LitAide

My Mother At Sixty-Six The poem "My Mother At Sixty-Six" is written by Kamala Das, one of the foremost Modern Indian English writer who was famous for her frank depiction of women sexuality. Most of her poems are personal. The poem describes the narrator's concern towards her mother who has grown old which can also be seen from her physical features. It also depicts the complexity of the narrator digesting the fact of her mother getting too old and understandably, she doesn't convey her fear to her. The poem begins with the narrator driving from her parents home to Cochin (present-day Kochi). Her mother accompanies her. While travelling, she notices that her mother was drowsy, her face looks like of a "corpse" lacking vigour. The narrator sadly realises that her mother has aged older as her facial features show unambiguously. But then she chooses to ignore the painful thought, perhaps to spare her own mind. She tries to look out at youthful beings suc

Literature as a graduate course has been a very popular course since centuries. In an advanced world like ours, it hasn't lost its charm and it's among one of the most sought-after courses in any university. So here we tell you five crucial things about the field which every literature aspirant who wants to study it in a university should know: 1. You got to read popular novels  One misconception of students regarding the subject is that in university, students got to enjoy popular novels like Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings in other words literature students don't have to study, rather they enjoy their life with pleasure reading. Other than this, they read Shakespeare. This fallacy regarding Literature costs some of the people who later come to know that Apart from Shakespeare, there are a lot of great writers who wrote influential texts. And the thing about Harry Potter novels is also wrong as very few universities prescribe this type of writing. Students analyse t

In the poem "My Grandmother's House", Kamala Das reminisces about her grandmother's house when she was alive. And after death, the house loses its charm and now it seems dead. She describes the house as not a cheerful place where "snakes moved among books" but her grandmother brought love into her gloomy life. She was reluctant to read at her young age but on seeing snakes among books in the house, she dreads. Now long after the demise of her grandmother, she often thinks of visiting the place. But when she looks at it now, it doesn't look like before, perhaps her grandmother was the root of the house after whom the whole plant couldn't survive. The atmosphere around the house is not the same as when her grandmother was alive, the air seems "frozen" to the narrator. She personifies the windows as "blind", for the interior are not visible from the outside of the window. She found the very darkness of that house holy and intends

The poem written by Kamala Das, depicts the intimate moments of the narrator shared with her husband. It is a personal poem of the poetess which also shows the vacuum of emotional warmth between them, although the husband seems to be unaware of absence of love. Like her another poem The Sunshine Cat , there is a lack of chemistry between her husband and her. She doesn't feel the love between them and only acts as a formality to engage in sex to gratify her husband. Her husband's only contention is with his sexual desire to be fulfilled and he has no other thought of knowing what she really yearns. He may be deluded by the narrator acting as enjoying sex, she is aware of his only contention with sex and she doesn't deny him. She doesn't associate with her husband and calls him "man with Nimble finger-tips". She has no expectations from him other than fulfilling her sexual needs but she wants something else which she knows that he can never grant her, emotiona

The poem "The Sunshine Cat" penned by Kamala Das, one of the prominent modern Indian poetess. She wrote in both English and Malayalam language. Her works have been translated into numerous languages such as French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese. She is also known for her open depiction of female sexuality through her works particularly her autobiography, My Story. In the poem, the readers are introduced to the grief and agony of the narrator. She displays distrust towards the people to whom she turned for want of help her but all they did was to use her in the context of "being kind to her". Her husband who was indifferent to her feelings, she admits he didn't abuse her but he totally ignored her need for emotional support. He was merely a "watcher" and seems to work out the thing called marriage by continuing the status quo. She confesses that all those men from whom she expected love used her to quench their sexual thirst, she calls them

The celebrated novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" of Harper Lee needs no introduction to the readers as it is one of the most established books of all time and Lee, for years, was herself surprised by its massive success. Here in this article, I will discuss some lessons from Atticus, the ideal hero of the novel who, in my view, was too unrealistic and perfect like Mahatma Gandhi. Atticus was one of the few people who sympathise with black people and respects them just as one person respects another. He treated Calpurnia, his housekeeper with impunity and taught his children to respect and take orders from her. He wants his children to come to him when they have some query or doubt of them rather than to ask other people of the Maycomb city. It was because Atticus was aware of people's stereotype and their narrow attitude towards many things. "I just hope that Jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of listening to the town. I hope they trust me enough... J

The poem "The Wild Old Wicked Man" is written by William Butler Yeats, a famous 20th-century Modern poet. The poem deals with the lust of an old man who despite his old body, is eager to sleep with a woman. The old wicked man says that he is crazy about both woman and hills, unusual interests for a senior citizen. He has hard times residing at home because he fears dying on the "straw at home", that's why he travels where God takes him. He wants the other person i.e. a lady, with whom he is conversing, to live with him until his death and asks her to close his eyes upon his death. This is his only wish to be granted from the "old man in the skies" i.e. God. He praises the lady and tells her to not refuse him "what he wants". he tells her that nobody knows about the exact time of an old man's demise. He admits that he is no more young and hence doesn't flaunt youthful features. He complains that the young man loves too much. He boa

The poem "Tonight I can Write" is written by Pablo Neruda, a renowned poet of the 20th century and a Nobel Laureate. The poem is part of the collection of poems known as "Twenty Love Poems And A Song Of Despair", published in 1924. The poem deals with the narrator's melancholic outburst after the departure of his beloved. He wants to write a sad verse on his mental distress. The narrator begins the poem by saying that that day he would write his "most saddest lines" as he would put all his mental pain and heartbreaking emotions on the paper. He attributes his anguish to the non-living objects in nature such as that :       " The night is shattered         and the blue stars shiver in the distance" This figure of speech is called Transfer Epithet. He admits that he love her and she loved him too. They had enjoyed physical intimacy between them. He loved her "great still eyes". He regrets his loss, he doesn't give any rea

The poem "The Burning of the Books" is written by Bertolt Brecht, a German dramatist and poet faced persecution and ban from Nazi Regime of his native country. The poem was originally written in the German language but later translated into English by John Willet. It describes the the century-old conflict between the Ruling class and the Artist community. In the poem, the Regime passed an executive order to ban books which contain "harmful knowledge" and they are carried to a place for burning. It is unknown what constitutes "harmful knowledge", perhaps the Regime has its own vested interest in banning the books because the content questions their autocratic rule and represents ideologies opposed to Nazism.  A renowned writer who has been banished from the country checks the list of banned books and shocked when he can't see his books on the list. He hastens to his desk "on wings of wrath" i.e angrily and writes a letter to the rulers of