (1922) and ‘The Great God Brown’ (1926), with its use of masks, were influenced by Expressionism in their departures from certain realistic conventions of drama.
The term Expressionism is problematic since it can be used to describe virtually any of the deliberate distortions or departures from reality that pervade modern literature and art. Thus, the fragmentary construction of T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’, the symbolic metamorphoses of characters in Joyce’s ‘Finnegans Wake’ and Kafka’s ‘Metamorphis’ can be regarded as examples of Expressionism, but such an imprecise designation embracing so many disparate works, casts doubt on its usefulness as a literary description.

Woof Contest - Oct. 24

Top 5 writings in Woof contest hosted by PlotDog Press
Poetry
Romeo - “The Natural World” - A short poem about nature and its beauty.Jennifer M Scott - “Seeking Sun” - An avant garde poem about fall.
About Words / Writing
Kimota (Jonathan Crossfield) - “Time, Productivity and the Writer” - A look at how writing isn’t necessarily as quick to produce as many outsiders believe. Taking three hours to produce 100 words might seem odd, but is perfectly legitimate to produce quality copy.
Fiction
Ferox - “Is that a Dragon?” - Things must be observed to exist. Otherwise, they can be anything.
~willow~ - “it’s all a matter of perspective…” - …where a young girl knocks a new perspective into an otherwise downcast boy on a bright autumn day…

'Impressionism' in Literature

The term ‘Impressionism’ comes from the school of mid-nineteenth century French painting, which was in reaction to the academic style of the day. The Impressionists, as they called themselves, made the act of perception the key for the understanding of the structure of reality. They developed a technique by which objects were not seen as solids but as fragments of colour which the spectator’s eye unified. The basic premise involved was that “truth” lay in the mental processes, not in the precise representation of external reality.
The literary use of the term ‘Impressionism’ is, however, far less precise. Many of the French Symbolist poets have at one time or another been called Impressionists. In England, Walter Pater, concerned with aesthetic matters, used the term ‘impressionism’ in ‘The Renaissance’ (1873) to indicate that the critic must first examine his own reactions in judging a work of art. Arthur Symons felt that the Impressionist in verse should record his sensitivity to experience, not the experience itself; he should express the inexpressible. In Wilde’s ‘Impression du Matin’, perhaps influenced by Whistler’s painting, the Impressionist technique is apparent in the subjectivity of description.
In the modern novel, ‘Impressionism frequently refers to the technique of centering on the mental life of the chief character rather than on the chief character rather than on the reality around him. Writers such as Proust, Joyce and Virginia Woolf dwell on their character’s memories, associations, and inner emotional reactions. In ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’, for example, Joyce presents Stephen Dedalus’ unarticulated feelings but little of physical surroundings.

Jane Austen on Pride and Vanity

Jane Austen has been my one of my all time favourites ever since I was in school. Although we might say all of her novels have a limited area that they cover (as a critic has said 'she worked on six inches of ivory) but even in this restricted field she has given such valuable insights about human personality. It is not that we need a very wide canvas to convey our feelings and messages.
For instance, in her very famous novel 'Pride and Prejudice' she has remarked:
"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."
Now we can't have so clear a distinction between the meaning of the two words - Pride and Vanity - even from the dictionary itself.
So the next time you read a book by Jane Austen, locate the statements wherein lies the essence of reading the book. It is not whole book that we cherish later on after having read it. it is only for such meaningful statements that keeps it close to our heart.

'Brevity is Soul of Wit'

Shakespeare in his famous drama ‘Hamlet’ writes:

…brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,

I will be brief…

The phrase ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ owes its origin to this celebrated play of the ‘Bard of Avon’. But the phrase gained currency and now it has become a part and parcel of the host of standard English proverbs. But due to this generalization being applied to this phrase, the original context has been somewhat distorted. While the character of Polonius (in the play ‘Hamlet’), who utters these words is of very high opinion about his ‘wit’ yet he is the least witty and the least brief of all the characters. Sigmund Freud even went on to call him “the old chatterbox”, in his essay ‘With and its Relation to the Unconscious’.
For understanding the essence of the phrase ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ let us first try to comprehend what wit really means. The meaning of wit has undergone periodic change. In the Renaissance the word ‘wit’ meant wisdom or ‘intelligence’. Coming to the seventeenth century, it came to mean ‘fancy’, implying the kind of thought and language used in the metaphysical poetry, composed by the likes of John Donne.
Sometimes the word ‘wit is now used synonymously with ‘humour’ but this is only partially true. In the modern times the word ‘wit’ connotes intellectually amusing utterances. So we can safely say that with is human with a tinge of intellectual element, that is, a mixture of humour and wisdom.
Alexander Pope, while defining a true wit, has remarked “What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed”. This brings us to the association of the element of brevity with the concept of wit. Even in our daily life we often stand witness to the situations like – sometimes a person cracks a joke but nobody laughs, while at other times only a statement consisting only of a few words clicks and is able to evoke roars of laughter. This is where the role of brevity in wit comes in. Pithy and precise statements can exercise the desired influence. As opposed to this, humour gets lost in the downpour of words. Verbosity can never be the basis and soul of wit.
So be careful, next time you say something to make someone smile, make it brief!

Arvind Adiga wins Man Booker Prize 2008

Arvind Adiga has won the prestigious Man Booker Prize for the year 2008. The winning novel ‘The White Tiger’ is his debutant novel. He is among the very few who pocketed this award for their respective first novel. With this achievement he has joined the camp of Arundhati Roy (for ‘The God of Small Things’) and DBC Pierre (for ‘Vernon God Little’). This time the other debut novel in the race was ‘A Fraction of the Whole’ Steve Toltz’s first novel.
Adiga is the fourth Indian born author to win this prize after – Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, who won the prize in 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively (V.S. Naipul is not to be counted because not an Indian by birth). Adiga was born in Chennai (Andhra Pradesh) and now in Mumbai (Maharashtra, India). His novel, ‘The White Tiger’ is about the journey of a man from his rural life in an Indian village to achieving success in enrepreneurship.
So grab a copy of ‘The White Tiger’ and enjoy! I am certainly going to do so.

Get your copy here: The White Tiger: A Novel

Nobel Prize for Literature 2008 Announced

And finally the winner of the most coveted literary award, the Nobel Prize for Literature, has been announced. The French writer, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008. He is the first French writer to have accomplished this deed, ever since the Chinese-born French writer, Gao Xingjian won it in 2000.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was born on April 13, 1940. His father was a Mauritian doctor with a British citizenship and his mother was a French lady. He wrote his first novel at the age of 23, the book was entitled ‘The Interrogation’. Till date he has written more than 40 books, out of which 12 have been translated into English.
So what are you waiting for? Pick up a book by Le Clézio and bask in the glory of having read this Nobel Laureate, if you haven’t already.

'Waiting for Godot' as 'The Theatre of the Absurd'

The term ‘Theatre of Absurd’ was coined by Martin Esslin in his essay ‘The Theatre of Absurd’. The main exponents of this school were – Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Jean Genet. Although these writers oppose the idea of belonging to a particular school, yet their writings do have certain common characteristics on the basis of which they can be clubbed together in one category.
The term ‘absurd’ has also been linked to the mathematical term ‘surd’, which means a value that cannot be expressed in finite terms. In terms of literature, therefore, we can say that it refers to something that is irrational.
The concept of ‘absurd’ seems to have begun with Sartre’s philosophy. “The absurd is not a mere idea”, says Sartre, “it is revealed to us in a doleful illumination – getting up, tram, four hours of work, meal, sleep; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.” The idea is similar to what Camus expressed in his essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’. The point stressed here is, beginning all over again as if it were a new life. The actions of the absurd hero are meaningless and illogical.
In his play ‘Waiting for Godot’ Samuel Beckett presents before us a highly absurd situation of two tramps – Vladimir and Estragon – waiting for someone called Godot, who doesn’t come. Both the tramps follow the same routine everyday – come and stand under a tree, wait for Godot, indulge in some senseless activities, keep on waiting the whole day, decide to begin afresh the next day. Moreover, Act II of the play is a mere photocopy of the first act with only one or two changes. Lucky accompanied by his master Pozzo comes in the first act but in the second the situation is reversed – Lucky is the master, Pozzo is his slave, who is blind now. A boy comes to inform Vladimir and Estragon that Godot won’t come that day but he’ll definitely come the next day. In the second act too, a boy comes to deliver the same message. When asked by Vladimir and Estragon, he says that he’s the brother of boy, who came on the previous day. Through the repetitive pattern of the play, Beckett probably wants to drive home the point to the audience (now, readers) that the absurdity in man’s life makes him incapable of performing something new.
As far as the actions of the two tramps are concerned, they too are absurd. Estragon’s removal of his shoes, for instance, is an absurd as well as a funny scene. Their conversation also is on the absurdian lines of the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’. For example,

Valdimir: Let’s go
Estragon: Let’s go
(They both don’t move.)

Sartre was of the view that man is born in a void. The same idea manifests itself in the fact that Beckett’s characters stand outside the society. Here Beckett differs from the other ‘absurd’ writers, especially Adamov. Beckett’s characters stand outside the society as if rejected. But they converse with each other. On the other hand, Adamov’s characters stand within the society as outcasts and don’t converse with anyone.
It may however, be safely concluded that although the actions, event and dialogues are absurd, they are not completely meaningless. They do have a symbolic value. The theatre of absurd by presenting before us these ‘absurd’s situations wants to convey to us the essential absurdity of man’s life. Yet there is hope that ‘Godot might come tomorrow’.

Manuscripts Go Online

According to a report published in ‘The Independent’, the Manchester University’s John Rylands Library will enable access to many original medieval manuscripts (including portions of ‘Canterbury Tales’) online. This digitization will help to make available the manuscripts which are inherently fragile. For the first time it will be possible to compare our manuscripts directly with other versions of the text in libraries across the world. This will help to open new areas of research.
The process of digitization will begin in October this year. It will be done using a high definition camera. The results are expected by late 2009.
So we have a nice thing to look forward to!

More details at: The Independent

'Religion and Literature' - T.S. Eliot

The essay ‘Religion and Literature’ written by T.S. Eliot can be viewed as a reaction against the tradition of viewing a literary work from purely aesthetic point of view. Many critics, especially the New Critics, believed that literature is not to be valued for its ethical and theological significance. But T.S. Eliot held the opinion that only literary criticism was not sufficient. After a literary work has been viewed as a work of imagination, it should also be considered from ethical and theological point of view. It is all the more important in our age when there is no agreement on ethical and theological values. For ascertaining the greatness of a literary work, that work of imagination should be appreciated from ethical and theological angles.
Although literature has been judged from moral standards, yet it has been believed for a long time that there is no relationship between religion and literature. T.S. Eliot believes that there is and should be a relationship between the two. In his essay ‘Religion and Literature’ he has discussed the application of religion to literary criticism. According to Eliot the essay is not about religious literature, but he as a degression, mentions three types of religious literature. First, is the religious literature, which has literary qualities in it. For instance, the authorized version of the Bible or the works of Jeremy Taylor. Those persons, who describe Bible only as a literary work and talk of its influence on English literature, have been referred to as ‘parasites’. According to Eliot, Bible is to be considered as ‘word of God’. Secondly, he mentions devotional poetry. A devotional poet he says is not the one who treats the subject matter in the religious spirit, but the one who treats a part of the subject matter. Eliot considers poets like Spencer, Hopkins, Vaughan and Southwell as minor poets while Dante, Corneille and Racine as major poets. Thirdly, he states, are the works of authors who want to forward the cause of religion. These types of works come under propaganda, for instance, Chesterton’s ‘Man who was Thursday’ and ‘Father Brown’.
Eliot laments over the irrationality behind the separation of our literary and religious judgment. Exemplifying literature by the way of novel (as it has the effect upon the greatest numbers), he says this secularization has been a gradual process for the last three hundred years. Since Defoe the process has been continuous. The process can be divided into three phases. In the first phase fall the novels in which Faith is taken for granted and omitted from its picture of life. The author belonging to this phase are: Fielding and Thackeray. In the second phase novels, Faith is doubted, worried about and contested. It includes authors like George Eliot, George Meredith and Thomas Hardy. The third phase is the age in which we are living and authors included are all contemporary novelists except James Joyce.
This secularization is evident in the way a reader reads a novel – without caring for the effect it has upon one’s behavior. The common factor between religion and literature is behavior. Our religion imposes upon us ethics, judgment and criticism of ourselves, and our behavior with our fellow men. Literature too has an effect on our behavior. Whatever the intentions of the author, his works affect us wholly as human beings. Even if we read a literary work purely for aesthetic purposes (keeping our ethics and morality in a separate compartment), it affects us as human beings, whether we intend it or not.
Modern readers have lost their religious values. They don’t have the wisdom to be able to obtain knowledge of life, comparing one view against the other. Moreover, the knowledge of life that we obtain from fiction is not of life itself but is knowledge of other people’s knowledge of life. What adds to the problem is that there are too many books and the reader is confused. Only modern writers of eminence have an improving effect, otherwise the contemporary writers have an effect that is degrading. The reader must keep in mind two things – ‘what we like’, that is, what we really feel; and ‘what we ought to like’, that is, understanding our shortcomings. As honest men we must not assume that what we like is what we ought to like; and as honest Christians we should assume that we do like what we ought to like.
Eliot is mainly concerned with secularization of literature. It does not concern itself with things of spirit. It is simply oblivious or ignorant of the primacy of the supernatural over the natural world. Most of the books are written by people who have no real belief in supernatural order. Moreover, they are ignorant of the fact that the world has still many believers. It is the duty of the Christians to use certain standards in addition to those used by the rest of the world. If a Christian is conscious of the gulf between him and contemporary literature, he won’t be harmed by it.
Majority of the people consider economic ills as cause of all the problems and call for drastic economic changes, while others want more or less drastic social changes. Both types of changes are opposed to each other but a common point is that they hold the assumption of secularization. Some want the individual to subordinate his interests to those of the state. But Eliot does not agree with these people. Eliot does not complain about modern literature because it is immoral or even amoral but because it instigates people to try out every kind of experience and not to stay back or miss any. A Christian reader should add to the literary criticism followed by the rest of the world. He should, in addition, apply ethical and theological standards to it.

W.O.O.F. Contest - Top Five Writers

My post 'Honesty - Still the best policy' was selected among the top five writings in the W.O.O.F. Contest hosted by PlotDog Press.

Here are the top five picks for the September 26 contest.

Non-Fiction
1. Mike Fried - “Off the Deep End — AGAIN!” - A diatribe against PETA.
2. Amritbir Kaur - “Honesty - Still the best policy” - We have read the English proverb - Honesty is the best policy - very often ever since we were children. But it began to change meaning with the passage of time. Let’s find out its implications now.

Poetry
3. Sanjay Chhabria - “Tears” - A little touchy kind poem on tears. Walks you through describing the feelings undergone whenever you would cry.
4. Kayla - “Who is Your Star?” - How to recognize your guiding light.
5. Penelope Anne Bartotto - “The Gift” - A poem about Mother Nature’s gift.

Quotes by Scientists

“Give us the knowledge of laws of nature, and both future and past will reveal their secrets.” – Sir Issac Newton

“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.” – Galileo Galilei (the inventor of telescope)

“Thus the task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has thought, about that which everybody sees.” – Erwin Schrodinger (great physicist who studied quantum physics and waves)

“False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.” – Charles Darwin

“I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.” – Galileo Galilei

“Not only does God play dice, but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.” – Stephen Hawking (the British Physicist)

A Prayer

We often use Tennyson's line: "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. " But little attention do we pay to this fact that how less we pray. We actually don't God enough for the little things that we possess - those things are only assumed little by us because we never think of them that way.

Here I would like to share with my readers a nice little prayer I read on the internet:

O God, I thank You for this day of life

for eyes to see the skyfor ears to hear the birds

for feet to walk amidst the trees

for hands to pick the flowers from the earth

for a sense of smell to breathe in the sweet

perfumes of nature

for a mind to think about and appreciate

the magic of everyday miracles

for a spirit to swell in joy at Your mighty presence

everywhere.

A Prayer by: Marian Wright Edelman,

Founder of the Children's Defense Fund
Source of this prayer: Inspiration Peak

Man Booker Prize 2008 Shortlist

The following are the final six books that have made it to the final shortlist:
The much awaited Man Booker Prize shorlist was announced on September 9. The following are the list of books competing for the coveted prize:

Aravind Adiga’s ‘The White Tiger’
Read more about the book

Sebastian Barry’s ‘The Secret Scripture’

Read more about the book

Amitav Ghosh’s ‘Sea of Poppies’

Read more about the book

Linda Grant’s ‘The Clothes on their Backs’

Read more about the book

Philip Hensher’s ‘The Northern Clemency’

Read more about the book

Steve Toltz’s ‘A Fraction of the Whole’

Read more about the book

Honesty - Still the Best Policy

‘Honesty is the best policy’ – this is a statement that we have heard most often since as far back as we can remember. But its implications have been changing for us with the changing times. At the very onset we had learnt this statement only because we were told to do so by our society and the family. It had little meaning for us then. A little later, when we started school the import of this proverb was – not to steal others’ things and not to tell lies. By the time we reached middle or secondary stage the implications had been altered altogether. For our convenience we took it as a statement that excluded those lies that were spoken for someone’s good or those that did not cause harm to others. That is to say we could utter those lies. But as we reached college or university level, the statement began to seem more and more bookish and superficial to most of us. Here the question arises – Is this the correct approach? Certainly not. Honesty is still the best policy and will continue to stay so for all time to come.
Let us have a look at the concept of honesty. It is not an external quality. Being honest to ourselves comes first and then to those around us. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, former President of India, had rightly remarked, “Only the man of serene mind can realize the spiritual meaning of life. Honesty with oneself is the condition of spiritual integrity.” The policy of honesty works on the principle of give and take. If we are honest to others, only then can we expect others to be honest to us. It’s not very rare when we read in the newspapers that a person returned someone’s lost bag even knowing that it contained lakhs of rupees or other valuable things. If we want to get back our lost bags safely, we will have to return others’ bags gracefully.
The virtue of honesty is not at all a bookish concept. It is this honesty only that assists in taking the world forward in times of widespread corruption and falsehood. We generally believe that poverty leads to crimes. But there are poor who are honest to the core inspite of their extreme poverty. So we cannot sweeping statements like saying that the policy has lost its value or importance in the present day context.
As far as being honest to oneself is concerned, it entails being true in one’s heart of hearts, accepting the reality and facing the facts squarely. Moreover, being dishonest to ourselves means widening the gap between the divine presence and ourselves. The famous English poet, Alexander Pope, has expressed that “an honest man is the noblest work of God”. God is not a being; it is a force that is present in all of us. We keep on moving away from the inner light due to a veil of dishonesty and lies. William Wordsworth in his famous Immortality Ode has stressed upon the fact that a child carries with himself a tinge of the heavenly presence with him in childhood. But as he gets more and more involved in materialistic chores, he keeps on moving away from the feeling of the presence of a Heavenly force.
Honesty is just like the lighthouse – it guides the people so that they can safely sail away on the sea of life to the shore that is our final destination. Therefore making the children capable of honesty is wherein the essence of education lies.

“Is Life a Compromise?”

This question can never be fully answered to one’s satisfaction. But yes, life is an adjustment (by whatever name you call it). Ever since our birth we keep on making adjustments so that we are fit enough to survive in this highly competitive world. Even according to Darwin's theory 'only the fittest can survive'. So adjustment is only a medium to survive. Sometimes we don't even feel we are making any kind of adjustment. But in reality we are moulding ourselves according to the requirements.
Often a situation arises when we find that the conditions are not favourable for us. At that moment the trick lies in successfully manipulating the prevailing situation to turn it in our favour. This is also adjustment in the sense that we make do with whatever we have.
We all have certain dreams and aspirations – some fulfilled but many others that remain unfulfilled. But we have to digest the fact and go on in our lives. This is a compromise or adjustment so to say.
Nevertheless, calling life a compromise means too much delimitation of life and taking a very narrow and pessimistic kind of a view. The animals adjust to the climatic conditions prevailing. There are certain characteristic features present in them that help them to facilitate this adjustment. This is what we call life – the very essence of life. We humans make full use of the resources available to us.
So lead life as it comes by you; and make sure, you score a brilliant ten out of ten. This will ensure that you haven’t treated the adjustments you made as handicaps, rather converted the resources in hand to come out a winner.

John Gray's 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' - an overview

John Gray’s book ‘Men are from Mars, Women from Venus’ (published in 1992) is a book about improving the husband-wife relationship. So it is as relavant today as it was at the time of its published. In the word of John Gray himself this book “reveals new strategies for reducing tension in relationships and creating more love by first recognizing in great detail how men and women are different”. The difference between the two genders is not limited to only to a few areas; they are poles apart in the way they react to various situations, how they feel, think , perceive, respond, love and appreciate things. The difference is so wide that men and women seem creatures from two different planets as the title of the book itself suggests – ‘Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus’.
While going through the book I jotted down some major highlights of the bok wherein lies the essence of resolving the misunderstanding between men and women. At one place Gray writes, “Men mistakenly expect women to think, communicate and react the way men do; women mistakenly expect men to feel, communicate and respond the way women do.” But the fact is that there is a world of difference.
Gray has elaborated these differences in detail through his book. He begins it with a chapter giving us an overview of the concept of difference between men and women and also leading us to the detailed discussion that ensues. The book consists of thirteen chapters with chapters two to thirteen discussing one particular aspect each. In the second chapter he has discussed the tendency of women to become the ‘home-improvement committee’. She offers unsolicited advice and criticism; while on the other hand men try to reshape women’s feelings when they are upset. They offer solutions disregarding her feelings.
The second major difference between men and women is discussed in chapter three entitled ‘Men go to their caves and Women talk’, that is, men prefer to stay withdrawn in times of stress while women are more emotionally involved and talk openly about their problems.
The fourth chapter brings to light the fact that men need to feel that they are needed if they are to be motivated and women are at their best when they feel cherished.
Then in the next chapter Gray interprets for us the different language used by women and men. They may use same words but mean something that is entirely different. For instance, when a man is asked, “What’s the matter?” he will reply in something very brief like “It’s nothing” or “I am OK”. To put it into other words, instead of saying “I’m upset and I need some time to be alone”, they just become quiet.
In the next chapter, talking about relationships Gray describes ‘men as rubber bands’- how they pull away when women get close. If it was men being compared to rubber band in the next chapter it is the turn of the women to be likened to the waves – the rising and falling of a woman’s self-esteem is just like the movement of the wave - low at one moment and rising up at the other..
In the eighth chapter, ‘Discovering Our Different Emotional Needs’ the writer enlists different requirements of love or the types of love needed by men and women. He gives the following list:
Women need to receive: Reassurance, Understanding, Caring, Respect, Devotion and Validation.
Men need to receive: Trust, Acceptance, Appreciation, Admiration, Approval and Encouragement.
Next Gray gives tips on ‘How to avoid Arguments’, he gives four F’s to avoid arguments – Fight, Flight, Fake and Fold. Fight is the basic characteristic of the Martians (men). When their partner gives up they feel they have won indeed they lose at that time. Flight is also their characteristic they retire to their caves to avoid confrontations. Fake is the stance of the Venus. In order to pretend that there’s no problem a woman fakes a smile. Fold is also Venusian feature. Instead of arguing they give in.
Then it is about scoring points with the opposite sex. Gray enlists one hundred and one points on how to score with a woman. In chapter eleven, Gray elaborates on the methods of communicating difficult feeling. He discusses different types of letter writing. Chapter twelve entitled ‘How to Ask for Support and Get it’ stresses on the use of correct wording. The last chapter, ‘Keeping the Magic of Love Alive’ mentions the 90/10 principle in which ninety percent consists of past experiences and the rest of the ten percent the effect it has upon us. Gray is of the view that we need to cut down the 90 percent to keep magic of love alive.
Talking of the book in general it is overall a good reading. While reading the reader tries to relate himself to the behaviour described in the book whether he is a man or a woman. The book is a step towards improving the life of relationships and keep them ticking all through one’s life.

'Perspectives' by an Unknown Author

I want to share with my readers a story I read on the Net a few years back. Yesterday I came across a printout of the same in my file of such treasures. The story was attributed to an Unknown Author. Here it goes:
One day a father and his rich family took his young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son,
“How was the trip?”
“Very good, Dad!”
“Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked.
“Yeah!”
“And what did you learn?”
The son answered, “I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon.”
When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.
His son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!” isn’t it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humour and a positive attitude toward life, you’ve got everything!
You can’t buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions etc. for the future but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!

Thomas Carlyle - 'The Grand Old Man of Victorian Literature'

A Painting of Thomas Carlyle (www.paintingall.com)

Thomas Carlyle, famous for his ‘Sartor Resartus’, ‘The French Revolution, a History’, ‘Heroes and Hero Worship’, was a Scottish essayist, satirist and historian. Born on December 4, 1795, he was highly influential as a writer in the Victorian age.
David Gascoyne, a British poet, analyses in detail the writings of Carlyle in his book ‘Thomas Carlyle’ published in 1952, decades after the death of Carlyle in 1881. Gascoyne has called him as the “grand old man of Victorian literature”.

According to Gascoyne, "Thomas Carlyle was one of the sternest critics of the nineteenth century's special pride, the rise and progress of Democracy, yet he himself was one of the most striking examples of a kind of triumph which is thought to be one of Democracy's chief justifications."
In his book , ‘Chartism’ Carlyle expressed his views strongly on the topic of education in Britain:
“To impart the gift of thinking to those who cannot think, and yet who could in that case think: this, one would imagine, was the first function a government had to set about discharging. Were it not a cruel thing to see, in any province of an empire the inhabitants living all mutilated in their limbs, each strong man with his right arm lamed? How much crueler to find the strong soul, with its eyes still sealed, its eyes extinct so that it sees not! Light has come in to the world, but to this poor peasant it has come in vain. “
As far as his writings are concerned, Gascoyne places Carlyle between Soren Kierkegaard on the one hand and Walt Whitman on the other. He is of the opinion that both Carlyle and Kierkegaard were poets who wrote in prose.
Gascoyne concludes his book by categorically stating that “Carlyle cannot be claimed by the Left or by the Right. He was too faithful to the vision of ‘the Divine Idea of the World’ to be a partisan of any hard-and-fast ideology; more that heroism, he worshipped the Objective. This briefest of introductions to his writings to his writings has not attempted to give any idea of ‘The French Revolution’ or to do justice to Carlyle’s conception of History and the art of the Historian. Social and Literary Historians in general cannot yet be said to have done this fully either.”

For detailed study visit: Thomas Carlyle (Writers and their Works: No. 23)

The Alphabet for the Journey called Life - Post 3

…continued from the previous post (the concluding part now)

P for Pacifist
A pacifist is the one who is opposed to violence as means of settling disputes. He is a peace-loving fellow. Maintaining peace at all costs is the need of the hour, with so much violence all around the globe.

Q for Quiet
Being quiet doesn’t mean being isolated from the society around us or being a loner. It entails being at peace with oneself and satisfied with what one has.

R for Restful
Being quiet and restful are somewhat related with one another. Restful means not overreacting in different situations – neither being too loud in happiness nor feeling down in the dumps in testing times. We should possess a balanced attitude.

S for Sanguine
‘Sanguine’ means being confidently optimistic and cheerful. Being optimistic about the future solves half of our problems. And we would be much at ease with ourselves and with the day to day life.

T for Trustworthy
Being worthy of someone’s trust not only provides a boost to your reputation in the society but also uplifts your standing in one’s own eyes.

U for Unaffiliated
Unaffiliated means being independent – enjoying independence while taking decisions, that is, not being influenced by others or by the pressure exerted upon you by someone for his own vested interests.


V for Valiant
A valiant person means he is not only physically strong but mentally also. A healthy mind lives in a healthy body. So we can say that bodily valiance is also necessary. Simultaneously we should also possess a valiant heart so that we don’t bow to the undue influences exerted upon us.

W for Will-Power
Setting up a goal or an aim for ourselves is one thing and possessing the will-power for achieving the same is another. Both are incomplete without the other.

X for X-ray Personality
By X-ray personality I mean to say that we should have the capacity of looking beyond a person's exterior; trying to understand the feelings of other persons without their announcing them. It is more important but at the same time tough to understand the silence than words.

Y for Yearner
Yearning for something leads to our achieving or attaining that thing. If we have the urge then only can we be motivated to move further and reach closer to achieving our target.

Z for Zealous
Being zealous, that is, full of enthusiasm and eagerness is what has the capacity to help us to achieve new heights.

The Alphabet for the Journey called Life - Post 2

…continued from the previous post

F for Flexibility
We should be flexible and not rigid in the sense that we should be able to mould ourselves according to the need and the changing times. Then only can we expect to be successful. Changing with the need of the (the good change, of course) means not letting time overpower you.

G for Generosity
We should be generous not only in the monetary sense but in our behaviour and nature. We should be accommodating.

H for honesty
‘Honesty is the best policy’ is an old saying and is of much value even today. We should be honest not only to the people around us but also to ourselves. We should face facts squarely and not run away from the reality.

I for Inquisitiveness
A great secret of being successful is that we should always remain a learner. Inquisitiveness is a great quality to possess. We should have the hunger to know more and more.

J for Joyous
A joyous nature is like food for the soul. Taking life as it is and celebrating each day of life is what it takes to be joyous.

K for Kind
Kindness is such a virtue that we should never part with. Being kind does not at all mean that people befool you for your kindness. It also entails not being kind at the cost of one’s self-respect so that others don’t take you for granted. Being kind means being sensitive towards others and treating them at par.

L for Lamblike
A lamb is associated with the qualities of gentleness and meekness. We should be gentle not only towards our fellow human beings but also towards other creatures of nature. We should abstain from any kind of violence against them.

M for Morality
Morality is a quality that we should possess not only for the welfare of the society but also for ourselves; after all we answerable to ourselves also. Our actions speak for themselves.

N for Negotiator
We must all be good negotiators. We need this quality quite often in our day to day life – to defend our rights and to get what we deserve.

O for Openmindedness
An open mind can work wonders for us in terms of our standing in the society. It will raise our status no end and most importantly give the peace of mind. We’ll be free of the unwanted anxieties while being open-minded as then we won’t be entangled in the meaner things.

P.S. - will be concluded in the next post

The Alphabet for the Journey called Life - Post 1

A for Accomplishment
Life is a tale of accomplishments and failures. A combination of sunshine and shade. Accomplishment is what is left after we have lost what we had achieved. Your real gain is not the compliments paid by others to you directly but what people say about you behind your back. When people are jealous of you, take it for sure that you are on the right track. What is required is perseverant attitude towards achieving what you aim for.
'Accomplishment is the full blown rose of efforts', I have read somewhere.

B for Battle
Life is a battle. We all have to fight it to be a winner. It is just like the 'Survival of the fittest' theory of Charles Darwin. We have to take stand for ourselves or people will take us for granted.

C for Challenge
Life is a challenge. We all have to accept it and struggle to prove our mettle. Those who fail to accept it are labelled as failures. Each day brings to us a new challenge.

D for Daring
We should have the courage to face the world. A daring personality is the need of the hour.

E for Education
Education here does not mean only the formal education, which we get in schools, colleges or Universities. It also includes the skill of living - how to live in a society while maintaining a healthy attitude towards life.

to be continued...

Emily Dickinson's 'Success is Counted Sweetest'

SUCCESS IS COUNTED SWEETEST (the text)

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory
As he defeated--dying--
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!

Emily Dickinson’s poem ‘Success is Counted Sweetest’ is a short but a very meaningful poem. In the very first stanza she illustrates the universal truth – we value a thing the most when we don’t possess it ourselves. Success is the sweetest thing for those who fail and only that person can know what nectar is and what its true value is, who is in dire need of it.
The poet has used the scene of a battle that is over. She first talks of the side that has won. Not even one of the soldiers of the army of the winning side can so clearly define victory as the one belonging to the army that lost the battle.
In the third stanza, in continuity of the second stanza, she writes the soldier who is lying on the ground and dying can define victory in the most definite terms. The sounds and music of the celebrations of the winning army fall upon his hears – he can clearly hear the sound that is agonizing for him. Dickinson writes “forbidden ear” – forbidden because he has not qualified (by winning) for being able to listen to the sounds of victory.

Literary Jewels of Charles Dickens

Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies. (Great Expectations)

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.
(Great Expectations)

It is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it too.
(A Christmas Carol)

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
(David Copperfield)

The persons on whom I have bestowed my dearest love, lie deep in their graves; but, although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my heart, and sealed it up, forever, on my best affections. Deep affliction has but strengthened and refined them.
(Oliver Twist)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
(A Tale of Two Cities)

John Keats - His Great Odes

“Keats is probably the only romantic poet, apart from Blake, whose rank is conspicuously higher that it was in the nineteenth century”, says Douglas Bush. Selincourt finds his odes comparable to Shakespearean sonnets. Six of the odes are considered to be Keats’ major odes – To Autumn, To Psyche, To a Nightingale, On Indolence, On Melancholy and On a Grecian Urn. These odes have an underlying unity. They portray a common attitude towards life and revolve around a single central mood. They are different phases of a single experience.
In his odes Keats is poignantly concerned with the fleeting nature of beauty, joy and love. He is always pre-occupied with finding a way of perpetuating the ephemeral. For instance, in the two of his odes – ‘To a Nightingale’ and ‘On a Grecian Urn’, Keats suggests different methods to perpetuate the momentary joys. The urn is symbolic of beauty in the midst of human suffering.
They all take the poet away from the lazar house of life and a dull, perplexing human mind. In ode ‘To a Nightingale’ Keats laments about the transience of happiness in the real world:

Here, where men sit and hear each other groan
Where Palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs
Where youth grows pale, spectre thin and dies,
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow,
And leaden-eyed despair
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eye
Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow.

The poet suggests two ways to immortalize the blissful moments. First, he wishes for an “easeful Death” at the blissful moment to eternalize the bliss. Secondly, he wants to take the help of “the viewless wings of Poesy”, that is, poetry, to perpetuate happiness.
Similarly, in the ode ‘On a Grecian Urn’ the poet suggests the medium of art to perpetuate the fleeting moments of happiness. Art does so by lending them an unchangeable form and shape. In this ode, the poet has depicted the permanence of art versus the transitoriness of life. Even in his ode ‘To Psyche’ the poet aims at immortality the beauty of Psyche, by building a temple in her name in some “untrodden region of my mind”.
Keats’ odes are fine examples of a perfect paradox. The idea of joy in immortal beauty and acceptance of transience form the basis of Keats had mastered the technique synthesizing the two. Thus, the theme that recurs in all the odes is transience versus permanence. For example, in the ode ‘On Melancholy’, the poet mentions beauty, but not without an immediate realization of its short-lived nature. Talking of melancholy he says;
She dwells with beauty – beauty that must die
And Joy whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu...
…………………………………….
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil’d Melancholy has her Sovran shrine.
Another characteristic feature of Keats’ odes is that pain and pleasure exist together. Be it the “aching pleasure” of ‘To a Nightingale’, or “heart aches” of ‘On Melancholy’, pain (or melancholy) and pleasure (or joy) exists side by side. His ode ‘On Melancholy’ concludes with the idea that a person who has a sensitive heart, who understands the subtle joys can in the true sense enjoy melancholy.
Can burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.
The other common feature of all his odes is ‘negative capability’. This quality aims at objectivity amidst terrible personal suffering. It is the ability of identifying oneself with the experience. It aims at a negation of the self. It is related to the concept of beauty. The ability of discovering beauty in everything overpowers all other considerations, in the case of a great poet. In his ode ‘On a Grecian Urn’ Keats sums up as:
‘Beauty is truth, truth Beauty’ – that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know.
In his ode ‘On Melancholy’ identifies himself with what he describes, so completely that poet and the experience seem one. He renders the ode objective inspite of terrible personal suffering. In the odes ‘To a Nightingale’ and ‘On a Grecian Urn’, Keats faces the tragic dilemma of life with courage though he does not offer a proper solution to the dilemma. He can enter into the joy of the nightingale “too happy in thine happiness”. Even with an acute awareness of the mutability of human life he can still enjoy the “unheard melodies” and the “still unravished bride of quietness”.
We find a mature manner of introspection in his ode ‘To Autumn’. The poet accepts the inevitability of the three-fold cycle of life – birth, growth and death. Autumn is a season often symbolic of death and decay but Keats has portrayed it as a season of ripeness and fruition, a “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. Only once is the poet nostalgic about Spring:
Where are the songs of spring?
Ay where are they? but reconciles very quickly to say about Autumn: “Thou hast thy music too”.
The poet is aware that nothing exists in isolation. Spring, which is a harbinger of hope, birth and life, too is not eternal. Keats accepts Autumb as a part of the greater and more permanent rhythm of life – birth, growth, death and renewal.
The moment and eternity, in their essence, are one. Each and everything has a role to play in the total process. Death is accepted as something inherent in the cycle and ripeness implies dissolution. The problem of transience and permanence, thus, vanishes. Keats finds an earthly, human, natural paradise which “whoever seeks abroad may find”.

Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' - an Overview

‘The Tempest’ is a part of the last group of plays written by Shakespeare. The other plays included in this group are ‘Winter’s Tale’, ‘Cymbeline’ and Pericles. ‘The Tempest’ has also been called ‘Shakespeare’s last will’, as it expresses his opinion about the way we should live and opinion different from that en his tragedies and comedies. The play belongs to the category called dramatic romances. The play tries to answer the moral question – ‘How to live?’ It presents a moral lesson so much so that it has been labeled as a Morality Play. Critics have seen in Prospero a reflection of Shakespeare himself, a sage who after suffering all the anguish of the soul had decided on a reposeful retirement to Stratford.
“Forgiveness and freedom are the keynotes of the play”, says Dowden while it is Verity, who states “Forgiveness and Reconciliation are the keynotes of the play”. ‘The Tempest’ is the story of a wronged man, Prospero. His Dukedom of Milan has been usurped by his brother Antonio, who hatched the conspiracy with the co-operation of Alonso (King of Naples) and Sebastian (Alonso’s brother). Prospero is expelled from the country and sent on a boat so that ti may drown in the storm. It is by god’s grace that Prospero accompanied by his infant daughter Miranda safely reaches and island unharmed by the sea-storm. Living on this almost uninhabited island (the only ones living there were – Caliban, a half-monster and some spirits), Prospero continues his habit of reading books of magic which were placed in the boat by his honest minister, Gonzalo. Prospero acquires so much power that he can do anything. Using his powers he brings his enemies to the same island. But when the time comes to punish them he does not do so. Instead he arouses a sense of guilt in them. He tells Ariel that his enemies are repentant of their past misdeeds which ‘sole drift of mine purpose doth extend it not a frown further’. All that wanted his enemies was to have ‘heart sorrow and a clear life ensuing’, that is remorse and repentance for their past misdeeds and a vow to lead a sinless life in future. Prospero had probably realized that the virtue of forgiveness is greater that the quality of vengeance:
“…the sweetness doth life
In virtue than in vengeance”
- a truth that Shakespeare too had understood at the fag end of his writing career. Even in his last speech (after he throws his books of magic into the sea), Prospero seems to be echoing Shakespeare’s view.
Prospero forgives his brother Antonio, also the King of Naples, Alonso and Sebastian. The only revenge (if we can call it one) he has upon his enemies is that by using magic he made Ferdinand, son of Alonso (King of Naples) fall in love with and pledge to marry Miranda. After the reconciliation Prospero will be re stored back his Dukedom, and Miranda will inherit both the Dukedom of Milan and Kingdom of Naples. The reconciliation takes place between the brothers – Antonio and Sebastian too are repentant of their evil designs and King of Naples too reconciles. Apart from these, there are others too who are reconciled to their near and dear ones. Ferdinand and Miranda are together once again after Prospero had made Ferdinand work as a log-man. Alonso is too glad to meet his son Ferdinand; both had presumed each other to be dead.
Another dominant characteristic of the play is the element of freedom. The play begins and ends with the idea of liberty. In the very beginning of the play we are informed that Ariel was set free by Prospero. Throughout the play Ariel, the airy spirit, requests Prospero to free him. Prospero had got the island rid from the clutches of the witch Sycorax, Caliban’s mother.
Earlier even Caliban had been forgiven and let free by Prospero but we learn that Caliban had tried to outrage the modesty of Miranda. So he was made a slave by Prospero. But at the end of the play, both Ariel and Caliban are set free by Prospero.
We also find the dominance of these keynotes in the Ferdinand-Miranda love story. Ferdinand is made to work as a ‘patient logman’ by Prospero to test his sincerity. Later he is set free and reconciled with Miranda. As Dowden has put it: “Shakespeare was aware that no life was ever lived which does not need to receive as well as to render forgiveness.”
The play is a dramatic romance, different from Shakespeare’s early comedies and tragedies. In a tragedy the events take a turn for the worse for the hero and the play ends with the hero’s sufferings, rather death. In a comedy, all is gay, the events are favourable and play ends on a cheerful note. While in a dramatic romance, there is a twist in-between, events change from unfavourable to favourable resulting eventually into a happy ending for the protagonist. Thus to state the essence of the play Dowden’s words are the most suitable: “true freedom of man consists in service”. Shakespeare presents before us this truth in the form of ‘one of the most perfect plays’ (as Hazlitt has called it). The play is a summation of the whole experience of Shakespeare – the lessons life had taught him.

Wordsworth's 'The Stolen Boat' from 'Prelude'

'The Stolen Boat' (text)

( photo source: http://www.flickr.com/)

One summer evening (led by her) I found
A little boat tied to a willow tree
Within a rocky cave, its usual home.
Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in
Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth
And troubled pleasure, nor without the voice
Of mountain-echoes did my boat move on;
Leaving behind her still, on either side,
Small circles glittering idly in the moon,
Until they melted all into one track
Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows,
Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point
With an unswerving line, I fixed my view
Upon the summit of a craggy ridge,
The horizon's utmost boundary; far above
Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.
She was an elfin pinnace; lustily
I dipped my oars into the silent lake,
And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat
Went heaving through the water like a swan;
When, from behind that craggy steep till then
The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge,
As if with voluntary power instinct,
Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,
And growing still in stature the grim shape
Towered up between me and the stars, and still,
For so it seemed, with purpose of its own
And measured motion like a living thing,
Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,
And through the silent water stole my way
Back to the covert of the willow tree;
There in her mooring-place I left my bark,--
And through the meadows homeward went, in grave
And serious mood; but after I had seen
That spectacle, for many days, my brain
Worked with a dim and undetermined sense
Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts
There hung a darkness, call it solitude
Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes
Remained, no pleasant images of trees,
Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;
But huge and mighty forms, that do not live
Like living men, moved slowly through the mind
By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.

The poem ‘The Stolen Boat’ is an extract taken from Wordsworth’s long autobiographical poem ‘The Prelude’ consisting of fourteen books. This poem has been taken from Book I. the subtitle of ‘The Prelude’: ‘The Growth of a Poet’s Mind’ hints at the autobiographical nature of the poem. The poet describes his inner life out of which his poetry grew.
The given poem ‘The Stolen Boat’ is related to one memorable incident of his boyhood. The poet describes that one summer evening led by the promptings of Nature he found a little boat tied to a willow tree within a rocky cave where it was usually tied. He immediately untied the chain and after getting into the boat pushed it away from the shore. It was an act of theft and his pleasure was mixed with anxiety. When the boat moved on, there came echoing sounds (of warning) from the mountain sides. The boat left small circles of water gleaming idly under the light of the moon till all of them were mixed up and dissolved giving way to one single track of glittering light. But then, like a person who rows with a sense of pride in his skill to reach straight to a selected spot without any deviation, I fixed up my gaze on the peak of an uneven mountain range which formed the farthest boundary on the distant horizon. Above the poet there were nothing but the great sky and the stars.
The poet’s lovely boat seemed to have a fairy like appearance. He dipped the oars vigorously into the silent lake and as he rose up after the stroke to move it forward, his boat moved from behind that uneven range of the high hill which had so far seemed to him to be the boundary of distant horizon, a huge and black peak put its head up, as if it were a living being endowed with a will and a power of its own. He continued to row on and on over the calm lake but slowly growing larger in stature the awful peak with its towering height seemed to stand between the poet and the stars. It seemed to the poet as if the peak was a living creature following him with regular steps with some fixed purpose of its own. With the oars trembling in his hand he changed his course and moved on silently over calm surface oof the lake to be back to the shelter of the willow tree.
The poet left the boat at the place where it was earlier tied and went back to his home in a serious and thoughtful mood through the grassy fields. But many days after he had seen that striking sight, his mind was haunted by a vague and strange feeling, that in nature there were mysterious forms of life beyond the knowledge of man. His mind was clouded by a deep darkness and all previous knowledge was wiped out. He was without any impression of all previously known objects and pleasing sights like that of trees, sea sky or of colours of green fields. Only huge powerful forms and shapes whose mode of life is absolutely different from that of man, haunted his mind during the day and also troubled the poet in his dreams at night.
The poet in the last stanza addresses wisdom and Spirit of the universe. He calls it as eternal as human thought and says that it transmits life and everlasting movement to all objects and forms. It was not in vain that from his earliest days of infancy by day as well as by starlit night it took up0on itself the task of shaping an intimate relationship between the human passions in my soul and high and everlasting things of nature and not the temporary and vulgar creations of man. Thus, by this mode of interlinking it refined elements of the poet’s feelings and of thoughts and through proper control and training lent a sacred quality to both pain and fear. And finally led him to recognize the grandeur and loftiness in the human heart beats.
Hence in this poem, an experience of his boyhood brings upon a poet a profound awareness of the wisdom and spirit of the universe.

Charlotte Bronte's Message of Peace

Charlotte Bronte’s quote:
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs”,
taken from her famous novel ‘Jane Eyre’ gives us a message of being at peace with ourselves and with others. Animosity (meaning ‘bitter hostility’) is such a negative emotion that it should never become the cause of our actions, that is, the guiding factor of our deeds. The wrongs committed should not be recorded permanently but indeed they need to be forgotten as soon as possible with no ill-will against its source. Although it is said than done, yet for something to happen we at least should give it a try. If we don’t ever try nothing will happen. So start forgetting all the negative things happening to you.

The University Wits

The term University Wits is applied to a group of scholars, who wrote in the closing years of sixteenth century. They arrived in London from Oxford and Cambridge University and significantly influenced the development of Elizabethan literature. The group included – John Lyly, George Peele, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Nashe and Thomas Kyd (he was also a part although he had studied at the Merchant Taylor’s School – an excellent place in itself).
At the time when the University Wits entered the scenario of the English drama, one of the prevailing traditions was the imitation of ancient Roman drama, for example, ‘Gorboduc’ and ‘Ralph Roister Doister’. The native tradition at that time was devoid of the artistic excellence of classical Greek and Roman drama. The special quality of the University Wits was that although they too looked up to the classical drama and had also woven the general pattern of the drama into their creations, yet they did not imitate it blindly. They gave to the English stage a kind of romantic drama, which became a source of inspiration for Shakespeare later on.

John Lyly (1554-1606) is the most famous for his prose romance ‘Euphues’. In all he wrote eight plays. In his plays he used a mixture of prose and poetry – symbolic of the coming together of the worlds of reality and romance.

Robert Greene (1558-92)) – The most interesting of the five plays written by Greene is ‘The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay’. The other plays penned by him are:
(i) The Comical History of Alphonsus King of Aragon
(ii) A Looking Glass for London and England (written jointly with Lodge)
(iii) The History of Orlondo Furioso
(iv) The Scottish History of James, the Fourth

George Peele (1558-97)) – The following are the five plays penned by Peele:
(i) The Arraignment of Paris (a pastoral play)
(ii) The Battle of Alcazar (a romantic tragedy)
(iii) The Famous Chronicle of King Edward, the First (a chronicle play)
(iv) The Love of King David and Fair Bathsheba ( a kind of mystery play with a Biblical theme)
(v) The Old Wives’ Tale (a romantic satire on the current dramatic verse)
The variety that can be observed from the plays (belonging to different categories of dramas) we certainly say that Peele was a versatile writer.

Thomas Kyd (1557-97) – His only play ‘The Spanish Tragedy’ for which he used the Senecan model of a revenge tragedy. Some characteristic features of a revenge tragedy – murders, bloodshed, dreadful incidents, ghosts etc. – were all present in ‘The Spanish Tragedy’. But at the same time the drama was a departure from the Senecan tradition. Most of the action is reported in Senecan tragedy whereas it takes place on stage in Kyd’s drama. Even otherwise Kyd’s tragic hero was a departure from the prevailing tradition – he did not belong to the royal class rather he was an ordinary being. By introducing the quality of introspection in his hero he set up a precedent for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Christopher Marlowe (1564-93) – Marlowe has been called to be the most talented among the Wits. He wrote:
(i) Tamburlaine, the Great
(ii) Doctor Faustus
(iii) The Jew of Malta
(iv) Edward, the Second
(v) Parts of ‘The Massacre at Paris’ and ‘Dido Queen of Carthage’
Marlowe took the subject matter to a higher level – he used ambition as the theme instead of the revenge theme of Seneca. He showed the presence of a certain flaw in his hero – on the lives of the idea of a tragic hero of Aristotle. His effective use of the blank verse as the medium added another feather to his cap.

Among the lesser known University Wits were Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) and Thomas Lodge (1558-1625). According to the critics they have not contributed much to the growth of English literature.

Plotdog weekly contest July 18

PlotDog Press has weekly writing contest in which my post “The Elizabethan Sonnet" was also entered but it didn't make it to the top.However, below is the list of the winners. They're all very commendable sites.
Woof Winners: Writers Offering Our Finest for 18 July
WOOF Contest - Top 5 Picks:
About Writing and Author Interviews / About Poetry
Kimota - “How to Become a Writer - the Harsh Reality”
Annetta Ribken - “Finding The Time To Write”
Robert Stevenson - “For improved writing think visually”
Qugrainne - “Cluttered Desk, Cluttered Mind, Clear Desk…….”
Flash/Fiction – Serial Fiction
Jennifer M Scott - “In Pursuit of Jack”
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PLOTDOG PRESS FEATURING: "Stephen King’s BonesIf anyone of you would like to enter, just visit http://plotdog.com/woof-contest.