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Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour by William Wordsworth - Explanation

Wordsworth remembers John Milton, the famed Puritan literary master who is also known as "man of thought" during his age. The poet believes that England, his country is in dire need of Milton at the time. England has become "a fen of stagnant waters" It has lost all her ancient glory and inherent joy. Britons have become selfish and immoral. He pleads with Milton to return to his motherland and instill the old virtuous temperament in people in again. He praises Milton and calls his soul "a star" who lives far from the material people of England. His voice was majestic and magnanimous like the sea (simile). According to Wordsworth, Milton's voice is pure and unusual. Despite being a special person he is, Milton still walked and lived among common men in his pious way. He pulled the duty of reforming British people on himself.

Main Symbol in Nadine Gordimer's Once Upon A Time

In her short story, Once Upon A Time, Nadine Gordimer uses many symbols to present her ideas/views upon the several aspects of the society. One of the recurring symbols she employs is, of Alarms. It reflects the underlying theme of alertness and distrust in the minds of people about their security. People residing in the suburb are apprehensive of burglaries, so they install security system including alarms, barb wires. Security Alarms are widely used appliance not only in the home of the protagonist family but also in all the houses in the suburban area. Pets or other animals like mice trigger the alarms. "The alarm was often answered—it seemed— by other burglar alarms, in other houses, that had been triggered by pet cats or nibbling mice." Moreover, the people are now accustomed to the sound of alarm as it is not unusual if there is an alarm buzzing in the neighbourhood. The sound of it is compared to an insect or a frog's croak. "The alarms called to one an...

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 - Explanation

The poem was written by William Wordsworth on 3 September in 1802 standing on Westminister bridge. Unlike his other poem where he sings his hymn dedicating to nature, this poem is the praise for the urban life and its features of London. Explanation The narrator says that the view in front of him is undisputably exquisite and the person who is not moved by such sight must be soulless. The city i.e. London in the narrator's words, "wear the beauty of the morning." Here Wordsworth uses metaphor to describe the morning as a garment for the city. As the morning symbolises freshness and quietness. The man-made objects like ships, towers, domes etc. are laid open to the sky. The freshness in the "smokeless air" makes the atmosphere "bright and glittering" i.e pleasant. The first sunrays of the day falling on the earth looks charming. Rivers too flow with its own slow pace.  All these mesmerizing visuals make the narrator filled with serenity. Som...

Character Of Nora in A Doll's House

Nora is the protagonist of the play "A Doll's house". She is married to Torvald Helmer having three children. Like an "ideal" wife, she loves and takes great care of her bossy husband and her children. She ignores her personal needs to ensure her family's comforts. She is naive and childlike and her husband frequently calls her words like "little person", "little squirrel". Torvald criticises her for extravagance which she never does. She took great pains to save husband's life and it cost her her marriage with Torvald. Besides being childish, she is an imaginative sort of person. She fancies jokingly that a wealthy suitor would allocate a part of his fortune to her after his death and she could pay the debt he took for her husband's sake. Mrs, Linde perceived this fancy of her as a real fact. Nora is like a usual wife who dedicates her life to the family. Her personal wishes take a toll at the cost of the cozy life of the fam...

Character Of John The Savage

The character of John in the novel "Brave New World" represents an individual of the pre-World State order. He is raised in Malpais, a place in Savage Reservation. He is an illegitimate son of Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. Due to his upbringing, he is old-fashioned as compared to the citizens of World State. He leads his life with practices of the Tribe like flagellation, simplicity, non-materialist. He is an ardent believer in God and tries his best to persuade Mustapha Mond about the importance of God in people's life. John wants an ideal and romantic love but disgusts at the love-making prevalent in the World State. He truly loves Lenina and wants her love too but in a solemn and traditional way. He wants to marry her but Lenina was conditioned to polyamorous love. John doesn't want to involve straight into sexual love, he wants a girl like "Juliet" which wasn't possible at the time. John has lived and studied Shakespeare's works and hi...

KUK B.A English hons. VI semester - Previous Years Question Papers

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To His Mistress Going To Bed by John Donne - Explanation

The poem "To his Mistress going to bed" written by a noted metaphysical poet, John Donne. It deals with the poet and his mistress's sensuous act in their bedroom. The poem is a love poem in which the poet cherish the features of the female body. He urges his beloved to shed all her clothes which conceal her exquisite naked figure. He considers all these clothing as an obstacle which prevents him from reaching his beloved. Throughout the poem, he attributes the lady as a tressure. Explanation The poet asks his beloved to come as it's bedtime for her. His manly strength is eroded by excessive rest and he intends to "labour" i.e to test his strength otherwise it will be a waste. When an enemy faces his opponent on a battlefield, it's difficult for them to just stand and watch their enemy without a fight. He requests her to remove her girdle (a women garment). He employs a simile by comparing the girdle with the "glistering" heaven zone but the...

Positive & Negative features Of World State In Brave New World

Positive Features : None of the citizens carries/acquires any disease because of the advancement in medical science. Treatment of every disease is possible there. Moreover, no one grows old and people remain young throughout their life. War has no place in the World State and various arrangement are made to avoid a war. In fact, violence is totally prohibited. It's all about happiness. The government wants its citizen to live jubilant life with no distress or loneliness. Soma is a life-saver. Every basic amenities are provided to people and there is no dearth of nearly anything. It is wholly a productive society. Protection and adaptation against the occupational hazards. Chemical workers are immunized against toleration of lead, caustic soda, tar and chlorine. Similarly, rocket-plane engineers are enhanced with an improved sense of balance. Negative Features : An advance yet class-based (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon) society which is contrary to a highly modern w...

The Good Morrow by John Donne - Explanation

The poem "The Good Morrow" written by John Donne is a love poem and features the strong love between Donne and his beloved. In Donne's view, all other pleasures are nothing in comparison to love and being in love is the ultimate awakening. He takes pride in finding his beloved who is no less than the whole world. He finds other enterprises in this world futile. Donne employs the rhyme scheme of ababccc recurring in each stanza. The phrase "were we not weaned" is a metaphor for an infant who had not left the practice of sucking of mother's milk. "Seven Sleepers’ den" is an allusion referring to seven men who hide in a cave for three hundred years. "two better hemispheres" is a metaphor pointing to Donne and his beloved. Explanation Stanza 1 Donne wonders what he and his beloved have been doing all those years before falling in love. He speculates that they were satisfied with little pleasures of life like an infant preoccupied with...

Death Be Not Proud by John Donne - Explanation

The poem "Death Be Not Proud" is written by John Donne, a noted metaphysical poet. It is a sonnet, a fourteen-line poem. In the poem, Donne challenges death to restrain from boasting of its might against mankind. He refuses to bow before the might of death and emphasizes the death's usage of dirty tricks to kill people. He gives reasons to prove his points and conclude that death, in the end, will die. The poem employs the literary devices of conceit. Death is personified. Donne uses metaphor to compare dying with "short sleep". The rhyme scheme of the poem is: abba abba cddcae. Explanation Donne reprehends death for his pride of being mighty and creating fearfulness among people. The death might think that it can bring down anyone it claims. He ridicules Death by saying that it can't neither eliminate them nor him. Death is helpless. "Rest and sleep" symbolise the picture of the death. They are the desirable activities for men so death is not drea...

Pragmatic influence Of Fiction On Life?

Art is often called as a field which serves only aesthetic purpose. Non-fiction does affect us directly because it deals with the practical and realistic approach of life. Fiction is said to have no practical purpose served with the focus on imaginary things which can be denounced as "lies" But this can't completely or partially downgrade the value of fiction which beats non-fiction without unease. The reason for this popularity might be the escapism offered by these texts to break-free from the real world into something desirable, thrilling or haunting. When we think about the practical learning from a fictitious work we prima facie don't find a relevant thought to support fiction but when we muse about the contribution of fiction, myriad merits of it come out which does seriously impact our lives. Fiction encourages us to think beyond the status quo and gives us insight into what might happen if the changes take place and what might be the consequences. It bri...

The Canonization by John Donne - Summary

The poem "The Canonization" written by John Donne, the leading metaphysical poet of the Elizabethan age. The poem reflects the poet's defence of his love against all sorts of bad happenings in the world. The title refers to the Christian religious act of admitting a dead person into the line of saints. But the subject matter doesn't reflect the religious pursuit of the narrator instead it discusses the power and piousness of romantic love of the narrator and his beloved. The poem depicts the highness of love over other things, Donne believes that his love can achieve the blessings of God and attain canonization and legacy. Donne uses his signature styled literary device of conceit to show how lofty and tall his love is. He employs the recurring rhyme scheme of abbacccaa. Explanation Stanza 1 The narrator scolds his companion, perhaps his friend for interrupting him in between his love-making. Instead of it, he can mock his physical disabilities and shortcoming...

Characters Of King Lear In Brief

Cordelia - A true daughter of her father who unconditionally loved him with no hidden greed to his share of the kingdom. She is plain and simplistic and doesn't want to show off the love towards her father she has in her heart. This is her only flaw, she is too honest to be misunderstood. This brings her from being an apple of her father's eyes to one whose father banish her with hatred. But she remains faithful to his father till the end despite earlier his rude conduct. Goneril and Regan - Both of these elder daughters of King Lear share a common character of conditional love for their father. They pretend to show love to their father just to get a bigger share of the kingdom after his retirement. Their love was fake. Both of them remain greedy first for the larger share, then for Edmund. Both of them admit that they could face defeat at the hands of French but could not see Edmund with the other. Their intention was to marry Edmund and in this race, both lost their live...

Character Of King Lear

Most of Shakespeare's tragedies depicts the fall of powerful people from great heights to their total destruction not only in terms of their reputation but their life also. King Lear too faced such prospects of having ruled England undisputably with no one to question him. His hyper-assertive and naive character prohibit him to see the world reasonably, he couldn't see the true faces of his daughters who showed him the life of misery. Her daughter's flattery hides their true character. Their insidious behaviour deceives Lear into rewarding them the shares of his kingdom. His tragic flaw depicts his poor judgement of true characters of people. He misunderstood Kent and Cordelia's plainness and honesty as their apathy towards him. The impression of their unappealing conduct changed the course of his own life. Even after retirement, he intended to live like a king which created conflicts with his daughters. His daughters didn't like his kingship, they didn't wa...

Conquer Vocabulary

Having a voluminous vocabulary has numerous tangible benefits in our daily life. For a Literature student, it is not only essential but mandatory to fill her mind with a variety of words. In other words, the student should be a connoisseur of English. In this post, I will share how I learn new words and their usage in routine life. The most straightforward way to learn new words is to read, read and read. Even if it is a comic, fashion or a sports magazine or any book, you will definitely encounter words, unfamiliar words which are your treasure. Focus more on the common words which recur again and again in your readings . The more you come across a particular word, you will definitely remember the meaning the next time it comes before your eyes or enters your ears. Keep a dictionary app on your smartphone and check words which are alien to you. Make sentences with the newly learnt word because it will help you to use it in your routine life. It doesn't matter if you have a h...