Adrienne Rich, award-winning feminist poet dies at 82

Adrienne Rich (1929 - 2012

 The news of death of Adrienne Rich, an American poet, essayist and feminist, pulled be back to a reading of her works. As I have always said, rather than discussing a writer's biographic facts in detail (which are available at any website or book), it is more important to discuss his/her literary writings. This especially behoves a literary website like Literary Jewels

She died on 27 March, 2012.

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

My swirling wants. Your frozen lips.
The grammar turned and attacked me.
Themes, written under duress.
Emptiness of the notations.

They gave me a drug that slowed the healing of wounds.

I want you to see this before I leave:
the experience of repetition as death
the failure of criticism to locate the pain
the poster in the bus that said:
my bleeding is under control

A red plant in a cemetary of plastic wreaths.

A last attempt: the language is a dialect called metaphor.
These images go unglossed: hair, glacier, flashlight.
When I think of a landscape I am thinking of a time.
When I talk of taking a trip I mean forever.
I could say: those mountains have a meaning
but further than that I could not say.

To do something very common, in my own way.


NOTE: Submit your viewpoints about the poem. Let's start a literary discussion...Keep watching this space for more insights into this writing and much more...

W.H. Auden's 'If I Could Tell You'

W.H. Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973), who is best known for his long poem ‘The Age of Anxiety’, also wrote, among other books of poetry, essays, plays etc., scripts for films. He also wrote the drama ‘The Ascent of F6’ and ‘The Dog Beneath the Skin’ in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood (who also had been his companion). Anyway my purpose of writing this post is not to explore his life history. I present here one of his most beautifully written poem entitled ‘If I Could Tell You’:

 

If I Could Tell You

Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose all the lions get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know. 

 After going through this poem, I was reminded of dying Hamlet’s last lines in  Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’:

"Had I but time…
…O, I could tell you--
But let it be. . . . "

Another message that has been expressed is that there are some things which cannot be expressed through words, they have to be understood - the things, which even time won't explain. They have to be realised by ourselves only. They are probably the things that are left unsaid. But then, even silence communicates.

John Updike dies at 76

John Updike, the American poet, novelist, short story writer and a literary critic has died of Lung Cancer. He battled with this disease but was all the while quiet in public, it was on January 27 that he lost this battle. He was 76. He is particularly famous for his Rabbit series among which are included: Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit At Rest and Rabbit Remembered.

He was a religious man with a shy and modest nature. He was living in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts with his second wife. Only a few weeks ago, he told an interviewer that he had no intentions of retiring and was just "showing signs of mental deteoriation" (as quoted by Telegraph).  Catch a glimpse of his books  on Amazon at: John Updike's Books

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.

George Carlin's View on Aging

I am presenting here an e-mail I received with the views expressed on aging by George Carlin, a Grammy-Award winning American actor, comedian and an author. It has been said that these are those expressed by Carlin but anyway, I hope you enjoy reading these well-worded lines. Every statement is worth reading:

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You’re never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away.

Before you know it, you REACH 50

And your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60. You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90's, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

'The Grapes of Wrath' - A Study in Detail (Part II)

(Part I – see previous post)

Steinbeck in this epoch-making novel ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ has also described the concept of ‘oversoul’. Many philosophers and men of religion, not only in America but also in other parts of the world, have expressed their belief that there is an ‘oversoul’ of which all human beings are parts. In ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ this idea has been given a practical shape when the Joad family, after many deaths and separations, realizes that the only way of being happy in this world is to love others like oneself and help them as far as possible. Steinbeck has Casy rephrase Emerson’s concepts of the Oversoul and self-reliance. He helps unite the prisoners in California jail when they effectively protest against the sour food there and his death during the abortive strike at the Hooper ranch results in more determination on the part of those who survive him, including Tom.
Emerson, a great American poet, had earlier expressed his belief in the existence of and ‘oversoul’. Steinbeck has taken that validity in this novel. There are several incidents in the novel that demonstrate Emersonian concept of self-reliance. The Joads show this quality when they nurse their sputtering truck and the Wilsons’ car along Highway 66 to California. Casy declares that he cannot repair broken connecting-rods but Tom and Al can. The common people can also dig graves rig tents, grind valves, repair flats, find food where almost none exists, pick peaches and cotton, nurse babies and cook breakfast simultaneously, lay pipe underground and so on. They relish work. They want neither organized psalm-singing nor organized hand-outs. They want to earn their food by sweating for it. So Steinbeck places his faith in the little man and his instinctive ability to get together with others like himself for survival against the opposing forces of nature and the profit system.
The ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ deals with problems like social, political, economic and agrarian, side by side. Steinbeck has pointed to the inner emotional, ethical and spiritual state and the various phases of life, that is, the natural and social forces. It has cosmic dimensions and universal significance. It explains why the social, moral and religious framework of American society has been given a thematic extension which takes into stride the whole of mankind. The Joad family stands for the movement of humanity from a particular position to an ever-growing social, moral and spiritual state of universal love; self-centred individuality is left behind to achieve universal dimension. Joads always dream of happy home where no one would sterve as he is living a life and this dream becomes a symbol of man’s desire to escape from the prevailing condition to a happy and prosperous future. All the characters are lost in their own selves. They feel alienated. There is darkness all around because of individualism. In the end, there is light of knowledge, everybody tries to come out of the cocoon and identifies himself with the “bigger-self”.
Steinbeck seems to be saying ‘give the common man a chance and there will be enough to go around’. Like Jefferson, Whitman and Sandburg, the author of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ trust the people. Jefferson deplored federalism and advocated agrarian democracy. Whitman made a religion out of his worship of man en-masse. Sandburg delighted in the little guy’s endurance. The novel also seems to be an extension of Whitman’s philosophy of looking at the masses like one’s own self (“One’s self I sing…the word en-masse”).
Steinbeck has also presented a case of government’s intervention in the prevailing circumstances. He dows not seem to be against the mechanization of the agriculture but he is certainly against the inhuman practices which forced millions to uproot from their age-old homes. Apart from mechanization, the other cause of misery of the workers was the bank. At many places banks and tractors have been presented as big devils.
A significant comment has been made by the author in the twenty-ninth chapter of the novel: “The break would never come so long as fear could turn into wrath.” Symbolically this statement sums up the meaning of the whole novel. It signifies that till people continue to fear their exploiters and other cruel forces, the ‘grapes’ will remain sour for them. But when they get united and turn their fear into wrath against their exploiters, the grapes would turn sweet. In other words, the author seems to be suggesting that unless the workers unite themselves against exploitation and man-made misery, their plight will only worsen without any hope of remedy.
There have been varied opinions about the novel. An association of farmers in California denounced it as “obscene sensationalism” and “propaganda in its vilest form”. The book was banned in some city libraries. But with such publicity the book became the bestseller in most of the stores. While some considered it “a heaven-shaming and Christ insulting book”, the other extreme may be represented by the view that it is a “truthful book of literary as well as social value, resembling in power and beauty of sytle, the King James Version of the Bible.”
‘The Grapes of Wrath’ is not only a novel of a contemporary problem rather it is as valid today. It it were simply a novel of social protest, it would now be as dead as Upton Sinclair’s ‘Jungle’ and Ida Tarbell’s ‘History of the Standard Oil Company’. If it were as inartistic as most proletarian fiction of 1930s, once startling examples of which one can hardly even name today, it would certainly not continue to be the steady publishing success it is. Like Stephen Crane’s ‘Red Badge of Courage’, which is about a specific war of a century ago, it is also a parable of fear overcome and as such appeals universally to generations of readers. ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ has an appeal which is timeless. It owed its inception to a specific crisis which no longer plagues the nation. But in the process of dramatizing that problem and suggesting ways in which it should be combated, Steinbeck gave us a gripping novel with enduring characterization and a message which is timeless. Ma Joad, Tom Joad and Jim Casy – and in lesser ways the others as well – enact for us a story of the unending struggle of men of good will to make the promise of the land a living reality.

'The Grapes of Wrath' - A Study in Detail (Part I)

The Grapes of Wrath is a strongly sustained social and political narrative that provides and accurate and faithful description of a critical period in American history. The novel is a post-depression novel and the writer John Steinbeck’s epic masterpiece of social consciousness in its picture of helpless people crushed by drought and depression. The novel is usually described as a novel of social protest, for it exposes the desperate conditions under which one group of American workers, the migratory farm families, was forced to live during 1930s.
In the depths of the greatest economic depression these people had to abandon their homes and their livelihoods. They were uprooted and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing the Southern cotton fields and because erosion and drought were creating the Dust Bowl in wide areas of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. While many of the families moved only short distances, yet one hundred and fifty thousand moved to California, Steinbeck’s hometown, where their presence caused acute social stresses. The migrants were eager to obtain work but many landed properties took advantage of their poverty and distress, by hiring them at starvation wages and treating them with great brutality. They were denied even the most elementary human and civil rights. As part of the exploitation the land owners tried to suppress all attempts at organization by the migrant workers – who were contemptuously referred to as “Okies”. It was not until 1937, that they were able to form small groups for self-protection.
In the novel, Steinbeck has depicted the devastating impact of the great economic depression on the Joad family. The family is uprooted from its age old environs due to drought and dusty storms as well as due to the introduction of tractors and other mechanical means to be used for ploughing and harvesting in place of manual labour. Thousands of families of landless workers left Oklahoma to seek employment in California. But even there the treatment meted out to them is no better. They are at the best treated as the guinea pigs by their new ‘hosts’, who exploited them in every possible manner. They had been lured with the help of hand-bills to come to California saying that there was a lot of work at higher wages. But what they received was only exploitation by labour contractors and violence from the deputies, who acted at the behest of the rich landlords.
The Joads like others were forced to starve and remain out of work for long spells. Yet they did not lose courage and hope. They continued to persevere in the hope that someday they will be able to get a better deal. Thus, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ is a story of perseverance, determination, sufferings and miseries, which was the destiny of not only of the Joad family but also of lakhs of their brethren.
Superficially, the novel seems to be a story of a contemporary problem. But it transcends the time-barrier in the resolution provided to the problem by the author. Steinbeck preaches the lesson of ‘togetherness’ in order to fight against the man-made sufferings. He believes that unless people come together and feel the sufferings cannot be mitigated.
The Joad family particularly Ma Joad, Tom Joad and Jim Casy are the representatives of this philosophy of Steinbeck. Ma has little food to feed her own family, but she shares her little with her fellow “have-nots”. When she learns of a cotton-picking job, she communicates that knowledge to the Wainwrights, with the result that the Joads actually earn less money. Tom, who had been and individualistic character in the earlier chapters of the novel also learns this lesson of ‘togetherness’, in order to fight afainst the man-made sufferings. Rose of Sharon on Ma Joad’s asking feeds a dying old man to save him.
It is this feeling of togetherness among the displaced people that keeps the bits of their lives together and they are able to fight against the repressing conditions prevailing there.

Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening’

Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening’

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

This poem has been undoubtedly my most favourite poem ever since I read it in my school days. The beauty of this poem lies in its simplicity. Frost wrote this poem in June 1922. He was inspired by the sight of a sunrise to write this poem, after spending the whole night writing a long poem. This is also one of Frost’s favourite among his own poems. In a letter to Lord Louis Untermeyer he called it "my best bid for remembrance."
The situation of the poet is of a person caught between Nature and civilization. The speaker is fascinated by the woods but he cannot stop here for a long time he has some obligations; he cannot ignore the pull of the civilized world. He has two choices before him just like he had in ‘The Road not Taken’.
Critics have interpreted the poem from their own point of view. The debate still goes on. Some have given it negative shades by stating that it is a poem of death, with the woods symbolizing suicide and poet resisting it. Herbert R. Coursen, Jr., has interpreted the poet as Santa Claus, who has to fulfill the promise of delivering the gifts.
It has also been argued that the repetition of the last line is also significant. The first time the poet writes: “And miles to go before I sleep”, he wants to suggest that he has many duties to be fulfilled till he reaches his house and can rest. But when he repeats the line, it has been taken to mean that the poet symbolically refers to life and death – the poet suggests that he has a long time to live before he dies.

Robert Frost’s ‘Acquainted With the Night’

Robert Frost’s ‘Acquainted With the Night’ is a poem that moves about in a twilight world as far as choices available in life are concerned or when it concerns taking a firm stand on an issue. It is a poem about the darker side of things and portrays the poet’s isolation.
The poet in this poem describes the comings and goings of a person walking about on the city roads. The poet has even braved the rain and wandered around on the city roads. He even walked upto the outskirts of the city. The poet even refers to the ‘saddest city lane’. He has seen the watchman while on his beat in these lanes. The poet saw some immoral activities being performed but he does not specifically mention them. Instead his eyes were dropped down with shame.
The poet then stands still and the sounds of a cry fall upon his ears. The cry comes from a distant place and is also not continuous. The interrupted nature of the cry symbolizes suppression. The cries were neither to welcome nor to bid farewell to the poet. And then talking about the ‘luminary clock’ of the sky, the moon, the poet doesn’t clearly pass a judgement whether the time was right or wrong. The poet was simply familiarized with the immoral nature of night in the city slum areas.

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini, American novelist and physician, is the writer of the bestseller, his debut novel, ‘The Kite Runner’ (2003). ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ was released on May 22, 07. The author and his family migrated from Afghanistan after seeking political asylum. ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is about two women Miriam and Laila – how their lives are connected later on and they suffer together.
The author has portrayed the pitiable condition of women in the society of Afghanistan. Inhuman treatment is meted out to them especially to the characters of Laila and Miriam. Miriam’s mother, Nana too was on the receiving end. The discriminating practice against women – their wearing ‘burqa’ – has also been highlighted. The character that stands out from the rest is that of Miriam. She is an epitome of sacrifice. She proves to be equal to ‘a thousand splendid suns’. The author quotes two lines of poetry:

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

Although these lines have been said about their home country Afghanistan, yet they are completely suitable ccording to the character of Miriam. She brings hope and something to look forward to in the lives of Laila and her kids.
The novel reaches its climax when Miriam is hanged for murdering her husband. The author has aptly summed up Miriam’s last thoughts before her condemnation to the gallows:

“Miriam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing , a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Miriam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate belongings.”

These words, I feel, sum up the whole life of Miriam.

John Grisham's 'Playing for Pizza'

John Grisham's next book 'Playing for Pizza' is being released on September 24,07. I myself am eagerly waiting for the release.

Here I am presenting some excerpts from the press release:

PLAYING FOR PIZZA is a short novel about a fallen American football star who can no longerget work in the National Football League and whose agent, as a last resort, signs a deal for him toplay for the Parma Panthers, in Parma, Italy. The quarterback’s move to a small city in a foreignland leads to a series of cultural misadventures. The idea for the novel grew out of time Grishamspent in Italy researching his last novel, The Broker, which was set in Bologna.


Here's what Grisham himself has to say:

“I was pleasantly surprised to find real American football in Italy,” says Grisham, “and as I dugdeeper a novel came together. The research was tough – food, wine, opera, football, Italian culture– but someone had to do it.”

P.S. To read an excerpt from novel click here

Playing For Pizza (Limited Edition): A Novel

'The Grapes of Wrath'

‘The Grapes of Wrath’, one of the landmarks in not only American fiction but also in world literature. It was written by John Steinbeck in 1939. It was one of the post-depression novels of Steinbeck. The economic depression of 1930, had taken heavy toll by the means of mass unemployment and migration, of people from eastern to south-western parts, in large numbers. The author has, in this novel, narrated the impact of that depression on socio-economic life of poor people. ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ is thus, chiefly a long panorama of suffering and misery of Joad family, who, like thousands of others, migrated to California in the south-west. Steinbeck has used a number of symbolic allusions including the title – ‘The Grapes of Wrath’.
The title has been borrowed from the song ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ written by Julia Ward Howe. The ‘grapes’ here are symbolic – they may be sour as well as sweet. While the sour grapes are unpalatable, the sweet ones are liked by all. In the novel there are both kinds of grapes – sweet and sour. Grampa is always dreaming of going to California and taste sweet grapes in order to regain his vitality. But the grapes remain sour for him as he dies on his way to those green pastures. Infact, the grapes remain sour for the entire Joad family and other migrants, because they didn’t get what they had hoped for.
Another symbolic aspect of the grapes is apparent from the significant comment made in the twenty-ninth chapter of the novel:

“The break would never come so long as fear could turn to wrath.”

This statement symbolically sums up the whole essence of the novel. It implies that until the people rise against their own fears, concerning their exploiters and other cruel forces, the ‘grapes’ will continue to remain sour for them. The only way is to unite against the exploiting forces and demand the rights of the workers.
Hence, in a way the grapes symbolize the fruits of labour. ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ will be sweet when wrath, that is, anger is shown against the exploiters. Thus, in this way the title is a very precise and apparent way is related to the very theme of the novel and is also the most suitable.

Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

Recently I was lucky enough to lay my hands upon Oscar Wilde's play 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. I had earlier read this play, I don't know how many years ago. But any way it was a real funny experience. All of us need to have such breaks while reading serious literature.This play was very famous in America also. The play 'The Importance of Being Earnest' is sheer comedy, at moments it is just hilarious. There is a touch of realism too. The conversation that takes place is so natural and spontaneous. It is so close to real life that it could have happened anywhere.

The incident - when Gwendolen and Cecily decide to remain quiet when Jack and Algernon come but are first ones to break the silence with their questions put forward the moment the latter two enter - is not only comic but also shows the universal human nature of reacting overenthusiastically, of uncontrollable inquisitiveness.

There is a use on irony also to create humour. The word 'earnest' as in the title 'The Importance of Being Earnest' means 'honest'. The Christian name referred to in the play is 'Ernest', that again hints at the same word 'earnest'. But Gwendolen and Cecily are bent upon marrying a person whose Christian name is 'Ernest'. Both Algernon, who wants to marry Cecily, and Jack who wishes to marry Gwendolen, are ready to get christened for the sake of their marriage to their beloved partners. Both have at some time called themselves by the name Ernest (pretended to have Christian name of Ernest). But in reality they have not been honest.The final comment of Jack :

"I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest."

is very meaningful. Even a few speeches earlier he had said: "...it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing bu the truth..."

Toni Morrison's quote

I want to produce a few lines from Toni Morrison's masterpiece 'The Bluest Eye':

"And now when I see her searching the garbage - for what? The thing we assassinated? I talk about how I did not plant the seeds too deeply, how it was the fault of the earth, the land, of our town. I even think now that the land of the entire country was hostile to marigolds that year. This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seed it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live. We are wrong, of course, but it doesn't matter. It's too late. At least on the edge of my town, among  the  garbage and the sunflowers of my town, it's much, much too late."

Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye'

Toni Morrison was the eighth American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her novel are characterized by epic themes, elaborately sketched African-American characters and vivid dialogues. She won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 for her novel, 'Beloved'. Her other famous novels include 'The Bluest Eye', 'Song of Solomon'.

The last book I read was Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye'. In 2000 this novel was selected for Oprah's Book Club.

The story has been narrated from the perception of Pecola, her mother, her father, her friend Claudia and Soaphead Church. This book has been attempted to be banned in schools and libraries because of its controversial nature of its themes of racism and child molestation.The way she begins her story saying that there were no marrigolds that season, suggests that there was something evil happening on that land. It also reminded of T.S. Eliot's line: "April is the cruellest month"('The Wasteland').

Morrison writes in 'The Bluest Eye':

"The damage done was total. She spent her days, walking up and down, her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. Elbows bent, hands on shoulders, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air, a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach - could not even see - but which filled the valleys of the mind."

What beautiful lines yet so poignant! They summarize the tragedy of Pecola.

We have no time to stand and stare

How many of us ever spare a minute to glance at the clouds changing their shapes? Sit in the moonlight for a while? Keep a pot of water in the garden for the birds? There would be a selected few who would answer in an affirmative. While watching clouds once, I gave it a thought that it actually sets the reigns of our imagination free. And is indeed an exercise of our brain.

W.H.Davies in his poem 'Leisure' wrote:

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

The sight of the full moon is thought provoking and entertaining as watching the birds come to your house to drink water from the pot. Then there is the "never ending line" of flowers in the garden. But things have come to such a pass that small kids take the planetorium to be the original thing and the star-studded sky, just a facsimile copy. This is bound to happen when the kid has seen a planetorium first and not the starry night's sky.

The Innocent Man -- in my words

'The Innocent Man' is the first work of non-fiction by the celebrated author John Grisham. Here is an account of the book in my words, to share with those who have gone through the book.
            The first question that arises is: how do we define an innocent man? Is innocence dependant on the not so flawless law? The fact is that a person can be innocent irrespective of his conviction by the court. A condemned convict can be innocent and the one freed from the charges can be a guilty. Till date many innocent men may have been hanged. As we start reading the book we feel as if we are reading the life story of a would-be criminal himself - his lifestyle, his habits, his misdeeds. Ron seems to be the fit candidate for this murder charge. His case is an example of a life gone awry, a life that might have bloomed. As Christopher Marlowe says in his drama 'Doctor Faustus':

"Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,
That sometime grew within this learned man."

But as we read forward our sympathy lies with Ron and Dennis. They are helpless at their trial. There is no physical evidence against them - all the evidence is either fabricated or flimsy.
The description of the life of Ron and Dennis in jail is pathetic. Our heart goes out to them. Ron's yelling about his innocence is heart-rending. The behaviour of the guards towards him incites anger in us -- not only their teasing him but also giving him strong medicines to keep him quiet. These had negative effect on Ron's health.
                  The intelligence of Dennis has also been highlighted. He studied law when he was in
jail. The years spent by Ron while he was on death row were the most difficult ones. Any sane man could have gone mad.