POETIC TYPE

The Epic
Definition of the Epic-
An epic is a long, often book-length, narrative in verse form that retells the heroic
journey of a single person, or group of persons. It is divided in twelve books. It is a long tale
in song with famous heroes for its principles character weaving together into an artistic from
the many legends of their exploits which were handed down from generation by word. A
long narrative poem in elevated style presenting characters of high position in adventures
forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and through their
development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.
In the epic the mighty warrior’s princes are described as (supernatural) magical
element is always prominent in the epics. The first epic was written by Homer in Greek, the
Iliad and the Odyssey. It deals with military exploits, deeds of valour (great bravery). Its
heroes belong to the national, even to international importance. He is a giant man and has
extraordinary powers. Homers Iliad narrates the heroic deeds of the Greeks during the war of
Troy and Odysseys or Ulysses.
In epic, there are thrilling and sensational (exciting) episodes and digressions are
introduced. There is much exaggeration and the incredible adventures and deed of valour
narrated y by the poet. In epic supernatural plays an important part and frequently intervenes
in the action. Homer’s Iliad, the Gods intervene in the war of troy and Edmund Spenser’s
Fairy Queen has a number of supernatural elements. The theme of the epic is lofty ( highly
moral standard) and sublime (extremely good, beautiful or enjoyable) and its diction is
equally elevated and grand. The language of the poem is noble and exalted as to befit the
words and deeds of gods and heroes. It is in the grand style. It doesn’t belongs to the common
speech.

Characteristics of the epic:

Proposition:- The theme of the epic is stated in the first few lines, accompanied by
the poets prayer to Muse. It is called proposition and the prayer the Invocation Virgil’s
Aeneid is an imitation of Homer’s Iliad and John Milton’s Paradise Lost follows the Aeneid
both begin with proposition and Invocation. Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the fruit of
that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste , brought Death into the world. (As in Milton, who
proposed "to justify the ways of God to men"); of a question (as in the Iliad, which Homer
initiates by asking a Muse to sing of Achilles' anger. The epic poet invokes a Muse, one of
the nine daughters of Zeus. The poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine
inspiration to tell the story of a great hero.
The epic poet uses conventional poetic devices such as the Homeric Epithet, it is
applied to a particular person, place, or thing and Homeric Simile which makes comparison
between two similar objects. A number of Homeric epithets “Faint Homeric echoes” occur in
Lord Tennyson’s Morte D’ Arthur Homeric Simile found in Sohrab and Rustam.
In medias res: the narrative of the epic begins in the medias res "in the middle of things",
with the hero at his lowest point. Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story.

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The action of the epic is controlled by supernatural agents. In Homer and Virgil the classical
gods and goddesses . in the ancient European epics the old Norse deities play a prominent
part, omnipotent Gods play important part, there is victory of the believers over the heathen ,
of good over evil, in epic characters are personified of good and evil qualities in Edmund
Spenser’s Faerie Queene. In John Milton’s Paradise lost there are two human characters and
they strive between the powers of heaven and hell.

The Epic contain a number of thrilling episodes such as the mustering of troops, battle,
duels , wanderings, ordeals and like . The epic is divided into books, usually twelve in
number. Though the iliad and odyssey have twenty –four books each. Edmund Spenser’s
Faerie Queene and John Milton’s Paradise lost have twelve books.
Supernaturalism is a must-have feature of an every epic. Without having to use supernatural
elements, no epic would certainly produce awe and wonder. There are certainly gods,
demons, angels, fairies, and use of supernatural forces like natural catastrophes in every epic.
Milton’s Paradise Lost, Homer’s Iliad, Beowulf and Spenser’s Faerie Queen are replete with
supernatural elements.

Morality is a key characteristic of an epic. The poet’s foremost purpose in writing an epic
is to give a moral lesson to his readers. For instance, Johan Milton’s Paradise Lost is a perfect
example in this regard. The poet wants to justify the ways of God to man through the story of
Adam. This is the most didactic theme of the epic.

Theme of Epic-
The epic have varied theme. Home and Virgil’s Epic have patriotism and
national theme. The Italian poet Tasso Introduced the moral and didactic elements into his
Jerusalem Delivered in 1574. Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene intention “to fashion a
gentleman in virtuous and gentle discipline”. In John Milton’s Paradise lost “to justify the
ways of God to men”. The theme of each epic is sublime, elegant and having universal
significance. It may not be an insignificant theme, which is only limited to the personality or
the locality of the poet. It deals with the entire humanity .Thus; John Milton’s Paradise
Lost is a great example in this regard. The theme of this epic is certainly of great importance
and deals with entire humanity. It’s them is to justify the ways of God to man.

The Epic of Growth:

The epic of growth has its origin in popular song and story. A number of stories
and legends circulate in an oral form for generations. It has also called folk epic. They may
be given currency by wandering bards or minstrels. Later on poet collect them , organize
them and impart them form and unity. Iliad is such epic. It supposed to have been composed
by the ancient Greek poet Homer out of number of fragmentary stories. The Anglo – Saxon
Beuwolf is another Epic of Growth and the French Song of Roland. The authors of folk epic
remain unknown to this day.

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The Epic of Art:
It is also called a literary epic. The epic of art is an artistic imitation of the
manner and style of the authentic epic or the epic of growth. It is the work of one man tries to
imitate and excel the earlier poets. Aenied of the Roman Poet Virgil and Paradise Lost of
the English Poet Milton are the most prominent examples of the Epic of art.In the romantic
Era: William Wordsworth’s “Prelude” has all the essential features of an epic. John Keat’s
Hyperion is modeled on John Milton’s paradise Lost. English Epic in the Victorian Age:
during the Victorian age Lord Tennyson ‘s The Idylls of the king. In the modern age heroic
style is gone out of favour and the epic has almost ceased to exist. The modern Epic: T.S.
Eliot writes epic The Waste Land which has been called the epic of the 20th century.
It seems that the modern age is not suited to epic poetry. T.S. Eliot may write The
Waste Land which has been called the epic of the 20th century.

THE MOCK-EPIC
It’s Nature
A Mock-epic is a small narrative poem in which the machinery and conventions of
epic proper are employed in the treatment of trivial themes, and in this way it becomes a
parody or burlesque of the epic. A mocking, ridiculous effect is created when the
grandiloquent epic-style and epic-conventions are used for a theme which is essentially trivial
and insignificant. The ancient Mock-epic The Battle of the Frog and Mice, a parody of
Homer’s Iliad, Swift’s Tale of a Tub and Battle of the Books and Pope’s Dunciad and The
Rape of the Lock are the finest examples of the Mock-epic.

It’s Essential Features

The essentials of a Mock-epic are best illustrated by a brief consideration of
Pope’s Rape of the Lock. The theme of the Mock-epic is the rape on the locks of a butterfly
of society, Belinda, committed by her lover, Lord Peter, a gallant. The lady is displeased, the
two families fall out, and Pope is requested to write something to laugh away the displeasure
of the young lady. Pope uses the machinery and convention of the epic, as well as the
grandiloquent epic-style for his essentially trivial theme. The trivial is exaggerated and
glorified and a mocking, ridiculous effect is thus created. Instead of the mighty epic-hero, we
have a tiny slip of a girl as the central personage, digression and episodes deal not with the
military exploits of some gigantic epic hero, but with a game of cards, and the fight of the
lord and ladies for the severed lock of hair. The weapons used are not swords and spears, but
a bodkin and a pinch of snuff, and the killing eyes of ladies. The supernatural agency is also
there in the form of tiny sylphs who seated on bodkins or candlesticks watch the fight
between the parties. The various stylistic devices of he epic-poet,
exaggeration, Latinism, personification, circumlocution, have been used throughout, and as
the subject is trivial the result is ridiculous in the extreme. In this way, the epic values are
reversed, and we get not the epic, but the mock-epic, a parody of the epic proper.
The Battle of the Books is one of the finest and the greatest of the prose mock-epics in the
language. The exalted epic manner and style have been used effectively for a trivial subject
i.e. a literary controversy regarding the comparative merits and demerits of ancient and
modern learning. ”The result is a delightful fantasia, an inimitable parody of the epic.”

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 The Ballad
Ballad: Its Nature and Definition
The Ballad defined as a short-story in verse. The word Ballad is derived from the
word “Ballare” which means “to dance”. Originally a ballad was a song with a strong
narrative substance sung to the accompaniment of dancing. The minstrel or the bard would
sing the main parts, and the dancers would sing the refrain or certain lines which were
frequently repeated.
As the ballads generally narrated some local event, they were easily understood by the
audience even when they were most allusive. Loves, battles, or heroic exploits, some
supernatural incident or some local event are the chief themes of the ballads.The ballad was
originally oral literature. It was folk-lore. Ballads were passed on orally from generation to
generation and in the process they were much “altered, modified or suppressed, and new
circumstances suggested opportune additions.” Oral tradition changed the form of the ballad.
Origin-
It is like the epic, the ballad arises out of folk literature. It is one of the oldest forms
in English Literature. Originally it was sung from village to village to the accompaniment of
a harp or a fiddle, by a strolling singer or bands of singers, who earned a living in this way.
Ballad was written in England. It means a dancing song, it was sung to village to village with
the help of harp with bands of sings as a profession in later period. Ballad was written to
according to the rules of poetry ballad measure. A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative
set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ballade, which were originally
"dancing songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of
the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively
across Europe. Chevy-Chase is the other remarkable ballad. Its subject is the war between
Percy of England and Douglas of Scotland.
Features of Ballad-
The ballad is a short verse in verse. Its subject are adventure, love, war, and valour.
It is written in ballad stanza. The story of the ballad beginning without systematic
introduction, sometime it begins question and answer.
The ballad is impersonal in treatment. The poet doesn’t show his personnel identity or
personality, it is purely objective. Often same lines are repeated from stanza to stanza as
refrain. There is no attempt at details of time or place.
The method and style of ballad’s are characterized by straight forwardness and repeated
narration in the ballad. An element of the supernatural, magic and mystery are generally
introduced.

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Kinds of Ballad
The ballad is divided in two forms, first is the ballad of growth & another is the ballad of
Art.

1) Ballad of Growth ( Authentic Ballad)- This kind of Ballad was written in old ages and
it has unknown authorship. They have grown naturally among primitive race. It is also called
the authentic Ballad. It has its simplicity, its apparent ease, and artlessness, and its primitive
feeling. Some of the best known authentic ballads are Chevy Chase, The wife of Ushers
well and Sir Patrick Spens.
2) The ballad of Art (Literary Ballad) - Literary ballad is actually an imitation of the
traditional ballad. The only difference between the two ballads is the authorship. The author
of the literary ballad is a known personality. The Literary Ballad are conscious work of art in
which the poet imitate another ballad poet. In 1765, Bishop Percy published his
famous Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, it is collection of ancient English ballads, and
this single work aroused a widespread interest in the popular ballads of the past. Sir Walter
Scott’s anthology of medieval ballads – The Minstrelsy Of the Scottish Border. S.T.
Coleridge- The Rime of the ancient mariner, Christabel, first great literary ballads of the
romantic era. In romantic age Lord Tennyson’s Lady of Shallot based on Arthurian legends.
Rosseti’s Sister Helen is ballads. The great writers of ballads of in the 20th century was
W.H. Hudson – Ballads of Miss Gee and Victor rank very high ballads. They are ballads of
the comic – horrific kind; they arouse horror by narrating lightly deeds of incredible
cruelty. The literary ballads are conscious work of art in which the poet tries to capture the
simplicity, the freshness and charm, and the rapidity of movement and the music and melody
of the original.
The Englishman’s love of the ballad continues unabated in the 20th century. Thus
love was accentuated by the publication of F.J. Child’s Anthology of Ballads entitled English
and Scottish Popular Ballads, and the recent researches in Anthropology and Sociology.
Another great writer of ballads in the 20thcentury was W.H. Auden. His The Ballad of Miss
Gee and Victor rank very high as ballads. They are ballads of the Comic-horrific kind; they
arouse horror by narrating lightly deeds of incredible cruelty.

Subjective and Objective Poetry

There are two kinds of poetry.
Subjective Poetry -
In subjective poetry, the Subject matter is provided by the poet’s own thoughts and
feelings. The poet view the things from within & brings to bear his own reflections what he
has seen or heard. The focus is on the poet himself, his mind is concentrated on his own
thoughts and feelings so subjective poetry is personal, the lyric and the elegy represent the
subjective poetry. It is very difficult to separate the objective poetry from the subjective
poetry. The lyric and The Elegy are forms of subjective poetry.
A subjective perspective is one open to greater interpretation based on personal feeling,
emotion, aesthetics, etc

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The poet speaks here about himself, about his own experiences of life. In this type of poetry
the poet does not speak anything outside himself. Here he gives self-expression, self-analysis,
self-projection and self-assertion. However, in subjective poetry the poet speaks completely
about himself.
Example:
"Tintern Abbey" of Wordsworth is a subjective poem.

Objective Poetry-
In objective poetry, poetry belongs to the the external object such as deeds, events
and what we see around us is in objective poetry. In objective poetry the focus is on
something that is external. Example - thrilling episode, beautiful sight.
Objective poetry, we mean a kind of poetry in which the poet does not speak any-thing about
himself. Whatever he speaks here he speaks any-thing outside himself. That is here the poet
is not an egotist. In other words, in an objective poetry, the poet dose not express his own
self.
Examples:
Keats's poem "To Autumn" is an objective poem."Ancient Mariner" of Coleridge is an
objective poem.
In objective poetry, poet is detached observer, he views the subject from without and
described what he has seen or heard so objective poetry is impersonal. It is developed in the
primitive races. They were more interested in what they saw and heard rather than what they
thought. Since their life was simple, they were interested in deep thinking more ever, their
life composed more of action than of thought. In the ballad of past the writers personality
remains in the background, the focus of his attention was on deeds, events ,and facts. Drama
and epic are forms of objective poetry.
An objective perspective is one that is not influenced by emotions, opinions, or personal
feelings - it is a perspective based in fact, in things quantifiable and measurable.

So objective poetry is older than subjective. The Primitive people among whom it
developed , like the uncivilized races in some parts of the world today, were more interested
in what they saw and heard than in what they thought. They valued the experiences of their
eye and ear more than the experiences of their mind. Deep thinking difficult for them,
considering that their life was simple, their life was composed more of action than of thought.
Their Poetry, therefore, dealt with deeds, events and the things they saw around
them, and it called for the little mental efforts from their hearers. At the early stage man has
not acquired a subjective outlook, which is the product of civilization. The Epic and the
Drama are the forms of objective poetry, in which, as in the ballad, the writer’s personality
remains in the background. The Lyric and the elegy, which belong to later times, represent
the subjective variety.
Questions:-
What do you think of poetry?
What is objective poetry?
What is the difference between objective and subjective?
How are subjects which are essentially subjective in nature.

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 The Elegy
Definition:-
Elegy is a form of poetry in the form of elegiac couplets, written in honor of someone
deceased (a person who has recently died or people who have recently died). It typically
laments or mourns the death of the individual. In literature, an elegy is a mournful,
melancholic poem, especially a funeral song or a lamentation for the dead.
In short, the elegy is a lament, a lyric of mourning, or an utterance of personal bereavement
(the death of a close relation or friend) and sorrow. It has a wide range of subjects, both grave
and gay. It is a conscious work of art, not a spontaneous expression of sorrow.

Origin:
Elegy is derived from the ancient Greece, which means a song of bereavement sung
along with a flute. The Greek poets give more importance to the form or structure. Elegy
was written in the elegiac measure (a couplet composed of a dactylic hexameter followed by
dactylic pentameter. The elegy included war songs, love poems, political verses.

Features of Elegy
In the Elegy form or structure is more important. An elegy is an expression of grief and
simplicity, brevity and sincerity. In general, Death is the inspiration and sole theme of the
elegy but sometimes there are other factors that become the subject matter of the elegy.
Death is the sole theme of elegy, but poet have started various themes on the nature of death
and tributes to friends, poets own moods, and literary criticism.
The elegy is an expression of the emotion of sorrow, woe, or despair. In short,
the elegy is a lament, a lyric of mourning, or an utterance of personal bereavement and
sorrow and, therefore, it should be characterised by absolute sincerity of emotion and
expression.

Examples-
Lord Tennyson expresses philosophies on the puzzles(Problems of many subjects) of
life and destiny in the Memoriam, Tennyson’s In Memoriam is a unique elegy in the English
language. It is a collection of over a hundred poignant (having a very sharp feeling of
sadness) lyrics, united into a single whole by the poet’s lament at the death of his college
friend, Arthur Hallam. The elegy is an epitome of the philosophical and religious thought of
the age. John Milton’s Lycidas (1638) expresses degradation (Quality destroyed) of poetry
and religion and an elegy on the death of his friend Edward King, P.B. Shelley’s Adonais,
(1821) an elegy on the death of his Friend John Keats. Matthew Arnold Thyrsis is personal
elegy (1865) on his friend Arthur Hugh. He reflects the course of life and mortal men on the
earth in Rugby Chapel, an elegiac poem on his father’s grave fifteen years after his death.

Elegy in the modern age

In the modern age, the subject matter or theme is more important than the its form.
The theme of an elegy must be mournful or sadly reflective. It is usually a lamentation for the
dead, inspired by other somber themes such as unrequited love, the fall of the city and like. It
is written as attribute to something loved and lost. Some of the elegies express personal loss

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has been written in very simple language. The formal elegy aims at an effect of dignity and
solemnity (beings serious) without a sense of strain. Thomas Gray’s “Elegy written in
country Churchyard”
Elegies continue to be written in the 20th century, elegies in which the poets pour out
their anxieties, frustrations and despairs. The modern poet is unconventional in his use of the
elegiac form, as in other matters. For example, W.H. Auden reverses the elegiac tradition in
this elegies, particularly in his well-known elegy on W.B. Yeats. Traditionally in an elegy all
nature is represented as mourning the death, here nature is represented as going on its course,
indifferent and unaffected by the death of Yeats.

The Pastoral elegy

Definition:-
It is type of Poetry that typically relates to country/ rustic life and depicts the lives of
shepherds. This sort of poetry depicts the simple and pure lives of shepherds , who exist free
from the corruption of city life. Rural life is depicted as being pure in pastoral poetry and
usually is idealized.
The pastoral elegy is a poem about both death and idyllic rural life. Often, the pastoral
elegy features shepherds. The genre is actually a subgroup of pastoral poetry, as the elegy
takes the pastoral elements and relates them to expressing.

Origin:-
The pastoral elegy was written by Theocritus in Sicily and Virgil in Italy later
there were many disciples of these two master poets, Mosches and Bions were the true
disciples of Theocritus. Theocritus Idylls and Epigrams are earliest poems written in the
pastoral manner. Later Latin poet Virgil ,Whose Eclogues and Georgics included various
scences and labours of the countryside.
Then it was revived in Italy during the 15th and 16th century in the renaissance period.
Pastoral elegy was imitated by Poet of England including Edmunds Spenser’s Shepherd’s
Calendar, John Milton’s Lycidas imitated the form and Edmund Spenser’s Astrophel
lamenting his patron and intimate friend of Sir Philip Sydney.

During the Renaissance, the pastoral elegy was introduced into English poetry. It
follows the pastoral convention in which poet represented himself as a shepherd express the
loss of his companion. The manner of speech and background borrowed from the rustic life.
The pastoral elegy was special kind of elegy. The pastoral comes from the Greek word pastor
which means to graze- sign of the shepherd. (Pastoral scene of shepherds watching over their
grazing sheep) Graze (land where farm animals feed on grass)
Key Features:-
Grief at loss, there is invocation of muse, expression of the shepherd’s or poets,
grief, praise of the deceased , a tirade against death, a a detailing of the effects of this specific
death upon Nature and poets acceptance of death as inevitability and hope for Immortality.
There is procession of mourners, satirical digressions about different topics deriving from
death, and symbolizing through flowers, refrains and rhetorical questions.

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The pastoral elegy is moving and in its classical form. In pastoral elegies the deceased is as
shepherd, the deceased is surrounded by classical mythology figures such as nymphs, fauns
etc. pastoral elegy is one of the forms of poems in the Elizabethan poetry.

Examples:-
Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751). This is an unusual elegy,
since Gray is mourning not one person, but all the people buried in the churchyard,
Edmund Spenser’s The Shepherd’s Calendar,”which was published in 1579. One of the
most famous examples of pastoral poetry is John Milton’s “Lycidas.” Written in 1637, the
poem is written about Edward King, a fellow student of Milton’s who had died, Matthew
Arnolds Thyrsis, in memory of his friend the poet A.H. Clough are both Pastoral elegies
employing pastoral images and sentiments.

The Idyll
Definition:-
It is one of the greatest form of poetry in English literature. An Idyll is a
short pastoral poem, a fanciful poem describing an ideal country scene, with nymphs and
shepherds scene in the field. The idyll is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, is written in
the style of Theocritus'. It may be a lyric, longer poem an sometimes a passage in an elegy,
play, epic or ballad. A simple descriptive work in poetry or prose that deals with rustic life or
pastoral scenes or suggests a mood of peace and contentment.

Origin:–
The original "Idylls" date back to 300 B.C. by Greek poet, Theocritus. As a genre rather
than verse or stanza form. It derives from the Greek word meaning, “a little picture”. The
conventions of the pastoral were developed by the Alexandrian school of poetry, particularly
by Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, in the 3rd century BC, and the Idylls of Theocritus are the
source of the popular idea of this type of poem.

Characteristics:-
It is characterised by simplicity both in theme and treatment(dealing with). There are
two of its essential characteristics are (a) its brevity, and (b) pictorial effect. The term was
used in Greco-Roman antiquity to designate a variety of brief poems on simple subjects in
which the description of natural objects was introduced. An Idyll focuses on the ordinary
world of action and experience, though it may give idealised pictures of that world. It deals
with simple life, and so its language is also simple. The Idyll has no set form, the poet may
give it any form, accordingly his wish. The aim of the Idyll is to represent vivid visual
presentation.
Theme of the Idyll-
The theme of the Idylls of the Greek poet Theocritus belong to the town and country
life, mythology and the poets own experiences and impressions what he has seen or heard.
Idylls are pastoral in form, dealing with shepherd life in ancient Sicily. Roman poet Virgil
adopted this form in his Eclogues. They were depicting English country life. The English

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Idyll followed the old tradition in dealing with rural scenes. As William Wordsworth’s the
village Blacksmith. The idyll is not mere objective description of persons, places or things. It
is the poets own experiences what he has seen or felt. It is imaginative rendering of a
picturesque scene or experience. The language of the Idyll is usually direct and
straightforward but it is designed to leave an abiding image in the readers mind. Lord
Tennyson’s Idyll of the King give pictures of chivalric (A chivalrous man is polite, honest,
fair and kind towards women) life in simpler life.
Such poetic narratives as, Mrs. Browning’s Aurora Leigh, Coventry Patmore’s The Angel in
the House, and Robert Browning’s Red-Cotton Night-Cap Country, which are to all intent
and purpose novels in verse. The latter is manifestly the result of that same complex of
forces, social and literary, which produced the modern novel.

Examples:-
We get such an idealised picture of rural life in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale with
Perdita distributing flowers to her guests, and there are a number of such idylls scattered all
up and down the novels of Thomas Hardy. John Milton – L’ Allegro is picture of happy life,
number of Idyll presents complete picture of human happiness. William Wordsworth – Lines
Written in march depict spring scene in England after the rain is over and gone. The pastoral
scenes in William Shakespeare As You Like it, form an Idyll of country life. Lord Tennyson
- used the term for the short and pleasing narratives in his English Idylls and Robert
Browning- wrote a series of Dramatic Idylls.

The lyric
Definition and its Nature:-
Lyric – The lyric is the kind of the poetry. It is a short poem, dealing with a single
emotion. It is a musical poem, music is important element in its effect. It is subjective poem,
expresses single emotion of the poet.It was sung to the accompaniment of the musical
instrument lyre. Man has always liked to expresses his feelings and emotion, and hence the
lyric is among the earliest forms of poetry to be written in the literary history of primitive
people. So we find that the lyric is the ancient literary form. Lyric expresses poet’s own
thoughts, feelings and emotions.In course of time this musical accompaniment of the lyric
was dropped and the word came to signify any short poem or song expressing the personal
emotions and experiences of the poet.

Origin:–
The word ‘Lyric’ has Greek origin which was sung with accompaniment of a
lyre.The Greek song was divided into two classes. First was melic or lyric song. It was sung
to the accompaniment of a lyre. Second was choric song intended for collective singing to
the accompaniment of instrumental music by a dance. First melic or lyric was responsible
to introduce the Lyric in English verse.

Characteristics of Lyric-

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The chief qualities of a lyric is summarized as follows:
Music - Verbal music is an important factor in lyric. Poet uses various literary devices to
enhance the quality of Lyric. Keats, Shelley, Tennyson are lyric. It is most personal of all the
forms of literature.

Subject matter of Lyric-

Lyric gives expression to a single emotion or feeling. It appeals more to heart than to
the intellect. It conveys the impression swiftly, memorably, and musically. It is musical.
Verbal music is an important element in its appeal and charm. Various devices are used by
poets to enhance the music of their lyrics.Love is the main theme of the lyric.
Single emotions- In a lyric, single emotional quality is very important for a true lyric. It is a
almost a cry from the poets heart. It can be a cry of joy or sorrow or any other intense feeling.
Lyrics may embody any kind of emotion. It is almost unlimited in range and variety.
5) Variety- the variety of lyric is infinite. Though the essence of lyric is personality. There is
much more lyrical poetry which is communal than personal in character.
6) Brevity- Lyric is usually short poem, it is characterized by its language and treatment. It
exercises its meaning swiftly and effectively. There is brevity and condensation, it is
characterized by beauty, vividness, propriety, and harmony. Language is an important
element in its effect.
7) Spontaneity is another important element of a lyric. The lyric poet sings in strains of
unpremeditated art. He sings effortlessly because he must, because of the inner urge for self-
expression.

The structure of the Lyric- It is divided into three distant parts, corresponding to the three
moods through which the poet passes when inspired by some emotion.
In the first part state the emotion or the poets imagination working.
In the second part forms the bulk of the bulk of the poem consist of thoughts suggests by
emotion.
In the third and last part mark the poets return to his initial mood, the mood of reason for
this time the emotion which had stirred his mind and heart had found release in fitting words
and images.

The Elizabethan Lyric

The Elizabethan age was the glorious age of the English Lyric. In this age lyrics are
scattered all over the plays of dramatists like Shakespeare. The Elizabethan lyric is sweet and
musical, but it is characterised by artificiality as the lyrics were composed because it was a
fashion to write lyric.

Lyric in the 17th Century

The poetry of the early 17th century comprises of lyrics which may be divided into
three categories: (a) the metaphysical lyric, (b) the religious lyric, and (c) the Caroline or
Cavalier lyric. The metaphysical lyric is more elaborate than an ordinary lyric, and is hard,
intellectual in tone. John Donne, the founder of the metaphysical school of poetry,

11
intellectualised the English lyric. He also has the credit of writing some of the finest love-
lyrics in the English language.

The Romantic Lyric

Shelley is the supreme lyricist of the romantic age. As a lyricist, Shelley remains
unexcelled in the history of English literature. His lyrics are marked with spontaneity and
effortlessness. “He exhales a lyric as a flower exhales fragrance.” Like his own skylark, he
sings in profuse strains of unpremeditated art. His lyrics are the outpourings of his heart. His
lyrics are among the most musical lyrics in the English language.

Lyric in the Victorian Era

In the Victorian age, there are a number of lyric-poets of note, Tennyson and
Browning being the greatest of them. Tennyson is a great artist with words and so his lyrics
are characterised by verbal felicity of a high order. His artistic, philosophic and dramatic
interests inhibit and retard his lyrical impulse. Browning, on the other hand, is a great writer
of dramatic lyrics, lyrics in which he does not pour out his own soul, but that of some
imagined character. It is only in a few lyrics like Prospice that he speaks in his own person of
his love for his beloved wife, Elizabeth.

The Modern Lyric

Lyrics also written in the modern age, greatest lyricist came in to existence. John
Drinkwater, Walter Do La Mare, W.H. Davies, James Elory Flecker, John Masefield, and
W.B. Yeats. Lyrics of nature, lyrics of place, patriotic lyrics, love-lyrics, soldier lyrics, lyrics
for children, are some of the categories of the modern lyric.
Conclusion-So lyric become important form of literature. It expanded all over the world .
Question-
What are the features of lyric poetry?

The Ode
Definition:
The Ode is a special kind of poem. It is a serious and composition, it is almost longer
than the Lyric. It is in the form of an address, and is used to write an important public
occasion and national event. The Greek poet Pindar was the first to write odes, and later on
the form was practiced with modification by the Roman poet, Horace.
Origin: - It is originated in ancient Greece. The word ‘ode’ is simply the Greek word
for ‘song’.

Characteristics of the Ode:-

The subject matter of the ode is a very serious and dignified. It is not written on a
frivolous subject. Its theme is dignified and exalted. It has ‘high seriousness’. The poet is
serious and both in the choice of his subject and in the manner of its presentation.
It is longer than the Lyric. It has to express very vast and hence it bigger than the Lyric. It is a
spontaneous overflow of the poet’s emotions. There is full of deep and sincere emotion.

12
It is addressed directly to the being or subject. Its opening lines sometimes contain an
apostrophe (speaks directly to someone who is not present or is dead, or speaks to an
inanimate object) or appeal.
It may be written some time on important occasion, event like a national jubilee and death of
a great person or a founding function of great university.
The ode has metrical pattern, it may be regular or irregular, but it is always elaborate
and often complex and intricate.(small parts are arranged in a complicated way and difficult
way to understand)

Its Kinds:-
There are two important forms of the ode
(1) The Pindaric Ode or Dorian ode
(2) The Horation Ode or Lesbian ode

The Pindaric ode or Dorian ode :

Pindar, the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece (6th to 5th century B.C.) was the father
of the Pindaric Pindaric Odes were written generally in honour of the gods or to sing the
triumphs or victories of rulers or athletes. A Pindaric ode has a fixed stanza-structure or
pattern. The number of stanzas may vary, but they are invariably arranged in groups of three,
each group being called a triad (three things that form a group) The first stanza in each triad
is called a ‘strophe’ – it was chanted by the dancing chorus as it proceeded in one direction.
The second stanza in each triad is called an ante-strophe’ – it was chanted by the chorus as it
returned. The third stanza in each triad is called an ‘epode’, and it was sung when the chorus
was stationary. Just as the total number of stanzas in a Pindaric Ode may vary (Pindar’s odes
range from one triad to thirteen in length) so also there could be variations in the metrical
length of individual lines. Thus the Pindaric Ode has a fixed stanza-pattern but enjoys great
rhythmical and metrical freedom.

The Poet Cowley (1618- 67) was the first poet of England to imitate consciously the
Pindaric odes. The true Pindaric form was written with success by Dryden (Ode to St.
Cecilia and Alexander’s Feast) and then by Thomas Gray (The Bard and the Progress of
Poesy) .Lord Tennyson’s Ode on the death of Duke Wellington; Shelley’s Ode
to Liberty; and Wordsworth’s Ode on the Intimations of Immortality.

The Horatian ode:-

The Horatian ode was simpler in form than the Pindaric A Horatian Ode is a poem
with meter and rhyme. It is devoted to praising a person, animal or object. It is popularised in
Latin by two great Roman Writers, Horace and Catullus. This kind of Ode has been named
after the Latin poet, Horace, who imitated Pindar but with far reaching modifications. The
Horatian ode consists of a number of stanzas with a more or less regular metrical structure
but without any division into triads of the Pindaric. It may be rhymed or unrhymed. This
kind of Ode is light and personal without the elaboration and complexity of the Pindaric.

13
The English Ode:
The poets in England imitated the model of Pindaric or Horation ode but they have also
started a course of their own a regular subject matter and style treatment outlook. The English
ode is two types regular and irregular ode. The regular ode means a serious of stanza, similar
in length. The irregular ode earns are all there stanza are different one. A lyrical stanza in
praise of, or dedicated to someone or something which captures the poet's interest or serves
as an inspiration for the ode.
Many of the Finest English Odes are of this lighter sort. Some notable examples are:
Collin’s Ode to Simplicity and Ode to Evening; Thomas Gray’s Eton
Ode and Wordsworth’s Ode to Duty; Shelley’s Ode of the West Wind; and Keats’ Ode to
Nightingale. The six great odes of Keats The Ode to Psyche, to Melancholy, to Nightingale,
to a Grecian Urn, to Indolence, and to Autumn, have received the highest praises from all
critics of Keats. These odes are a unique phenomenon in English literature. They are Keat’s
greatest claim to immortality. In the Victorian period, Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning
wrote several odes.
Question-
1) Explain ode and its kinds.
2) How many stanzas are in a ode?
3) What is the structure of an ode?
4) What is a Horatian Ode Poem?

The Satire

Its definition:

Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which
vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule. Although satire is usually
meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to
draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. The use of humour, irony,
exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the
context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

The aim of satire is to ridicule folly or vice. It can be used across forms, including in poetry,
drama, prose and even the visual and performing arts.

The satirist makes use of ridicule, sarcasm (the use of remarks which clearly mean the
opposite of what they say, and which is made in order to hurt someone's feelings or to
criticize something in a humorous way) or irony to expose folly (stupid action).The satire is
found in both in poetry and prose. It has no fixed literary form. A verse satire may be written
in the form of ode, an elegy and ballad or anything else. A novel may be written more as a
satire than as a story.

Satire is a literary form employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and
corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It

14
intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses
fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their corruption. A
writer may point a satire toward a person, a country or even the entire world. Usually, a satire
is a comical piece of writing which makes fun of an individual or a society to expose its
stupidity and shortcomings. In addition, he hopes that those he criticizes will improve their
characters by overcoming their weaknesses.

Origin:

The satire has classical origin. The ancient Greek writer Aristophanes wrote satirical
plays. The plays of Greek Aristophanes masterpieces are satire. Its chief exponents in Latin
literature were Horace, Persius, and Juvenal. They were imitated all over Europe During
and after Renaissance. They set Elizabethan and Augustan satire in England. Satirist aim is
to expose whatever he does not approve. He ridicules the vices of his ages, his contemporary
society.

The Features of the satire

1) Satire is written on a person for personal grievance. Sometimes it’s attack on some
social evil so that should be renewed out of the society.
2) Satire is written ridicule not to be abuse. The purpose is to laugh at satire correct
ability more playful than hurtful.
3) Satire should be at the same time forceful & outspoken.
4) A satire must be terse & concise. It must tell a great deal in brief.
5) It is primarily a light of literature.

The Function of Satire-

The role of satire is to ridicule or criticize those vices in the society, which the writer
considers a threat to civilization. The writer considers it his obligation to expose these
vices for the betterment of humanity. Therefore, the function of satire is not to make
others laugh at persons or ideas they make fun of. It intends to warn the public and to
change their opinions about the prevailing corruption/conditions in society.

Subject matter of the Satire –

Main subject of satirist is to exposure. He attacks on the things which he does

not approve in every age, there are vices that can be ridiculed,. The satirist condemns
there follies and weakness of the society. The subject of the Elizabethan age were the
puritan. The women , the courtiers, the dishonest trader & so on. The satire of Dryden
and pope are personal, attacks on the personal, Dryden’s Mackflecknoe, and Popes-
Rape of the Lock. are such as examples. It was age of political satire. Dryden wrote
Don Juan , the greatest burlesque and was admitted to be his work since Hudibra’s of
Samuel Butler. The Personal satire was based on malice while political satire rooted
in prejudice like verse satire is also found in prose and Drama.

15
Famous Examples-

Geoffrey Chaucer & Langland attacked corruption in the church dishonestly of the
traders and the judges. Some of the notable satires in English Poetry are John Dryden’s
Absalom and Achitophel and his Mac Flecknoe, Samuel Butler’s Hudibras, Alexander Pope’s
Dunciad and Lord Byron’s Vision of Judgment. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels is one of
the finest satirical works in English Literature. Swift relentlessly satirizes politics, religion,
and Western Culture. He criticizing party politics in England. Alexander Pope’s The Rape of
the Lock is an example of poetic satire in which he has satirized the upper middle class of
eighteenth century England. It exposes the vanity of young fashionable ladies and gentlemen
and the frivolity of their actions. For example, Pope says about Belinda after losing her lock
of hair. G.B. Shaw plays Attacked social conditions, problems and every aspect of modern
Civilization. There are numerous examples of satire in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. He
uses satire as a tool to share his ideas and opinion on slavery, human nature and many other
issues that afflicted American society at that time.

Sonnet

Definition:-

The sonnet is a fourteen-line poem, expressing one single thought or feeling, written
in iambic pentameter( "Iambic" refers to the type of foot used, here the iamb, which in
English indicates an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable "Pentameter"
indicates a line of five "feet". )which employ one of several rhyme schemes and follows a
strict rhyme scheme and specific structure.

Origin:-

The word sonnet is derived from the Italian word “sonetto,” which means a “little
song” or small lyric. In poetry, a sonnet has 14 lines, and is written in iambic pentameter. It is
a short lyric of fourteen lines and the Italian poet Petrarch was the first to use this form of the
lyric to express his love for his beloved Laura, and its use “became the mark of Petrarchan
love-poetry all over Europe in the 16th century.” Petrarch had divided his sonnets into two
parts, the octave of eight lines and the sestet of six lines.

Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet:

The Italian sonnet is known as Petrachan Sonnet. It is a short poem of fourteen

lines, expressing single thought or feeling. It is composed of two parts. The octave, a stanza
of eight lines and the sestet, a stanza of six. The octave is divided in two stanzas called
quatrains and the sestet is divided in two stanzas called tercets. At the end of octave there is
pause,, followed by volta ( turn in the thought). Its rhyme-scheme was a b, b a, a b, b a, c d
e, c d e.

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Examples-

John Milton’s “When I Consider How my Light Is Spent” and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee” employ this form.

English (Shakespearian) sonnet:-

First English sonnets were introduced by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th
century in England, his sonnets and those of his contemporary the Earl of Surrey were chiefly
translations from the Italian of Petrarch. While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it
was Surrey who gave it a rhyming meter, and a structural division into quatrains of a kind
that now characterizes the typical English sonnet. Sir Thomas Wyatt was the first to write
sonnets in England. It is the Petrarchan form of the sonnet that Wyatt follows.. His great
contemporary Earl of Surrey also wrote sonnets in which he expressed his entirely
imaginative love for Geraldine or Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald. The elegiac note is natural to
him, but his lover’s plaints and sighs mingle with exquisite nature-passages. His sonnets have
great artistic merits. Though he follows the Petrarchan convention of courtly love, he does
not follow the Petrarchan model of the sonnet. He divides his sonnets into
three quatrains, with a couplet at the end, and thus he is the first to use that form of the sonnet
which came to be called Shakespearean from the great dramatist’s use of it. The rhyme-
scheme of this form of the sonnet is a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g.

The form consists of fourteen lines structured as three quatrains and a Couplet. This
example, Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116. He divides his sonnets into three quatrains, with
a couplet at the end. The rhyme-scheme of this form of the sonnet is a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g
g.

Sonnets were first published in as Tottel's Miscellany (1557). It was, however, Sir
Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591) that started the English vogue for sonnet
sequences. the outstanding English examples are Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and
Stella (1591), Spenser's Amoretti (1595), and Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609); later examples
include Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) and W. H. Auden's
'In Time of War' (1939). A group of sonnets formally linked by repeated lines is known as a
series of sonnets. Irregular variations on the sonnet form have included the 12-line sonnet
sometimes used by Elizabethan poets, G. M. Hopkin's curtal sonnets of 10-1/2 lines, and the
16-line sonnets of George Meredith's sequence Modern Love (1862). and generally treat of
the poet's love for some woman, with the exception of Shakespeare's sequence of 154
sonnets. The form is often named after Shakespeare, not because he was the first to write in
this form but because he became its most famous practitioner. The form consists of fourteen
lines structured as three quatrains and a Couplet. This example, Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116.
He divides his sonnets into three quatrains, with a couplet at the end, and thus he is the first to
use that form of the sonnet which came to be called Shakespearean from the great dramatist’s
use of it. The rhyme-scheme of this form of the sonnet is a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g.

17
 In the 20th century, we have Robert Bridge’s admirable sonnet sequence The
Growth of Love. Rupert Brooke and John Masefield have immortalised themselves as writers
of sonnets. Commenting on the English sonnet in the 20thcentury.

The subject matter of the Sonnet:

There is no definite range of subjects for the sonnets; Shakespeare following the
earlier Elizabethans had limited its theme to love. His sonnets are believed to be in a
connected chain or sequence, though the order is a matter of controversy, celebrate his
attachment to a young friend unidentified Mr. W. H. to whom to whom they are dedicated.
Or his love for a mysterious. Dark Lady. The standard subject-matter of early sonnets was
the torments of sexual love (usually within a courtly love convention), but in the 17th century
John Donne extended the sonnet's scope to religion, while Milton extended it to politics.

A stanza may be defined as a group of lines of poetry, forming a unit in

themselves. Thus the stanza is the unit of organisation in poetry, just as the paragraph is in
prose. The stanza-forms of English poetry are so numerous and varied that no complete study
of them can be attempted here; but the following may be mentioned as some of the best
known examples of stanza-forms in English.

The Chaucerian Stanza or Rhyme Royal

Structure
The Chaucerian stanza is so-called because it was first used in England by Chaucer,
“the father of English poetry.” Most probably he borrowed it from France. It is also
called Rhyme Royal because it was used by King James I of Scotland in the 15th century for
his well-known poem King’s Quair.
The Chaucerian Stanza is a stanza of seven Iambic Pentameter lines. In this stanza the first
line rhymes with the third, the second with the fourth and fifth, and the last two lines rhyme
together, thus forming a couplet. The rhyme-scheme is a a b, a b b, c c. The stanza is
particularly suited for narrative verse, and Chaucer used it for several stories
in The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Cressida, The Parliament of Fowls, The Prioress’s Tale,
Clerks Tale, Man of Law’s Tale and Second Nun’s Tale. It is suited for narrative verse. The
seven-line stanza began to go out of fashion during the Elizabethan era but it was still used
by John Davies in Orchestra and by William Shakespeare in The Rape of Lucrece. Edmund
Spenser wrote his Hymn of Heavenly Beauty using rhyme royal but he also derived his
own Spenserian stanza with the rhyme scheme ABABBCBCC partly by adapting rhyme
royal. Like many stanzaic forms, rhyme royal fell out of fashion during the Restoration, and
has never been widely used since. However, William Wordsworth employed rhyme royal
(slightly modified by an alexandrine in the seventh line) in "Resolution and Independence",
and notable twentieth-century poems in the stanza are W. H. Auden's Letter to Lord

18
Byron (as well as some of the stanzas in The Shield of Achilles) and W. B. Yeats's A Bronze
Head.
William Morris, strongly influenced by Chaucer, wrote many parts of The Earthly
Paradise with the rhyme scheme ABABBCBCC and John Masefield used rhyme royal in
some poems, including Dauber.
Geoffrey Chaucer
The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen,
That was the king Priamus sone of Troye,
In lovinge, how his aventures fellen
Fro wo to wele, and after out of Ioye,
My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye,
Thesiphone, thou help me for tendyte
Thise woful vers, that wepen as I wryt (Troilus and Criseyde

The Ottava Rima

Ottava Rima is a stanza of eight Iambic Pentameter lines. The first line rhymes with the third
and fifth, the second with the fourth and sixth, and the last two lines rhyme together, and thus
form a couplet. In other words the stanza consists of six lines rhyming alternately with a
couplet at the end. The rhyme scheme of the stanza is a b, a b, a b, c c.
This stanza-form was first used in England in the early 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt. He
frequently went to Italy on diplomatic missions, and it was from there that he introduced this
stanza – form into England. Like the Chaucerian Stanza it is also well suited for narrative
purpose.
In English, ottava rima first appeared in Elizabethan translations of Tasso and
Ariosto. The form also became popular for original works, such as Michael Drayton's The
Barons' Wars, Thomas Heywood's Troia Britannica, or Aemilia Lanyer's Salve Deus Rex
Judaeorum. William Browne's Britannia's Pastorals also contains passages in ottava rima. The
first English poet to write mock-heroic ottava rima was John Hookham Frere, whose 1817-8
poem Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work used the form to considerable
effect. Lord Byron read Frere's work and saw the potential of the form. He quickly
produced Beppo, his first poem to use the form. Shortly after this, Lord Byron began working
on his Don Juan(1819–1824), probably the best-known English poem in ottava rima. Byron
also used the form for The Vision of Judgment (1822). P.B. Shelley translated the Homeric
Hymns into English in ottava rima. In the 20th century, William Butler Yeats used the form
in several of his best later poems, including "Sailing to Byzantium" and "Among School
Children".
Here is an example of Ottava Rima from Byron’s Don Juan:
Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart,
‘Tis woman’s whole existence; man may range
The court, camp, church, the vessel, and the mart;

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Sword, gown, gain, glory, offer in exchange
Pride, fame, ambition, to fill up his heart,
And few there are whom these cannot estrange;
Men have, all these resources, we but one,
To love again, and be again undone.

Spenserian stanza
It is a stanza consisting of eight Iambic Pentameter lines and an Alexandrine or a line of
twelve syllables at the end. The first line rhymes with the third; the second, fourth, fifth and
seventh lines rhyme together, and the sixth line rhymes with the eighth one and the nineth.
The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic
poem The Faerie Queene (1590–96).The rhyme scheme is a b a b, b c b c, c. It is a very
difficult stanza to handle, for in it one rhyme is repeated four times, and another three times.
This naturally puts a severe strain on the skill and resources of a poet. He must have full
command over language, to find so many words with similar end sounds. Even then the
stanza is admirably suited for long narrative and descriptive poems. Spenser used it with
great success for his Fairy Queen, and ever since poets have frequently used it with more or
less success. In the early (Romantic Period) 18thcentury, James Thomson used it for
his Castle of Indolence. It was used by Lord Byron for his Child Harold, by John Keats
for The Eve of St. Agnes, by P.B.Shelley for The Revolt of Islam and Adonais, and by Lord
Tennyson for The Lotos-Eaters.
Here is an example of the Spenserian Stanza from P.B. Shelley’s Adonais:
Ah woe is me? Winter is come and gone,
But grief returns with the revolving year.
The arts and streams renew their joyous tone;
The ants, the bees, the swallows, reappear;
Fresh leaves and flowers deck the dead Season’s bier
The amorous birds now pair in every brake,
And build their mossy homes in field and brere;
And the green lizard and the golden snake,
Like un imprisoned flames, out of their trance awake,
In Eastern Europe, English stanzaic forms were not very popular, these countries being too
far from England's literary influence. Neither rhyme royal nor the Spenserian stanza occurred
frequently. English rhyme schemes remained unknown until the beginning of the 19th
century, when Lord Byron's poems gained enormous popularity. In Poland the Spenserian
stanza was used by Juliusz Słowacki and Jan Kasprowicz.

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 The Terza Rima
The Terza Rima is simply a group of three lines forming a unit. In this stanza first line
rhymes with the third, and the second line rhymes with the first and third of the following
tercet (group of three lines).
The Terza Rima is an Italian verse-form, and it was first used with great success by the
Italian poet Dante for his monumental epic, The Divine Comedy. In England it was used with
considerable success by P.B Shelley for his Ode to the West Wind. Lord Byron’s Prophecy
of Dante, Rober Browning’s The Statute and the Bust, and William Morris’ The Defence of
Guenevere are also written in this stanza.
The Terza Rima is simply a group of three lines forming a unit. In this stanza first line
rhymes with the third, and the second line rhymes with the first and third of the following
tercet (group of three lines). In this way each tercet is linked up with the next, the first with
the second, the second with the third, and so on. A tercet may be run on or closed. In a run on
tercet the sense overflows or runs on from one tercet to another. On the other hand in the
closed variety, each tercet forms a complete sentence. Both these types have been used
in England, but the run on variety has been generally favoured.
The rhyme-scheme of any two tercets would be a b a, b c b, and so on for the following
tercets.
The first known use of terza rima is in Dante's Divina Commedia, completed in 1320. In
creating the form, Dante may have been influenced by the sirventes, a lyric form used by the
Provençal troubadours. The three-line pattern may have been intended to suggest the Holy
Trinity. Inspired by Dante, other Italian poets, including Petrarch and Boccaccio, began using
the form.
The first English poet to write in terza rima was Geoffrey Chaucer, who used it for
his Complaint to His Lady. Although a difficult form to use in English because of the relative
paucity of rhyme words available in a language which has, in comparison with Italian, a more
complex phonology, terza rima has been used by Wyatt, Milton, Lord Byron (in his Prophecy
of Dante) and P.B. Shelley (in his Ode to the West Wind and The Triumph of Life). Thomas
Hardy also used the form of meter in 'Friends Beyond' to interlink the characters and continue
the flow of the poem. A number of 20th-century poets also employed the form. These
include W. H. Auden, Andrew Cannon, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Jennings, Philip
Larkin, Archibald MacLeish, James Merrill, Jacqueline Osherow, Gjertrud
Schnackenberg, Clark Ashton Smith, Derek Walcott, Richard Wilbur and William Carlos
Williams. Edward Lowbury's adaptation of the form to six syllabled lines has been
named piccola terza rima.
Not surprisingly, the form has also been used in translations of the Divina Commedia.
Perhaps the most notable examples are Robert Pinsky's version of the Inferno, Laurence
Binyon's version of the entire Divina Commedia, Dorothy L. Sayers's and the recent version
by Peter Dale.
A section from Shelley's Ode to the West Wind with a couplet ending, as common in
a sonnet:
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, A
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead B

21
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, A

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, B

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, C
Who chariotest to their dark wintery bed B

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, C

Each like a corpse within its grave, until D
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow C

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill D

Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) E
With living hues and odours plain and hill: D

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; E

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear! E

The Quatrain
A Quatrain is a stanza of four Iambic lines with alternate rhymes i.e. the first line rhymes
with the third, and the second with the fourth. However, variations of this rhyme-scheme are
frequent. Similarly, the length of the lines also varies. The lines may be Pentameter,
Tetrametre, or even shorter. Sometimes, the first and third lines are longer than the second
and fourth lines. Most of the ballads in the English language have been written in Quatrains,
so it is also referred to as the Ballad-stanza. Coleridge’s The Ancient Mariner and Keats’ La
Belle Dame Sans Merci are the two poems in this form which readily come to one’s mind.
Here is an example of a Quatrain from The Ancient Mariner:
The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he !
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

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 The Heroic Couplet

A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic
and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. The
Heroic Couplet consists of two Iambic Pentameter( lines of ten Syllabus) rhyming
together. It is called ‘Heroic’ because Iambic Pentameter verse rhymed or unrhymed, was
first used for epic or heroic poetry.
Each line of the heroic couplet consists of five feet or ten syllables, and the
second syllable of each foot is accented. The two lines of the couplet rhyme, and the rhyme
may be single or double, though Pope, the ablest practitioner of the verse-form, generally
uses single rhymes. In the middle there is a pause, technically called the ‘Caesura’. This
pause generally falls after the fourth and before the sixth syllable. But variations in the
placing of the pause may be skilfully introduced in keeping with the requirements of thought
and emotion. Further, there may be variations not only in the placing of the Caesura but also
in its depth. Sometimes, this pause is so slight that it seems there is no pause at all.
Chief characteristics of the heroic couplet are as:
Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother,
And half the platform, just reflects the other.
There is pause at the end of the first line, indicated by a comma, signifying partial completion
of the sense.There is pause at the end of the couplet, indicated by a full stop, signifying full
completion of the sense.
The rhyme is single, the rhyming parts of each line is single syllable.
The number of syllables is ten, the odd ones unaccented or short, the even accented or long.
The Heroic Couplet was first used in England by Geoffrey Chaucer who might have learned
it from French sources. He used this measure for many of the stories in
the Canterbury Tales. He was followed by Edmund Spenser used it with great skill for
his Mother Hubbard’s Tale, a satirical narrative in verse. The Elizabethan used it with equal
skill in their poetry and drama like William Shakespeare , Christopher Marlowe and Ben
Jonson for the sake of variety of passage. Christopher Marlowe used it with great success
for his Hero and Leander a story telling verse.
However, it was in the Augustan age that the Heroic Couplet came to its own. At the very
beginning of the era poets Waller and Denham showed great skill in its use. “The excellence
and dignity of rhyme,” says John Dryden, “were never fully known till Mr. Waller taught it:
he first made writing easily an art; first showed us to conclude the sense, most commonly in a
distich.” Pope pays a tribute to both:
And praise the vigor of a line,
Where Denham’s strength and Waller’s sweetness join;
In his earlier poetry such as “An Essay on Criticism,” Pope deployed the heroic
couplet. However, it was with Alexander Pope and John Dryden that the couplet entered on
its most glorious phase. Both of them used it as the instrument of their satire. It has been said
that each of their couplets stings and the sting is located in the tail. Dryden used it for
his Absalom and Achitophel and Macflecknoe, and Pope for his Rape of the
Lock and Dunciad. He also used it for such narrative and philosophical works as Essay on
Man and Essay on Criticism. Their use of the couplet is characterised by ease, vigour,

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strength and sweetness. Dryden’s use of it is more flexible, and variety is introduced in
various ways. Often he uses run-on Couplets. Pope’s use of it is rigid. His couplets are
generally of the closed variety. In his hands, the couplet reached perfection; no couplet of his
can be improved upon.Pope was widely imitated throughout the 18th century. But his
followers did not have his genius and his ability and in their hands the couplet degenerated
into a mere mechanical art and became monotonous.
With the coming of the romantics there was a re-action against it. The romantics
turned away from the couplet to other measures. However, the use of the couplet was not
entirely discarded. Lord Byron, P.B. Shelley and John Keats all used it along with other
verse-forms. Moreover, they used the run-on (or enjambed) variety of the couplet and not the
closed one as was the case with Dryden and Pope. Keats’ Lamia is written in run-on couplets.
A generation later, in the Victorian era, the couplet was used first by Robert
Browning and then by William Morris and Swinburne. The couplet continues to be used,
specially for narrative poetry, but it is no longer the exclusive verse-form of English poetry,
as it was in the Augustan Age. It has been considerably loosened, and hardly resembles the
couplets of Pope and Dryden.

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 LITERARY MOVEMENT IN LITERATURE

The Metaphysical School of Poetry

The metaphysical style was established b John Donne , early in the 17th century. Dryden
remarked that ‘ he affects the Metaphysics not only in his satires but in his amorous verses
where nature only should reign. He inspired a host of followers among their were Sir John
Suckling ,John Cleveland , George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan , and
Abraham Cowley.
The term metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose
group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterized by the inventive use
of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse.
The Metaphysical school of poetry arose as a revolt and reaction against the romantic
exuberance and excesses of the Elizabethans, and the great English poet John Donne was the
leader of this revolt. His poetry is remarkable for its concentrated passion, intellectual agility
and dramatic power. He is given to introspection and self-analysis; he writes of no imaginary
shepherds and shepherdesses but of his own intellectual, spiritual and love experiences.
John Donne is the founder of the so-called “Metaphysical school” of poetry, of which
Richard Crashaw, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan and Abraham Cowley are the other
leading poets. Literarily “Meta” means “beyond” and “physics” means “physical nature.” It
was Dryden who first used the word. “Metaphysical” in connection with Donne’s poetry and
wrote, “Donne affects the metaphysics”, and Dr. Johnson confirmed the judgment of Dryden.
Donne’s poetry may be called “metaphysical”, only in as far as its technique or style is
concerned. It is heavily overloaded with “conceits”, which may be defined as the excessive
use of over-elaborated similes and metaphors, drawn from the most farfetched, remote and
unfamiliar sources. Poets have always perceived similarity between dissimilar objects and
used similes and metaphors to convey their perception of that similarity.
The peculiarity of the metaphysical lies in the fact that: (1) They use figures of speech
excessively, (2) Their similes and metaphors are far-fetched and are often drawn from the
most unfamiliar sources, (3) Their similes are elaborated to the farthest limit. (4) The
relationships they perceive are not obvious. They are difficult to understand, (5) Their images
are logical and intellectual, rather than sensuous or emotional. In their “conceits” Donne and
his followers constantly bring together the abstract and the concrete, remote and the near, the
spiritual and the material, the finite and the infinite, the sublime and the commonplace. His
mind moves with great agility from one such concept to another, and it requires an equal
agility on the part of the readers to follow him. Hence the difficult nature of his poetry, and
hence the charge of obscurity that has been brought against him. The difficulty of the readers
is further increased by the extreme condensation and density of metaphysical poetry.
The chief characteristics of metaphysical poetry may be summarised as follows:
1. It is complex and difficult. Most varied concepts are brought together.
2. It is intellectual in tone. There is an analysis of the most delicate shades of
psychological experiences.
3. There is a fusion of emotion and intellect, as there is intellectual analysis of emotions
personally experienced by the poet.
4. It is full of conceits which are learned, intellectual and over-elaborated.

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5. It is argumentative. There is subtle evolution of thought as the poet advances
arguments after arguments to prove his point. He is often like a lawyer choosing the fittest
arguments for the case.
6. Originality is achieved by the use of a new vocabulary drawn from the world of trade
and commerce, the arts, and the sciences.
7. In order to arrest attention often a poem begins abruptly and colloquially, and unusual
rhythms are used. Unusual, compound words are also used for the same purpose.
8. It is often dramatic in form. As has been well said, his poetry presents “a drama of
ideas”. Metaphysical lyrics are dramatic.

In the chapter on Abraham Cowley in his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–
81), Samuel Johnson refers to the beginning of the seventeenth century in which there
"appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets". This does not
necessarily imply that he intended metaphysical to be used in its true sense, in that he was
probably referring to a witticism of John Dryden, who said of John Donne:
"He affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature
only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of
philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softness’s of
love. In this...Mr. Cowley has copied him to a fault."

The Classical Movement

‘The Classic’, Defined and Explained

In the history of English literature, the period of over one hundred years from 1660 to 1789 is
variously called to Augustan Age, the classical age or the Pseudo-classical age or the age of
Neoclassicism. It is called the Augustan age because the writers of the period supposed that
their age was an age of brilliant writers like the age of King Augustus of ancient Rome.
Further, they supposed that their poetry had the same qualities as the poetry of ancient Greece
and Rome, and that they were really and correctly following the rules laid down by the
ancients. In the classical poetry a harmonious balance was maintained between poetic
expression and poetic substance. Pseudo-classicism is the result of a number of factors
working together. Reaction against the fantastic excesses of the metaphysical, the influence
of the French writers and critics, the study of the ancients and great admiration for them, and
the scientific rationalism of the age, all contributed to the growth of Pseudo-classicism.
About the middle of 17th century a huge change came over the English poetic temperament.
Edmund waller and Sir John Denham were the pioneers of the new movement. They led
the reaction against metaphysical excesses by writing charming verses on the classical
model. Dryden and pope were masters of the classical movement. Classical poet were
Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson. They were following rules and regulation of
poetry of classical age in their poetry. They were governed by a spirit of reason and good
sense and were correct. The literary transition from the renaissance to the restoration . this
rule and discipline were accepted and plasticised with enthusiasm by the new school. Their
preoccupation with form encouraged an artificial style. The vocabulary is neither colloquial

26
nor technical . everyday turns of speech were unacceptable. They have introduced new heroic
style. They were writing city life, specially London life.

The Chief characteristics of this school are best represented by its poetry. They may be
summarised as follows:
1. It is characterised by formal perfection. The poets care more for the perfection of their
language than for their subject-matter. They revise and re-revise what they write, and try to
say what they have to say in the fewest possible as well as the best possible words. The poet
must be correct above everything else. Every word which is considered coarse, vulgar and
low is carefully avoided, and in this way loftiness and grandeur are imparted to the language
of poetry. This result in the growth of an artificial poetic diction, and the language of poetry
is cut off from the language of everyday use.
2. The poetry is deficient in emotion and imagination. There is much reasoning and
argumentation and this has a deadening effect on imagination and emotion which are the true
substance of poetry. The poetry of the period has a hard intellectual tone. In this age of ‘prose
and reason’, even poetry has grown prosaic.
3. It is exclusively a poetry of the city. It deals with the life of the court and the courtly
circles i.e. with the life of the fashionable upper classes of the city of London. It is as
artificial and trivial as the artificial and frivolous life it deals with. It has no love for the
humble humanity and for the lower creatures.
4. It has no love for the beauties of nature; the poets rarely take us out of the suffocating
atmosphere of the city into the refreshing atmosphere of the countryside. Dryden has no love
at all for external nature, and in the hands of Pope even ‘nature’ becomes unnatural and
artificial.
5. Imitation of the ancients is the general rule. The poets try to write according to certain
‘rules’ supposed to have been laid down by the ancients. They look down upon the great
English poets with indifference, even contempt. They insist that the rules laid down by the
ancient writers and interpreted by the French critics of the day should be followed correctly
and strictly. This writing by ‘rules’ results in the repression of emotion and imagination and
in correctness and elegance of expression. Instead of spontaneity, we get an artificial poetry
‘correct’ in its diction and versification. Indeed, ‘correctness’ is regarded as the supreme
virtue of a poet.
It should also be noted that the observance of the rules is flexible in the beginning but it
grows more and more rigid with the passing of time. Thus Dryden is ‘flexible’ in his diction
and versification, while Pope is much more rigid. Pope follows the rules more strictly than
does Dryden.
6. In this poetry, there is much reflection and philosophical comment on man and his
life. Generally, their moralising is much superficial, lacking entirely in depth and originality.
The poets moralise on life, but they rarely have anything new or significant to say. That is
why Hudson remarks that the poetry of the Augustan age is in the main, “the product of the
intelligence playing upon the surface of life.”
7. With a few exceptions, the poetry of the age is written in only one metre, the Heroic
couplet i.e. two Iambic Pentameter lines rhyming together. The pseudo-classical couplet is a
‘closed couplet’ in which the sense ends with each couplet, rather than the ‘run on’ couplet in
which the sense runs on from one couplet to another. This kind of couplet was perfected by
the poets Edmund Waller and John Denham. Dryden praised these poets highly for their
handling of the couplet.
8. It is a great age of (a) satiric, (b) argumentative and reflective poetry. Hardly any lyric
and sonnet worth-mentioning belongs to the period

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 The Rise of Romanticism: Brief Historical Survey

It is generally supposed that the English romantic movement began in 1798, with the
publication of The Lyrical Ballads. But it is a mistake to assign any definite date to it. The
poets of the romantic school— William Wordsworth, S.T. Coleridge, P.B. Shelley, John
Keats, etc—were not even the first romantics of England, for the Elizabethan literature is
essentially romantic in spirit. It is also full of that sense of wonder and mystery, that love of
daring and adventure, that curiosity and restlessness, which we associate with the poets of the
early 19th century. Romantic period was 1798-1832.
The romantic movement began as a reaction against the dry intellectuality and artificiality of
the Pseudo classics.
‘Return to Nature’ played a very prominent part in the revival of romanticism. Suffocated
with the cramped and crowded city atmosphere, people longed for the freshness of Nature.
They wanted to return to the free and invigorating life of the world of leaves and flowers. It
was in The Seasons (1730) of James Thomson that nature came to her own for the first time.
This is the first really important poem in which nature, instead of remaining subordinate to
man, is made the central theme. The seed sown by Thomson grew and flourished in the
poetry of such poets as Gray, Collins, Burns, Cowper and Crabbe.
A very important phase of the romantic movement was the medieval revival. Not only were
the ancient masters studied, but old English metres and poetic forms were revived. Bishop
Percy’s Keliques of Ancient English Poetry, Chatterton’s Rowley Poems, and James
Macpherson’s Ossian are important landmarks in the history of English romanticism. They
explain the medievalism of romantics like S.T. Coleridge, Walter Scott and john Keats.
A long step forward in the history of romanticism was taken with the publication of “the
Lyrical Ballads” in 1798. It was now for the first time that the two friends—Wordsworth and
Coleridge—emphasised the aims and objectives of the new poetry. Coleridge pointed out that
he would treat of objects and incidents supernatural, but in such a way as to make them look
real and convincing; Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to deal with subjects taken from
ordinary and commonplace life but so as to cast over them by the magic power of his
imagination the charm of novelty. The former would make the unfamiliar, look familiar, and
the latter would make the familiar look unfamiliar. In this way they enunciated the theory and
methods of the new poetry, gave a new consciousness and purpose to the movement, and thus
opened a new chapter in the history of English Romanticism.
More specially, the French Revolution and the writings of the makers of the Revolution, fired
the imagination of the English romantics. A re-awakening of the love of real and wild nature
and of the simple humanity living in her lap, had been there even before the revolution. But
now it acquired a philosophical basis and gained a fresh stimulus. ‘The Return to Nature’ and
the democratic spirit were nourished and fostered by the Revolution. It also fed and
strengthened the revolutionary idealism of poets like Byron and Shelley.
Keats is a unique phenomenon in the history of English romanticism, in more ways than
one. For one thing, he represents a unique balance of classicism and romanticism. Highly
imaginative and emotional matter is enclosed in forms of perfect beauty. The music and
melody of the romantics is combined with the well-chiselled and highly finished expression
of the classics.
Romanticism: Its Nature and Definitions

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 Romanticism is the name is given to the new tendency the eagerness for new impressions
and new pleasures , to be sought where the handiwork of Nature or of the artist had been
most cunning . it was in revolt against authority, tradition and convention. The teachings of
Rousseau and the principles of the French Revolution helped to form and direct the ideas
of the Romantics. Rousseau preached the return to Nature.

The term “Romanticism” has been variously defined by various writers. Walter Pater, for
example, calls it the “addition of curiosity to the desire of beauty” and Watts Dunton defines
it as, “the renaissance of wonder”, Abercrombie, on the other hand, stresses the subjective
element of romanticism and writes, “Romanticism is a withdrawal from outer experience to
concentrate upon inner experience.” He points out that vagueness, indefiniteness, and a
tendency to disregard reality are essential elements of the Romantic.

The chief characteristics of romantic poetry are:

(a) All romantic literature is subjective. It is an expression of the inner urges of the soul of
the artist. The poet does not care for rules and regulations, but gives free expression to his
emotions. Emphasis is laid on inspiration and intuition rather than on the observance of set
rules. The poet writes according to his own fancy, and is often guilty of wild excesses.
Romantic poetry is fanciful, introspective and is often marked by extravagance. Hence it has
been criticised as irregular and wild. As the poet is free to write on any theme, and in any
form he likes, we have the immense variety of romantic poetry.
(b) Romantic poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful passions. The romantic poet is
gifted with a strong “organic sensibility”, he feels more than there is to feel and sees more
than there is to see. Carried away by his powerful passions and excited imagination, the poet
does not care for the perfection of form or clarity of expression. The result is much vagueness
and obscurity. Substance is more important for him than the form.
(c) The romantic is extraordinarily alive to the wonder, mystery and beauty of the
universe. He feels the presence of unseen powers in nature. This unseen, transcendental world
is more real for him than the world of the senses. The supernatural has a special charm for
him; he is attracted by the stories of fairies, ghosts and witchcraft. His poetry is an expression
of his wonder at the magic and mystery of the universe. Supernaturalism is an important
element in romantic inspiration.
(d) A romantic is a dissatisfied individual. He may be dissatisfied with the circumstances
of his own life, with his age, with literary conventions and traditions of the day, or with the
general fate of humanity. Romantic poetry is, therefore, often pessimistic in tone. A romantic
may revolt against the existing conditions and may seek to reform them, or he may try to
escape into an imaginative world of his own creation. Often he escapes into the past. The
Middle Ages have a special fascination for him, for they not only provide him with an escape
from the sordid realities of the present but also delight his heart by their colour, pageantry
and magic. The remote, the distant and the unknown delight him for this very reason.
While some may escape into the past, (the world of classical antiquity or the Middle Ages)
others may dream of a better and happier world to come and build “utopias” of the future.
They may see vision of a golden age, and sing of it in their poetry. In short, the romantics
look before and after and pine for what is not.
(e) Zest for the beauties of the external world characterises all romantic poetry. Romantic
poetry carries us away from the suffocating atmosphere of critics into the fresh and
invigorating company of the out-of-door world. It not only sings of the sensuous beauty of
nature, but also sees into the “heart of things” and reveals the soul that lies behind.

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(f) Love of Nature leads, by an easy transition, to the love of those who live in her lap.
The romantics have an instinct for the elemental simplicities of life. Their hearts overflow
with sympathy for the poor and the down-trodden. They glorify the innocence and simplicity
of the common man. They try to see into the heart of man and understand human nature.
They find the divine in man, plead for his emancipation from all bondage, and claim equal
rights and liberties for the humblest. The romantic poetry is democratic.
(g) Not only do the Romantics treat of the common man, they also use his language for
their purposes. Thus Wordsworth raised his voice against the inane and artificial diction of
the 18th century classics, and advocated the use of the language of the common man for
purposes of poetry. Indeed, he went to the extent of remarking that there is no essential
difference between the language of poetry and that of prose.
(h) Their interest in the past leads the romantics to experiment with old metres and poetic
forms. The 18th century had confined itself to the use only of one metre i.e. the Heroic
Couplet. With the coming of the romantics there is a revival of a number of ancient metres.
The Spenserian stanza, the ballad metre, the blank verse, the lyric, the ode and the sonnet are
all revived and soon attain wide popularity.
The revival in ancient metres is accompanied with a renewed interest in ancient English
masters. Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, etc, who had suffered an eclipse during the 18th century,
now again come to their own. They, and not Pope or Dryden, now become the chosen literary
models of the poets.
English romanticism is thus both a revolt and a revival; it is a revolt against 18th century
traditions and convention; it is a revival of old English masters of poetry.
Romanticism reaction against rule and custom of the Classical poetry. Romanticism , insists
upon spontaneity and the principle that everyman has a right to utter his thoughts in his
own way. In the works of romantics there is endless variety. Individualism was the key
note of new movement. The romantics commended the simple , natural , country life of
which so many poets had written before them. Romantics favoured subjectivity and
emotionalism, impulse, colour, and the free play of the imagination over a variety of
subjects. The free expression of feeling demanded a lyrical mode of expression. Poetry
became musical . all the romantics poets were lyricists Romantics were fascinated by
medieval life and legend. Their interest was in the revival of the ballad.

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 The Pre-Raphaelites
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Pre-Raphaelitism began in 1848 when a group of seven young artists banded
together against what they felt was an artificial and mannered approach to painting taught at
London’s Royal Academy of Arts. They called themselves the ‘Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’
(PRB), a name that alluded to their preference for late medieval and early Renaissance art
that came ‘before Raphael’. The painters were: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman
Hunt, John Everett Millais, James Collinson and Frederic George Stephens. The non-painters
were sculptor Thomas Woolner and Brotherhood secretary William Michael Rossetti, Dante
Gabriel Rossetti’s brother. Inspired by the work of old masters such as Van Eyck, Memling,
Mantegna, Giotto and Fra Angelico, and following a programme of ‘truth to nature’, the
artists advocated a return to the simplicity and sincerity of subject and style found in an
earlier age. Their aims were vague and contradictory, even paradoxical, which was only to be
expected from a youthful movement made up of strong-minded individuals who sought to
modernise art by reviving the practices of the Middle Ages.
Characterised by flattened perspective, sharp outlines, bright colours and close attention to
detail that flouted classical conventions of symmetry, proportion and carefully
controlled chiaroscuro, early PRB paintings of religious subjects such as Hunt’s A Converted
British Family’, Millais’s Christ in the House of His Parents and Rossetti’s Ecce Ancilla
Domini (1850) shocked critics with a hyper-realism perceived to be at odds with the sacred
events portrayed. The 1850 Royal Academy Exhibition inaugurated what would remain an
antagonistic relationship between establishment critics and the Pre-Raphaelites. Critics were
particularly dismayed at the hints of Tractarianism and Romishness they detected in the
detailed, ecclesiastic symbolism of Millais’ picture. They were further horrified by the
painter’s blasphemous depiction of the Christ child as a red-headed member of an unidealised
labouring-class family. Both Hunt’s and Millais’s paintings hinted at the breakdown of the
social order, a worrying subject during a period where recent revolutions in Europe
threatened to spread to Britain.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) was founded in 1849 by William

Holman Hunt (1827-1910), D.G. Rossetti, John Everett Millais (1829-1896), William
Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Thomas Woolner, and F. G. Stephens to revitalize the
arts. (Even though William and Michael's sister, Christina, never was an official member of
the Brotherhood, she was a crucial member of the inner circle. Although the young would-be
art revolutionaries never published a manifesto, their works and memoirs show that having
read Ruskin's praise of the artist as prophet, they hoped to create an art suitable for the
modern age by:
1. Testing and defying all conventions of art; for example, if the Royal Academy schools
taught art students to compose paintings with (a) pyramidal groupings of figures, (b) one
major source of light at one side matched by a lesser one on the opposite, and (c) an emphasis
on rich shadow and tone at the expense of color, the PRB with brilliant perversity painted
bright-colored, evenly lit pictures that appeared almost flat.
2. The PRB also emphasized precise, almost photographic representation of even humble
objects, particularly those in the immediate foreground (which were traditionally left blurred
or in shade) --thus violating conventional views of both proper style and subject.
3. Following Ruskin, they attempted to transform the resultant hard-edge realism (created by
1 and 2) by combining it with typological symbolism. At their most successful, the PRB
produced a magic or symbolic realism, often using devices found in the poetry
of Tennyson and Browning.

31
4. Believing that the arts were closely allied, the PRB encouraged artists and writers to
practice each other's art, though only D.G. Rossetti did so with particular success.
5. Looking for new subjects, they drew upon Shakespeare, Keats, and Tennyson.
In addition to the formal members of the PRB, other artists and writers formed part of a larger
Pre-Raphaelite circle, including the painters Ford Madox Brown and Charles Collins, the poet
Christina Rossetti, the artist and social critic John Ruskin, the painter-poet William Bell
Scott, and the sculptor poet John Lucas Tupper. Later additions to the Pre-Raphaelite circle
include J. W. Inchnold, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris — and even J. M. Whistler.
The Second Stage of the Movement: Aesthetic Pre-Raphaelitism
The second form of Pre-Raphaelitism, which grows out of the first under the direction of
D.G. Rossetti, is Aesthetic Pre-Raphaelitism, and it in turn produced the Arts and Crafts
Movement, modern functional design, and the Aesthetes and Decadents. Rossetti and his
follower Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) emphasized themes of eroticized medievalism (or
medievalized eroticism) and pictorial techniques that produced moody atmosphere. This form
of Pre-Raphaelitism has most relevance to poetry; for although the earlier combination of a
realistic style with elaborate symbolism appears in a few poems, particularly those of the
Rossettis, this second stage finally had the most influence upon literature. All the poets
associated with Pre-Raphaelitism draw upon the poetic continuum that descends from
Spenser through Keats and Tennyson — one that emphasizes lush vowel sounds, sensuous
description, and subjective psychological states.
Pre-Raphaelitism in poetry had major influence upon the writers of the Decadence as well as
upon Gerard Manley Hopkins and W.B. Yeats, both of whom were also influenced by Ruskin
and visual Pre-Raphaelitism.

Poets of the 1st world war

War, like love, is a constant theme in poetry. In English literature the terms 'war poet' and
'war poetry' were first applied during the Great War, 1914-1918, and referred particularly to
the poetry and verse written by the soldier-poets who served in the trenches of France and
Flanders. In actuality the soldier-poets, including those combatants serving in other branches
of the armed forces, were in the minontyas the vast proportion of poetry and verse written on
the theme of the First World War was written by civilians.
“When the war came to England in 1914, poetry was among the first volunteers”. The
poetry of the first world war of primarily a record of the experience of war is conventionally
heroic terms till the event itself transformed this traditional response. The war fostered an
attitude of unquestioning enthusiasm for heroic pieties and nationalistic feelings.
Poets like Robert Graves with Fairies and Fusiliers,1917, Nicholas with Invocation : war
poems and others; 1915, the most representative poems recording attitude to war are those
of Rupert Brooke . His five war sonnets capture the mood of public exultation in which the
war becomes a focus for self transcendence. The ‘soldier’ becomes the best known sonnets.
It war left for Siegfried sasson , Issac Rosenberg and Wild Own capture the false literary
wrappings from the reality of the war. Sassoons poems in The old Huntsman(1917) and
counter attack(1918)debunk the civilian war.
Issac Rosenberg explain the physical and emotional realities of war without sentiment. The
immediacies of trench life and the indignity of slaughter are vivdly presented in poems like
“ Break of Day in the Trenches” and “Dead Man’s Dump”.
Wilfred Owen played an important contribution to war poetry. His subject of poetry was
war and pity of war. Owen influenced a number of younger poets- W.H. Auden, Spender ,
Mac Niece and Day Lewis were war poets.

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 Poets of the 2nd world war
Poets of the second world war know full that war itself was colossal waste of human life.
The poetry of the second world war lacks the forceful evocation of suffering and pain,
shock and grief. Sideney Keyes (1922-43)in poem entitled “ war poet”. His first volume of
poetry The Iron Laurel in 1942, The Cruel Solstice in 1944. The central theme of his poetry
was death. He portray war as intensifying human condition , the tendencies to greed and
violence that mitigate against peaceful lives. Keys reflecting the war as ineer conflicting of
the individual. Alun Lewis (1915-1944) Raiders Dawn(1942)and Ha! Ha! Among the
trumpets contain his reflections on the war experience. death is the dominant theme of the
poetry. “ The soldier” pens with a description of a soldiers fears of death. “The sentry”
expounds his slavishness to death. wartime experience encompass both civilian and
soldier, the Indian peasant as well as the landless soldier lost in war. Keith Dougles exposes
the detachment the human reality exposed by war. The sardonic attitude was the
characteristics of poetry arises from the visible servitude of millions to machinery.

LITERARY TERMS
Cadence
Definition
In poetry, cadence describes the fall in pitch of the intonation of the voice, and its
modulated inflection with the rise and fall of its sound It is the term used to signal the rising
and falling of the voice when reading a literary piece. In poetry, it is the momentary changes
in rhythm and pitch. Cadences help set the rhythmic pace of a literary piece.
Origin
Cadence is derived from the Latin word cadentia, which means “a falling.”
The rhythmic flow of a sequence of words or sentences in a text is called its cadence.
Cadence is different from metre. Cadence verse is non syllabic, its adherence to the necessity
of breathing while reciting poetry.
Cadence is a musical movement, marked by melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic characteristics.
Cadences are used in poetry and in music. Poets use cadence to put rhythm in their poems.
Cadence plays a significant role in making the sounds and the senses in a poem connect to
each other.

The imagists has substituted metre and used cadence believing that cadence is a more natural
framework for poetry. The basic purpose of cadence is a communicative function that
indicates to the listeners when a part ends, and therefore helps them elucidate the formal
composition of the piece.Cadences are used in poetry and in music, where they sync with a
variety of musical idioms.

Allen Ginsberg’s poems, Howl and Kaddish are good examples of cadence poetry. Also
cadence was used as preferred form for Imagist poets like William Carols Williams,
T.H.Hulme and Ezra Pound.

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Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
(“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare used relatively formal meter and rhyme scheme in his plays and poetry.
However, cadence still has an important role in his works of literature. In the excerpt of his
“Sonnet 18” above, each line is an example of perfect cadence, as each line is end-stopped.
There would be a clear pause after each line if someone were reading this poem aloud.
nce upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

(“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe)

Much modern poetry—notably free verse—deliberately manipulates cadence to create
complex rhythmic effects. James Macpherson's "Ossian poems" are richly cadenced, as is the
poetry of the Symbolists, Walt Whitman, and Amy Lowell.

Caesura
Definition
The term Caesura is a stop or pause in a metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by
a grammatical boundary, in lines of poetry. It is indicated by two parallel vertical lines ||.

Origin
The term caesura is derived from the Latin word caesuras, which means ‘to cut’
In poetry, a caesura is a pause in a line that is formed by the rhythms of natural speech rather
than meter. A caesura will usually occur in the middle of a line of poetry but can occur at the
beginning or the end of a line. These types of caesurae are called medial, initial, and terminal,
respectively. Caesura can be medial (occurring in the middle of line), initial (occurring at the
beginning of poetic line), or terminal (occurring at the end of a poetic line).
The caesura originated from choral poetry. It is used in ancient poetry Homer’s Iliad.
The caesura was extensively used in old and middle English Poetry, in works like Beowulf.
Later works of poetry used freer verse forms and the caesura is considered optional. It is also
used in Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism. It can be found throughout contemporary poet
Derek Walcott’s “The Bounty.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Mother and Poet”.
Examples-
Love the rain, ||the seagull dives
Love the rain, ||it will bring more rain.
The rain, || falls in my backyard where I see it,
Coming down slowly at different rates.
Types of Caesura
Caesural breaks, or caesura, are of two types in poetry:
Feminine Caesura
A feminine caesural pause occurs after a non-stressed and short syllable in a poetic line. This
is softer and less abrupt than the masculine version. For instance:

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“I hear lake water lapping || with low sounds by the shore…”
(The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats)
Masculine Caesura
Masculine pause occurs after a long or accented syllable in a line. It creates a staccato effect
in the poem, such as:
“of reeds and stalk-crickets, || fiddling the dank air,
lacing his boots with vines, || steering glazed beetles”
(The Bounty by Derek Walcott).

Chorus
Definition
The chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of actors who described and
commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation. Greek tragedy
had its beginnings in choral performances, in which a group of 50 men danced and sang
dithyrambs—lyric hymns in praise of the god Dionysus.

Origin
The origins of the chorus in particular may have stemmed out of ancient rites and rituals
with elements of song and dance, and most importantly – the gathering of people. Chorus is
one of the principal vehicles of thought. Tragedy arouse out of the chorus,
whether Dithyrambic or some other sort. The chorus would provide commentary on
actions and events that were taking place before the audience. By doing this the chorus would
create a deeper and more meaningful connection between the characters and the audience.
Secondly, the chorus would allow the playwright to create a kind of literary complexity only
achievable by a literary device controlling the atmosphere and expectations of the audience.
Thirdly, the chorus would allow the playwright to prepare the audience for certain key
moments in the storyline, build up momentum or slow down the tempo; he could underline
certain elements and downplay others.
They are not characters in the play. They serve as a bridge between the actors and the
audience. The chorus is usually the same sex and age as the protagonist –in Aeschylus’s
Agamemnon uses a chorus comprised of elderly men in his play. By the sixteenth century the
chorus was typically a single person who provided a prologue and an epilogue and
occasionally appeared between acts to introduce or underscore an important event.

Chorus, however, plays different role in different tragedies. It is the protagonist in The
Suppliants. In the Prometheus Bound and the Agamemnon, the chorus is the sympathetic
observer rather than an active participant. Sophocles Electra Featured a chorus of the women
of Argos.

In Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound”, the chorus is composed of Oceanids (nymphs from the
ocean, the children of the sea god Oceanus and his wife Tethys).

The use of the Chorus in Elizabethan plays derives ultimately from its use in Ancient
Greek drama. Elizabethan drama featured a single actor as the chorus who narrated the
prologue and the epilogue like in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and William
Shakespeare's King Henry V (1599) and Romeo and Juliet . Marlowe employs chorus
in Doctor Faustus for a number of functions.

The chorus comments on the action in lyrical speeches. Thus they add lyrical splendour to the
drama and help in transforming horror and pain to beauty and music. It also knows the past,

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observes the present and has shrewd sense of the future. It participates in the action in the
sense that it suffers it consequences.
Also chorus become popular in the twentieth Century theatre with playwrights like Eugene
O’ Neill in his Mourning Becomes Electra and T.S. Eliot’s Murder in Cathedral. . Modern
dramas rarely feature a chorus, but T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Arthur Miller's A
View from the Bridge are notable exceptions. In the modern theatre chorus has become
almost of no use. G. B. Shaw has used prefaces and elaborate stage directions which serve the
purpose of the Greek chorus. The Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's Our Town performs a
role similar to that of the chorus. In the works of Nietzsche the chorus takes on a completely
new and profound philosophical meaning. In his The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche presents a
view of a distinct dissonance between what he calls the Apollonian and
the Dionysian paradigms, referencing to the dramatic and choral qualities of Greek drama
respectively. In a metaphysical framework the chorus is the essence of the play and embodies
a certain Dionysian consciousness which deals with the primal realms of the human
condition.

Use of Chorus in Poetry:- A chorus is part of a song or poem that is repeated following
each verse . The Chorus of a song or poem is the part where you repeat a verse or a phrase.
There are various patterns of repeat. The example of a song with a chorus below has a
repeated verse and then a chorus. The example of a poem has just a repeated chorus. A
Chorus refers to a set of lines that are repeated after every stanza. It is also called refrain and
it very popular in balladic poetry such as James Joyce’s the Ballad of Perse O’ Reilly”.
Also chorus is used for emphasis in Walt Whitman’s poetry in “Song of the Redwood Tree”
which employ refrain.

Epilogue

Definition

An epilogue is a chapter at the end of a work of literature, which concludes the

work. It is presented from the perspective of within the story. The noun epilogue can also
refer to the short speech at the end of a play that one of the characters speaks directly to the
audience.

An epilogue is the final chapter at the end of a story that often serves to reveal the fates of
the characters. Some epilogues may feature scenes only tangentially related to the subject of
the story. They can be used to hint at a sequel or wrap up all the loose ends. They can occur
at a significant period of time after the main plot has ended. In some cases, the epilogue is
used to allow the main character a chance to "speak freely". An epilogue can continue in the
same narrative style and perspective as the preceding story, although the form of an epilogue
can occasionally be drastically different from the overall story. It can also be used as a sequel.
In Shakespeare's play The Tempest, the epilogue is a 20-line monologue spoken by
Prospero.

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Origin

An epilogue comes from Greek epílogos, "conclusion, "in addition" and logos, "word"
is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature. Epilogue comes from the Greek
word epilogus meaning the conclusion of a speech.

Examples

A carefree sort of epilogue that marks the end of yet another of Shakespeare’s
plays, As You Like It, spoken by Rosalind:

“… and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women — as I perceive by your
simpering, none of you hates them — that between you and the women the play may please.
If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions
that liked me, and breaths that I defied not. And I am sure as many as have good beards, or
good faces, or sweet breaths will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.”

It clearly shows how happy and contented Rosalind is.

George Orwell appending an epilogue to his novel Animal Farm, as Chapter 10. He, in his
epilogue, presents the situation of the Manor Farm after many years have passed, describing
the fate of the characters who participated in the revolution. He says:

“YEARS passed. The seasons came and went, the short animal lives fled by. A time came
when there was no one who remembered the old days before the Rebellion, except Clover,
Benjamin, Moses the raven, and a number of the pigs.”

Similarly, Orwell tells us about the evolution that has taken place in the dominating pigs that
are still at the helms of power. He says:

“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had
happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from
man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was
which.”

The epilogue in a play, at its best, is a witty piece intended to send the audience home in good
humour. Its form in English theatre during the Renaissance was established by Ben
Jonson in Cynthia’s Revels (c. 1600). Jonson’s epilogues typically asserted the merits of his
play and defended it from anticipated criticism.
The heyday of the epilogue (together with the prologue) in the English theatre was the
Restoration period. From 1660 to the reign of Queen Anne (1702–14), few plays were
produced in London without an epilogue. The widespread use of dramatic epilogues declined
after the 18th century, although they persisted into the 21st century.

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 Genre

Definition
Genre means a type of art, literature, or music characterized by a specific form, content,
and style. For example, literature has four main genres: poetry, drama, fiction, and non-
fiction. All of these genres have particular features and functions that distinguish them from
one another. Hence, it is necessary on the part of readers to know which category of genre
they are reading in order to understand the message it conveys, as they may have certain
expectations prior to the reading concerned.

Origin
The term is derived from the Latin word genus, which means ‘kind” or “sort”.
The ancient Greeks divided literature into prose, poetry and drama. It was latter, drama
subdivided into comedy and tragedy. Each genre and subgenre has specific set of rules
according to the theme, plot, characterization and writing techniques. Literary Genres may
be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even (as in the case of fiction) length.
The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, often with
subgroups. The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological
order) epic, tragedy, comedy, and creative nonfiction. They can all be in the form
of prose or poetry. Literary genres defined on narrative techniques employed tone ,content
or even length.

Types of Genre
There are five types of genres in literature, which include:

Poetry
Poetry is the first major literary genre. All types of poetry share specific characteristics. In
fact, poetry is a form of text that follows a meter and rhythm, with each line and syllable. It is
further subdivided into different genres, such an epic poem, narrative, romantic, dramatic,
and lyric. Dramatic poetry includes melodrama, tragedy, and comedy, while other poems
includes ode, sonnet, elegy, ballad, song, and epic.
Popular examples of epic poems include Paradise Lost, by John Milton, The Iliad and The
Odyssey, by Homer. Examples of romantic poems include Red Red Rose, by Robert
Burns. All these poetic forms share specific features, such as they do not follow paragraphs
or sentences; they use stanzas and lines instead. Some forms follow very strict rules of length,
and number of stanzas and lines, such as villanelle, sonnet, and haiku. Others may be free-
form, like Feelings, Now, by Katherine Foreman, which is devoid of any regular meter
and rhyme scheme. Besides that, often poetry uses figurative language, such
as metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, and alliteration to create heightened effect.

Drama
Drama is a form of text that is performed in front of an audience. It is also called a play. Its
written text contains dialogues, and stage directions. This genre has further categories such as
comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy. William Shakespeare is known as the father of English
drama. His well-known plays include Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet, and
Hamlet. Greek playwrights were the pioneers in this field, such as Sophocles’
masterpiece Oedipus Rex, and Antigone, while modern dramas include Death of a Salesman,
by Arthur Miller.

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Prose
This type of written text is different from poetry in that it has complete sentences organized
into paragraphs. Unlike poetry, prose focuses on characters and plot, rather than focusing on
sounds. It includes short stories and novels, while fiction and non-fiction are its sub genres.
Prose is further categorized into essays, speeches, sermons, and interpretations.

Fiction
Fiction has three categories that are, realistic, non-realistic, and semi-fiction. Usually, fiction
work is not real and therefore, authors can use complex figurative language to touch readers’
imaginations. Unlike poetry, it is more structured, follows proper grammatical pattern, and
correct mechanics. A fictional work may incorporate fantastical and imaginary ideas from
everyday life. It comprises some important elements such as
plot, exposition, foreshadowing, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Popular
examples of literary fiction include, James Joyce’s novel A Portrait of an Artist as a Young
Man, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and Harper
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Non-Fiction
Non-fiction is a vast category that also has sub-genres; it could be creative like a
personal essay, or factual, like a scientific paper. It may also use figurative language,
however, not unlike poetry, or fiction has. Sometimes, non-fiction may tell a story, like
an autobiography, or sometimes it may convey information to readers.
Other examples of non-fiction include biographies, diaries, memoirs, journals, fantasies,
mysteries, and romances. A popular example of non-fiction genre is Michael Pollan’s highly
celebrated book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which is an
account of the eating habits of Americans.

Function of Genre
Different genres have different roles. For example, fiction and dramatic genres help students
and writers learn and improve their communication skills. A poetic genre, on the other hand,
enhances imaginative and emotional power of the readers. Non-fictional texts and essays help
readers develop analytical and persuasive capabilities. However, the major function of genre
is to establish a code of behaviour between the writers and audience, and keep the readers
informed about the topics discussed or the themes presented.

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 Gothic Novel
Definition
The Gothic novel is a literary genre, in which the prominent features are mystery, doom,
decay, old buildings with ghosts in them, madness, hereditary curses and so on.
Fiction having a prevailing atmosphere of mystery and terror.

Origin
The term Gothic novel is derived from Horace Walpole’s novel The Castle of Otranto,
subtitled "A Gothic Story" in 1764.
Gothic horror is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror,
death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with
his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled (in its second edition) "A Gothic Story". The
effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary
pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. It originated in England in
the second half of the 18th century where, following Walpole, it was further developed
by Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford and Matthew Lewis. Clara Reeve,
best known for her work The Old English Baron (1778), set out to take Walpole's plot and
adapt it to the demands of the time by balancing fantastic elements with 18th-century realism.
The genre had much success in the 19th century, as witnessed in prose by Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein and the works of Edgar Allan Poe as well as Charles Dickens with his
novella, A Christmas Carol, and in poetry in the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord
Byron. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram
Stoker's Dracula. The name Gothic, which originally referred to the Goths, and then came to
mean "German", refers to the (pseudo)-medieval buildings, emulating Gothic architecture, in
which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of romanticism was very popular
in England and Germany. The English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the
German Schauerroman and the French Roman Noir.

Elements of Gothic novel

Virginal maiden – young, beautiful, pure, innocent, kind, virtuous and sensitive. Usually
starts out with a mysterious past and it is later revealed that she is the daughter of an
aristocratic or noble family.
Matilda in The Castle of Otranto – She is determined to give up Theodore, the love of her
life, for her cousin's sake. Matilda always puts others first before herself, and always believes
the best in others.
Adeline in The Romance of the Forest – "Her wicked Marquis, having secretly immured
Number One (his first wife), has now a new and beautiful wife, whose character, alas! Does
not bear inspection." As this review states, the virginal maiden character is above inspection
because her personality is flawless. Hers is a virtuous character whose piety and unflinching
optimism cause all to fall in love with her.
Older, foolish woman
Hippolita in The Castle of Otranto – Hippolita is depicted as the obedient wife of her tyrant
husband who "would not only acquiesce with patience to divorce, but would obey, if it was
his pleasure, in endeavouring to persuade Isabelle to give him her hand". This shows how
weak women are portrayed as they are completely submissive, and in Hippolita's case, even
support polygamy at the expense of her own marriage.
Madame LaMotte in The Romance of the Forest – naively assumes that her husband is
having an affair with Adeline. Instead of addressing the situation directly, she foolishly lets
her ignorance turn into pettiness and mistreatment of Adeline.

40
Hero
Theodore in The Castle of Otranto – he is witty, and successfully challenges the tyrant, saves
the virginal maid without expectations
Theodore in The Romance of the Forest – saves Adeline multiple times, is virtuous,
courageous and brave, self-sacrificial
Tyrant/villain
Manfred in The Castle of Otranto – unjustly accuses Theodore of murdering Conrad. Tries to
put his blame onto others. Lies about his motives for attempting to divorce his wife and
marry his late son's fiancé.
The Marquis in The Romance of the Forest – attempts to get with Adeline even though he is
already married, attempts to rape Adeline, blackmails Monsieur LaMotte.
Vathek – Ninth Caliph of the Abassides, who ascended to the throne at an early age. His
figure was pleasing and majestic, but when angry, his eyes became so terrible that "the
wretch on whom it was fixed instantly fell backwards and sometimes expired". He was
addicted to women and pleasures of the flesh, so he ordered five palaces to be built: the five
palaces of the senses. Although he was an eccentric man, learned in the ways of science,
physics, and astrology, he loved his people. His main greed, however, was thirst for
knowledge. He wanted to know everything. This is what led him on the road to damnation."
Bandits/ruffians
They appear in several Gothic novels including The Romance of the Forest in which they
kidnap Adeline from her father.
Clergy – always weak, usually evil
Father Jerome in The Castle of Otranto – Jerome, though not evil, is certainly weak as he
gives up his son when he is born and leaves his lover.
Ambrosio in The Monk – Evil and weak, this character stoops to the lowest levels of
corruption including rape and incest.
Mother Superior in The Romance of the Forest – Adeline fled from this convent because the
sisters weren't allowed to see sunlight. Highly oppressive environment.
Characterized by its castles, dungeons, gloomy forests and hidden passages, from the Gothic
novel genre emerged the Female Gothic. Guided by the works of authors such as Ann
Radcliffe, Mary Shelley and Charlotte Brontë, the Female Gothic permitted the introduction
of feminine societal and sexual desires into Gothic texts.
The Supernatural Explained – as this technique was aptly named – is a recurring plot device
in Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest. The novel, published in 1791, is among Radcliffe's
earlier works.
The most famous parody of the Gothic is Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey (1818) in
which the naive protagonist, after reading too much Gothic fiction, conceives herself a
heroine of a Radcliffian romance and imagines murder and villainy on every side, though the
truth turns out to be much more prosaic.
Gothic genre were seen in the work of the Romantic poets. Prominent examples
include Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel as well
as John Keats' La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) and Isabella, or the Pot of Basil (1820)
which feature mysteriously fey ladies. In the latter poem the names of the characters, the
dream visions and the macabre physical details are influenced by the novels of premiere
Gothicist Ann Radcliffe. Percy Bysshe Shelley's first published work was the Gothic
novel Zastrozzi (1810), about an outlaw obsessed with revenge against his father and half-
brother. Shelley published a second Gothic novel in 1811, St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian,
about an alchemist who seeks to impart the secret of immortality.

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 Humour

Definition

Humor is a literary tool that makes audiences laugh, or that intends to induce
amusement or laughter. Its purpose is to break the monotony, boredom, and tedium, and
make the audience’s nerves relax. The writer uses different techniques, tools, words, and
even full sentences in order to bring to light new and funny sides of life. Humor is often
found in literature, theater, movies, and advertising, where the major purpose is to make the
audience happy.

Origin

The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the
balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: humor, "body fluid"),
controlled human health and emotion. The term humour is derived from the ancient Greek
medical tradition of bodily humour. This theory says that human body controlled by four
humours- bile, blood, choler, and phlegm. If one humour was in excess or in deficit, however
the individual would be afflicted with physical or mental disease.

The theory of humour has been explored in a literary genre called comedy of humours.
Comedy of humours, a dramatic genre most closely associated with the English
playwright Ben Jonson from the late 16th century. In his play Every Man Out of His
Humour (1599), Jonson explains that the system of humours governing the body may
by metaphor be applied to the general disposition, so that a peculiar quality may so possess a
person as to make him or her act in one way. Jonson’s characters usually represent one
humour and, thus unbalanced, are basically caricatures. Jonson distinguished two kinds of
humour: one was true humour, in which one peculiar quality actually possessed a man, body
and soul; the other was an adopted humour, or mannerism, in which a man went out of his
way to appear singular by affecting certain fashions of clothing, speech, and social habits.

In Elizabethan period, William Shakespeare and George Chapman use the humour in their
drama. This form of dramatic genre deals with intrigues and relations of ladies and gentlemen
living in a sophisticated society. This form relies upon high comedy, derived from sparkle
and wit of dialogues, violations of social traditions, and good manners, by nonsense
characters like jealous husbands, wives, and foppish dandies. We find its use in Restoration
dramatists, particularly in the works of Wycherley and Congreve.

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 Imagery
Definition
Imagery is the use of vivid, visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in
a literary work.
Figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to
our physical senses. It is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual
representation of ideas in our minds. The word “imagery” is associated with mental pictures.
As a literary device, imagery consists of descriptive language that can function as a way for
the reader to better imagine the world of the piece of literature and also add symbolism to the
work. Imagery draws on the five senses, namely the details of taste, touch, sight, smell,
and sound. Imagery can also pertain to details about movement or a sense of a body in motion
(kinesthetic imagery) or the emotions or sensations of a person, such as fear or hunger
(organic imagery or subjective imagery).

There are seven types of imagery; each of them belongs to different sense, feeling or action.

Visual imagery describes what we see: comic book images, paintings, or images directly
experienced through the narrator’s eyes. Visual imagery may include:
Color, such as: burnt red, bright orange, dull yellow, verdant green, and Robin’s egg blue.
Shapes, such as: square, circular, tubular, rectangular, and conical.
Size, such as: miniscule, tiny, small, medium-sized, large, and gigantic.
Pattern, such as: polka-dotted, striped, zig-zagged, jagged, and straight. S.T. Coleridge’s
Kubla Khan, William Wordsworth’s Daffodils and Lucy have visual Imagery.

Auditory Imagery
Auditory imagery describes what we hear, from music to noise to pure silence. Auditory
imagery may include:
Enjoyable sounds, such as: beautiful music, birdsong, and the voices of a chorus.
Noises, such as: the bang of a gun, the sound of a broom moving across the floor, and the
sound of broken glass shattering on the hard floor.
The lack of noise, describing a peaceful calm or eerie silence.
John Keats Ode to the Autumn uses Auditory Imagery.

Olfactory Imagery
Olfactory imagery describes what we smell. Olfactory imagery may include:
Fragrances, such as perfumes, enticing food and drink, and blooming flowers.
Odors, such as rotting trash, body odors, or a stinky wet dog.
Robert Frost’s After Apple Picking

Gustatory Imagery
Gustatory imagery describes what we taste. Gustatory imagery can include:
Sweetness, such as candies, cookies, and desserts.
Sourness, bitterness, and tartness, such as lemons and limes.
Saltiness, such as pretzels, French fries, and pepperonis.
Spiciness, such as salsas and curries.
Savoriness, such as a steak dinner or thick soup.

Tactile Imagery
Lastly, tactile imagery describes what we feel or touch. Tactile imagery includes:
Temperature, such as bitter cold, humidity, mildness, and stifling heat.

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Texture, such as rough, ragged, seamless, and smooth.
Touch, such as hand-holding, one’s in the grass, or the feeling of starched fabric on one’s
skin.
Movement, such as burning muscles from exertion, swimming in cold water, or kicking a
soccer ball.

Kinesthesia Imagery
Kinesthesia is a type of imagery that is used as a poetic device. It is a poetic device that gives
a feeling of natural, or physical bodily movement or action (like a heartbeat, a pulse, and
breathing). It also refers to tension along with the movement.
kinesthetic imagery is the representation of the actions and movements of an object or
a character. Famous authors William Shakespeare and William Wordsworth, respectively,
wrote the following examples of kinesthesia:
“This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice…”
(Measure for Measure, by William Shakespeare)
Above, Shakespeare presents the phrases “warm motion,” and “clod” as kinesthetic imagery.
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance…”
(I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth)

Organic Imagery
Organic imagery / subjective imagery, pertains to personal experiences of a character's body,
including emotion and the senses of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and pain

Intonation

Definition
The rise and fall of the voice when speaking, especially when this has an effect on
the meaning of what is said. Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech.
In linguistics, intonation is variation in spoken pitch when used, not for distinguishing words
(a concept known as tone), but, rather, for a range of other functions such as indicating the
attitudes and emotions of the speaker, signalling the difference between statements and
questions, and between different types of questions, focusing attention on important elements
of the spoken message and also helping to regulate conversational interaction.
In speech, intonation is the use of changing (rising and falling) vocal pitch to
convey grammatical information or personal attitude. Intonation is particularly important in
expressing questions in spoken English. For example, take the sentence, "When does the
meeting start?" The word "start"—including the question mark—rises up or comes up in your
voice when you utter the word

The three main patterns of intonation in English are: falling intonation, rising intonation and
fall-rise intonation.
Falling intonation
Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a phrase
or a group of words. A falling intonation is very common in wh-questions.
Where’s the nearest p↘ost-office?

44
What time does the film f↘inish?
We also use falling intonation when we say something definite, or when we want to be very
clear about something:
I think we are completely l↘ost.
OK, here’s the magaz↘ine you wanted.

Rising intonation
Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. Rising intonation is
common in yes-no questions:
I hear the Health Centre is expanding. So, is that the new d↗octor?
Are you th↗irsty?

Fall-rise intonation
Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises. We use fall-rise intonation at
the end of statements when we want to say that we are not sure, or when we may have more
to add:
I do↘n’t support any football team at the m↘om↗ent. (but I may change my mind in future).
It rained every day in the firs↘t w↗eek. (but things improved after that).
We use fall-rise intonation with questions, especially when we request information or invite
somebody to do or to have something. The intonation pattern makes the questions sound
more polite:
Is this your cam↘er↗a?
Would you like another co↘ff↗ee?

In speech, intonation is the use of changing (rising and falling) vocal pitch to
convey grammatical information or personal attitude. Intonation is particularly important in
expressing questions in spoken English. For example, take the sentence, "When does the
meeting start?" The word "start"—including the question mark—rises up or comes up in your
voice when you utter the word.

Key components of Intonation : Intonation is based on several key components: Pitch,

Sentence stress, Rhythm

Pitch: Pitch is the degree of heigh of our voice in speech. Normal speaking pitch is at
midlevel. Intonation is formed by certain pitch changes, characteristic of a given language.
Sentence stress: Sentence stress makes the utterance understandable to the listener by making
the important words in the sentence stressed, clear and higher in pitch, and by shortening and
obscuring the unstressed words. Sentence stress provides rhythm in connected speech.
An important feature of English Intonation: is the use of an intonational accent ( and extra
stress) to mark the focus of a sentence. Normally this focus accent goes on the last major
word of the sentence.
Functions of Intonation :
attitudinal functions
accentual functions
grammatical functions
discourse functions
Attitudinal functions: allow us to express emotions: finality, confidence, interest surprise,
doubt, joy, pain, irony, etc.
Accentual functions: when it is said that intonation has accentual function, it implies that the
placement of stress is somewhat determined by intonation.

45
Grammatical functions: the listener is better able to recognize the grammar and syntax
structure of what is being said by using the information contained in the intonation , e.g. the
difference between questions and statements.
The discourse functions of intonation: intonation can signal to the listener what is to be taken
as „new” information and what is already „given”. In conversation it can convey to the
listener what kind of response is being expexted from him.
Types of English Intonation: the two basic types are falling intonation and rising intonation.
Other main types of intonation include : high fall, low fall, fall-rise, high rise, midlevel rise,
low rise.
Falling intonation is the most common type of standard unemphatic intonation in English. It
is used for asking and giving information in normal, quiet, unemphatic style. Sounds more
categorical, confident and convincing than rising intonation.
Standard patterns:
falling information is used on the last stressed syllable of the setence in:
Statements (declarative sentences) :We live in \MOScow. He doesn’t have a \CAR.
Special questions: Where do you \ LIVE.
Commands (imperative sentences): \STOP it! Sit\ DOWN.
Exclamatory sentences: What a wonderful sur\PRISE!
The last part of alternative questions (after “or”) Do you want /TEA or \COFfee?
Tag questions (When we the speaker is sure that the answer will be “yes”): You \LIVE here,
\DON’T you?(The speaker is sure and expects the answer “yes”).
Rising intonation in English is a pretty complicated phenomenon. It can express a number of
various emotions such as : non-finality, surprise, doubt, politeness, interest, lack of
confidence. Standard rising intonation in English first goes down a little and then up.
Standard patterns:
Rising intonation is used in:
General questions: Was he glad to /SEE him?
Dependent or introductory parts of sentences: If he /CALLS, ask him to /COME.
the first part of alternative questions (before “or”): Would you like an /APPle or a /PEAR ?
Direct address: /SIR, you dropped your \NOTEbook.
Enumerating items in a list: She bought / bread, /cheese and to \MAtoes.
Tag questions: ( When we the speaker is not sure that the answer will be “Yes” or wants
your opinion): It’s a beautiful \ TOWN, ISN’T it ? ( The speaker thinks that the town is
beautiful but asks for your opinion and confirmation).

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 Melodrama
Definition –
Melodrama is a subgenre of drama, which is an exaggerated form of this genre.
Melodramas deal with sensational and romantic topics that appeal to the emotions of the
common audience.

Origin
The term is derived from the French word melodrame, which means ‘musical play’. it is a
play with orchestral music and songs woven into the narrative.
Features
The melodrama is crudely sensational, depending for its effect on physical action. The
behavior and language uses theatrical. The plot moves around intrigue and violence. The
characters are only puppets in story of crime, revenge. The hero and heroine are the
embodiments of virtue and the villain is the monster and represents vices. Its characters are
mere puppets in an extravagant story of crime, revenge or retribution, the evils of drinks or
gambling, lost wills, missing heirs. it made use of melody and music, while modern
melodramas may not contain any music at all. In fact, a melodrama gives preference to a
detailed characterization where characters are simply drawn, one-dimensional, or stereotyped.
Typically, melodrama uses stock characters including a heroes, heroines, and villains.

Function of Melodrama
Melodrama is an exaggerated form of drama, where authors enhance the storylines in order to
tug the heartstrings of the audience. Typically, these types of dramas focus on sensational
plots that revolve around tragedy, unrequited love, loss, or heightened emotion; featuring
long-suffering protagonists, especially females, attempting in vain to overcome impossible
odds. Its purpose is to play on the feelings and emotions of the audience. We see the use of
melodramatic plots more often in films, theater, television, radio, cartoons, and comics.

Development & Examples -

Originally a term for musical theatre, by the nineteenth century this became the
designation of a suspenseful, plot-oriented drama featuring all-good heroes, all-bad villains,
simplistic dialogue, soaring moral conclusions, and bravura acting. The melodramatic
elements found in earlier plays like Spanish tragedy by Thomas Kyd and Duchess of Malfi by
John Webster. These plays were popular for their wonderful scenic devices in the
representation railways accidents, fires, floods, earthquakes and shipwreck. The first play to
be called a melodrama was Thomas Holcraft’s play A tale of Mystery. J.K. Rowling’s Harry
Porter series became a blockbuster hit, expresses fantasy and fiction lovers. Ray Bradbury’s
Fahrenheit 451expresses nuclear destruction, Animal Farm by George Orwell expresses
Dangers of Communism and its negative impact on people’s life.
The melodramatic events is used in the novels of Wilkie Collins The Woman in White and
Elizabeth Bradmon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. These melodramatic traits are present in Gothic
novels, western stories, and popular films.

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 Paradox

Definition
A paradox is a figure of speech in which a statement appears to contradict itself.
A paradox is a statement that, despite apparently sound reasoning from true premises, leads to
an apparently-self-contradictory or logically unacceptable conclusion. It is a statement that
appears to be self-contradictory or silly, but which may include a latent truth. It is also used
to illustrate an opinion or statement contrary to accepted traditional ideas.

Origin
The term paradox is from the Greek word paradoxon, which means “contrary to
expectations, existing belief, or perceived opinion.”

Examples in Everyday life.

Your enemy’s friend is your enemy.
I am nobody.
“What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young.” – George Bernard Shaw
Wise fool
Truth is honey, which is bitter.
“I can resist anything but temptation.” – Oscar Wilde

Examples in Literature
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, one part of the cardinal rule is this statement:
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
This statement seems to not make any sense. Orwell points out a political truth, the
government in the novel claims that everyone is equal, but it has never treated everyone
equally. It is the concept of equality stated in this paradox that is opposite to the common
belief of equality.
Hamlet (By William Shakespeare)
In William Shakespeare’s famous play Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet says:
“I must be cruel to be kind.”
This act of Hamlet will be a tragedy for his mother, who is married to Claudius. Hamlet does
not want his mother to be the beloved of his father’s murderer any longer, and so he thinks
that the murder will be good for his mother.
In his short lyric My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold, William Wordsworth remembers the
joys of his past and says:
“The child is father of the man…”
The poet is saying that the childhood experiences become the basis for all adult occurrences.
The childhood of a person shapes his life, and consequently “fathers” or creates the grown-up
adult. So, “The child is father of the man.”

"The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot."

(Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854)
"If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness."
(Alexander Smith, "On the Writing of Essays." Dreamthorp, 1854)
"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more
love."(attributed to Mother Teresa)
"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery."

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"Ignorance is strength."
(George Orwell, 1984)
“Paradoxically though it may seem . . ., it is none the less true that life imitates art far more
than art imitates life.”(Oscar Wilde)
"Language . . . has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has
created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone."
(Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now, 1963)
"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
(C.S. Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, to whom he dedicated The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe)
"Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America—that we are fixed and
certain only when we are in movement."
(Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again, 1940)
"Yes, I must confess. I often find myself more at home in these ancient volumes than I do in
the hustle-bustle of the modern world. To me, paradoxically, the literature of the so-called
'dead tongues' holds more currency than this morning's newspaper. In these books, in these
volumes, there is the accumulated wisdom of mankind, which succors me when the day is
hard and the night lonely and long."
(Tom Hanks as Professor G.H. Dorr in The Ladykillers, 2004)
The Paradox of Catch-22
"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one's own
safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.
Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he
would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly
more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he
was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to." (Joseph
Heller, Catch-22, 1961)

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 Pastoral

Definition

The Pastoral refers to literature set in rural settings, focusing on rural themes and
imagery and in general. The pastoral tradition refers to a lineage of creative works that
idealize rural life and landscapes, while the term "pastoral" refers to individual poems or
other works in the tradition. A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around
open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It
lends its name to a genre of literature arise in poetry, drama, and prose, art, and music that
depicts such life in an idealized manner, typically for urban audiences.

Origin

A pastoral is a work of this genre, also known as bucolic, meaning a cowherd. As a

genre, mode, or convention in poetry (as well as in literature generally, art, and music), The
pastoral tradition can be traced back to Hesiod, a Greek oral poet active between 750 and 650
BCE, roughly the same time as Homer. His most famous poem, Works and Days, is part
farmer's almanac and part didactic exploration of the nature of human labor. Following
Hesiod, the first written examples of pastoral literature are commonly attributed to the
Hellenistic Greek poet Theocritus, who in the 3rd century BCE wrote Idylls, short poems
describing rustic life. The term idyll means "little scenes" or "vignettes."

In 38 BCE, the Roman poet Virgil famously published his Eclogues in Latin. His second
great work, the Georgics, was modelled after Hesiod and praise the experiences of farm life.

In Virgil's First Georgic, the speaker is instructive, describing how the work is done:

The time has come for my groaning ox to drag

My heavy plow across the fields, so that
The plow blade shines as the furrow rubs
against it.
Not till the earth has been twice plowed, so twice
Exposed to sun and twice to coolness will
It yield what the farmer prays for...

During the Italian Renaissance several poets imitated Virgil, including Dante, Petrarch, and
Boccaccio, followed by Bernardo Tasso, Luigi Tansillo, and Giambattista Marino. These
later poets wrote examples of the pastoral lyric, shorter poems describing beautiful rural
landscapes and depicting the country as a setting of innocence.

Ironically, the conventions of the pastoral genre were established by sophisticated urban
poets whose beautific portrayals of rural life perpetuated fantasies and misconceptions about
the rural lifestyle. Descriptions of undemanding rustic chores, such as watching over sheep
from atop a sunny hill, functioned for some poets as critiques of city or court life. The
seemingly perfect leisure of outdoor solitude also embodies erotic fantasies, as shepherds are
portrayed chasing after pretty young girls, abandoning their responsibilities.

50
The earliest examples of the pastoral style in English appeared in the late Renaissance period.
A collection titled Eclogues by Alexander Barclay was published in the early 16th century,
but the pastoral mode in English was established later, when Edmund Spenser published his
debut work, The Shepherds Calendar. The collection inspired countless pastoral verse deep
into the 17th century. Imitated by Michael Drayton (The Shepherd's Garland), William
Browne (Britannia's Pastorals), and later by Alexander Pope (Pastorals),
Spenser's Calendar also proceeded the country house poems of Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick,
and others, which describe the landscapes on which estates and manors of wealthy families
were founded.

One of the most well-known love poems in the English language, "The Passionate Shepherd
to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe, is a pastoral. Throughout the poem, the speaker
describes the beauty of the landscape as a means for wooing his love interest:

A belt of straw and ivy buds,

With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

Published in 1599, six years after Marlowe's death, the poem inspired popular "anti-pastoral"
works, most famously "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" (1600) by Sir Walter Raleigh.
Other poems countering the tradition include Sir Philip Sidney's "The Twenty-Third Psalm"
and "The Nightingale."

Another sub-genre of pastoral poetry is the pastoral elegy, in which a poet, in the form of a
shepherd, mourns the death of a friend. The most famous pastoral elegy is John
Milton's Lycidas, written on the death of Edward King, a respected colleague at Cambridge
University. Other examples include Thomas Gray's "Elegy on a Country Churchyard" (1750),
Shelley's Adonais, and Matthew Arnold's Thyrsis. The pastoral elements occur in the
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence, William Wordsworth’s Preface and other poems in
Lyrical Ballads.

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 Prologue
Definition

A prologue is an introductory section to a literary work. Its purpose is to introduce

themes and characters that will appear later in the main body of the text and to provide
necessary background material for understanding the story.

Origin
Prologue comes from the Greek prólogos, meaning “before” and “word,”
prologues were invented by the playwright Euripedes to take the place of an explanatory first
act. In some cases, prologues contain expository details so that the author need not contrive
ways of including this information later on. In other cases, particularly in postmodern
fiction, the prologue is another occasion to play with themes of intertextuality and romantic
irony.
Generally speaking, the main function of a prologue tells some earlier story, and connects it
to the main story. The definition of prologue is opposite to that of the epilogue, a separate
section of the text that provides a conclusion and answers questions.
In England, medieval mystery plays and miracle plays began with a homily. In the 16th
century, Thomas Sackville used a dumb show (pantomime) as a prologue to the first
English tragedy, Gorboduc; William Shakespeare began Henry IV, Part 2 with the character
of Rumour to set the scene, and Henry V began with a chorus. The Plautine prologue was
revived by Molière in France during the 17th century.
The early English dramatists were influenced by the traditions of prologues in Greek and
Latin plays. Even the early forms of drama, mystery, and morality plays always began with
a homily, which was a religious commentary on the biblical story that was to be performed in
those plays. Elizabethan dramatists took inspiration from the Greek and Latin tradition of
prologue, holding it as a compulsory ingredient of their plays.
In 1562, Thomas Norton, and Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset wrote Gorboduc, which is
believed to be the first English play. He prepared a pantomime that acted as a prologue for his
play. Later, he wrote Induction, which was a prologue to his Miscellany of short romantic
epics.
A prologue to Elizabethan plays usually served to quieten and settle down an audience before
the commencement of a play. It then introduced the themes of the play and other particulars
to the audience, making them mentally prepared for the events they were to witness in the
performance. Also, it was considered necessary to beg their leniency for any error that might
occur in the writing of the play, or in the performances of actors on stage.
Usually, the character who uttered the prologue was dressed in black, in order to differentiate
him from the rest of the actors who wore colorful costumes during their performances. For
instance, read the following lines from the prologue in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The
Chorus in the extract not only introduces the theme, but also asks the audience to be attentive
“with patient ears attend.”
While the use of prologues (along with epilogues) waned in the English theatre after the
Restoration period, they persisted in various forms across the world’s theatres and were used
effectively in such 20th-century plays as Tennessee Williams’s The Glass
Menagerie and Jean Anouilh’s Antigone. “The Custom House” is the famous prologue to
Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Umberto Eco’s postmodern novel about the dangers of
literacy, The Name of the Rose, contains a prologue that contextualizes the fictional intrigue
that follows. Chaucer’s “General Prologue” to the Canterbury Tales sets the scene for the
medieval pilgrimage in the main body of the text.Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet begins
with a prologue in sonnet form.

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 Rhyme

Definition-

A short poem in which the sound of the word or syllable at the end of each line
corresponds with that at the end of another. Rhyme is a popular literary device in which the
repetition of the same or similar sounds occurs in two or more words, usually at the end of
lines in poems or songs. rhyme is a tool utilizing repeating patterns that bring rhythm or
musicality to poems. In a rhyme in English, the vowel sounds in the stressed syllables are
matching, while the preceding consonant sound does not match. The consonants after the
stressed syllables must match as well. For example, the words “gaining” and “straining” are
rhyming words in English because they start with different consonant sounds, but the first
stressed vowel is identical, as is the rest of the word. all nursery rhymes contain rhyming
words in order to facilitate learning for children, as they enjoy reading them, and the presence
of repetitive patterns enables them to memorize them effortlessly.

A rhyme scheme is usually the pattern of end rhymes in a stanza, with each rhyme
encoded by a letter of the alphabet, from a onward (ABBA BCCB, for example). Rhymes are
classified by the degree of similarity between sounds within words, and by their placement
within the lines or stanzas.

-Eye rhyme, this is common in English because so many of our words are spelled in the same
way, yet have different pronunciations. For example, “good” and food” look like they should
rhyme, but their vowel sounds are different. For example, “through” and “rough.”

-End rhyme, End rhyme is defined as when a poem has lines ending with words that sound
the same. An example of end rhyme is the poem, Star Light, Star Bright
-Feminine rhyme applies to the rhyming of one or more unstressed syllables, such as “dicing”
and “enticing.” Ambrose Bierce’s “The Day of Wrath” employs feminine rhyme almost
exclusively. Half rhyme is the rhyming of the ending consonant sounds in a word (such as
“tell” with “toll,” or “sopped” with “leapt”). This is also termed “off-rhyme,” “slant rhyme,”
or apophany. See consonance.
-Identical rhyme employs the same word, identically in sound and in sense, twice in rhyming
positions.
-Internal rhyme is rhyme within a single line of verse When a word from the middle of a line
is rhymed with a word at the end of the line.

-Masculine rhyme describes those rhymes ending in a stressed syllable, such as “hells” and
“bells.” It is the most common type of rhyme in English poetry.

-Monorhyme is the use of only one rhyme in a stanza. See William Blake’s “Silent, Silent
Night.”

-Pararhyme is poet Edmund Blunden’s term for double consonance, where different vowels
appear within identical consonant pairs. For example, see Wilfred Owen’s “Strange
Meeting”: “Through granites which Titanic wars had groined. / Yet also there encumbered
sleepers groaned.”

53
 Stress

Definition

Stress is the emphasis that falls on certain syllables and not others; the arrangement
of stresses within a poem is the foundation of poetic rhythm. The process of working out
which syllables in a poem are stressed is known as scansion; once a metrical poem has been
scanned, it should be possible to see the metre. Most words that are made up of more than
one syllable have at least one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable.
The stressed syllables are the ones which are emphasized, or spoken more loudly.
The unstressed syllables are not emphasized; they are not spoken as loudly.

In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is relative emphasis or

prominence given to a certain syllable in a word, or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence.
The terms stress and accent are often used synonymously in this context, but they are
sometimes distinguished. For example, when emphasis is produced through pitch alone, it is
called pitch accent, and when produced through length alone, it is called quantitative accent.
The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress or lexical stress.

The stress placed on words within sentences is called sentence stress or prosodic
stress. This is one of the three components of prosody, along with rhythm and intonation. It
includes phrasal stress (the default emphasis of certain words within phrases or clauses),
and contrastive stress (used to highlight an item − a word, or occasionally just part of a word
− that is given particular focus).

By way of example, the word "produce" can be pronounced with the stress on either syllable
- a farmer may proDUCE carrots, which a greengrocer will sell as PRODuce. Similarly, the
differently placed stress is what separates the English and American pronunciations of
"defence".

Longer words may have more than one stress - "photography", for example, is stressed on
both '-tog-' and '-phy'. In some places, including the Oxford English Dictionary, a difference
is drawn between the primary stress - the heavier emphasis on '-tog-', in this case - and
secondary stress, as in the more lightly stressed '-phy'. For the purposes of scansion(the
process of examining the rhythm of a line of poetry) however, it is usually enough to consider
stress as either present or absent.

As English is a language that has stresses in it, every poem in the Archive has stresses in it.
Useful examples include Sebastian Barker's reading of 'The Articles of Prayer', which makes
strong distinctions between his stressed and unstressed syllables, and draws attention to their
patterning, and Sylvia Plath's delivery of 'Parliament Hill Fields' also has clear stresses, but
are distributed according to free-verse rhythms.

54
 Allegory
Definition:
Allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described
in terms of characters, figures, and events. It can be employed in prose and poetry to tell a
story, with a purpose of teaching or explaining an idea or a principle. The objective of its use
is to teach some kind of a moral lesson. Allegory is the process of presenting an abstract idea
through more concrete means. Allegory is a narrative in prose, verse or drama that has two
levels of meanings. The first is the surface level meaning, which can be summed up by
stating who did what to whom and when. And another second and deeper level of meaning,
which may be moral, political, philosophical, or religious. The symbolic meaning of an
allegory can be political or religious, historical or philosophical.
Writers or speakers typically use allegories as literary devices or as rhetorical devices that
convey (semi-)hidden or complex meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, or
events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to
convey.
An allegory is a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or
material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another. It is a device in
which characters or events represent or symbolize ideas and concepts. Allegory has been used
widely throughout the history of art, and in all forms of artwork
Allegories as literary devices that convey hidden meanings through symbolic figures,
actions, imagery, or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning
the author wishes to convey.

Origin:
The term ‘allegory’ originated from the Latin Word allegoria ‘speaking’. A story, poem,
or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political
one. The expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or
generalizations about human existence a writer known for his use of allegory.

Examples-
John Bunyan’s The Pilgrims Progress
Bunyan has put allegory in the name of the central character, Christian. Such name
symbolizes Christ follower. He is told to have a burden in his back which represents his sins
and the book in his hand which refers to Bible. Christian’s journey to Celestial City is the
representation of a religious-minded man in order to keep his faith alive to attain God’s grace
to give his soul a salvation.
Edmund Spenser’s 'Faerie Queene' as an Allegory.
The Red Cross Knight represents Holiness and Lady Una stands for Truth, Goodness and
Wisdom. Her parents symbolize the Human race and the Dragon who has imprisoned them
stands for Evil. The mission of Holiness (Red Cross Knight) is to help Truth (Lady Una) to
fight Evil (Dragon) and thus regain its rightful place in the human heart.
Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is an allegory that uses animals on a farm to
describe the overthrow of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, and the Communist Revolution

55
of Russia before WW I. The actions of the animals on the farm are used to expose the greed
and corruption of the revolution. It also describes how powerful people can change the
ideology of a society. One of the cardinal rules on the farm is this:
“All animals are equal but a few are more equal than others”.

The animals on the farm represent different sections of Russian society after the revolution.
For instance, the pigs represent those who came to power following the revolution; “Mr.
Jones,” the owner of the farm, represents the overthrown Tsar Nicholas II; while “Boxer” the
horse, represents the laborer class. The use of allegory in the novel allows Orwell to make his
position clear about the Russian Revolution and expose its evils.
C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are a famous religious allegory. George
Orwell's novel Animal Farm political allegory. Other famous allegories include John
Bunyan’s "Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the spiritual journey" and William
Golding's The Lord of the Flies. Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene is an allegory that
takes poetic form.

T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland"-an allegorical poem relating to war. The Harry Potter
series can be read as a Christian allegory-allegorical fight between good and evil with Harry
as a Christ figure.Milton's Paradise Lost is another allegorical text relating to Christianity,
good versus evil, God versus Satan.The Hunger Games series can be read as a political
allegory that makes a statement about our modern society (e.g. The Capitol is like
Hollywood; obsession with reality TV).The Lord of the Flies is another allegorical text
relating to the effects of war on society.

Q. Describe the literary term “Allegory” with examples.

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 Blank Verse
Definition-

Blank verse is a literary device. Blank verse defined as un-rhyming (without rhyme)
verse written in iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10
syllables in each line (pentameter).It is also known as “un-rhymed iambic pentameter.” Blank
verse is considered best for dramatic verse in English since it is the verse form closest to the
rhythms of everyday English speech and has been the dominant verse form of English drama
and narrative poetry since the mid-Sixteenth Century.

The term was first used by the Earl of Surrey, Henry Howard, in 1540 in his translation of
Books II and III of The Aeneid of Virgil, but previously had been adapted by Italian
Renaissance writers from classical sources. It was used a great deal for reflective and
narrative poems until the late Seventeenth Century. In the latter Nineteenth Century, the
English romantic poets—Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats made use of blank verse. Later
yet, the English poets, Robert Browning and Lord Tennyson. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Theseus’s speech to Hippolyta explaining the lovers’ rearrangement of
couples is written in blank verse.

Features-

• Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.

• It has a conventional meter that is used for verse drama and long narrative poems.
• It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and dramatic monologues — the
poems in which a single character delivers his thoughts in the form of a speech.
• Blank verse can be composed in any kind of meter, such as iamb, trochee, spondee,
and dactyl.

Examples

1. The dreams are clues that tell us take chances.

2. The source of faith in happiness and
3. Daylight changes, and it is time to take
4. The night frost drips silently from the roof
5. Human cadences always searching for this
6. The moon takes its bath in lovely silver dust
7.

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 Free Verse

Free verse is an open form of poetry. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme,
or any other musical pattern. Many poems composed in free verse thus tend to follow the
rhythm of natural speech. Poets have explained that free verse is not totally free; 'it’s only
freedom is from the tyrant demands of the metered line'. Free verse displays some elements
of form. Most free verse, for example, self-evidently continues to observe a convention of
the poetic line in some sense, at least in written representations, though retaining a potential
degree of linkage.

Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from
limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are
without rhythms and rhyme schemes; do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules and still
provide artistic expression. In this way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem how
he/she desires. However, it still allows poets to use alliteration, rhyme, cadences or rhythms
to get the effects that they consider are suitable for the piece.

The first poet to write in free verse was Walt Whiteman, Victorian poet Christina Rossetti,
and T.E. Hulme experimented with the verse form. Other well known example of free verse
poetry in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, John Dryden, Wallace Steven, Ezra
Pound, Allen Ginsberg and William Carols Williams.

Features of Free Verse

• Free verse poems have no regular meter and rhythm.

• They do not follow a proper rhyme scheme as such; these poems do not have any set
rules.

• This type of poem is based on normal pauses and natural rhythmical phrases as
compared to the artificial constraints of normal poetry.

• It is also called vers libre which is a French word.

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 Comedy
Definition:
Comedy is a literary genre and a type of dramatic work that is amusing and satirical in
its tone, mostly having cheerful ending. The motif of this dramatic work is triumph over
unpleasant circumstance by which to create comic effects, resulting in happy or successful
conclusion. Thus, the purpose of comedy is to amuse the audience. Comedy has multiple sub-
genres depending upon source of humor, context in which an author delivers dialogues, and
delivery method, which include farce, satire and burlesque. In ancient times Aristophanes,
Plautus and Terence were great writers of comedy. Its purpose merely giving relief to tired
minds. According to Greek Philosopher, Aristophones , comedy is a representation of
character of a lower type.

Types of Comedy

Classical Comedy:
The classical comedy follows the rules of dramatic composition as laid down by
the ancient Greek and Roman masters like Platus, Terence and Aristophones. The most
important rules are-observance of three unities of time, place and action. The strict
separation of the comic and the tragic or the light or serious elements. Realism, it deals with
everyday life ordinary people. Its aim is corrective and satiric. Ben Johnson was the
exponent of classical comedy. His play – Alchemist is classical comedy.
Romantic Comedy
This type of drama involves the theme of love leading to happy conclusion. We find
romantic comedy in Shakespearean plays and some Elizabethan contemporaries. These plays
are concerned with idealized love affairs. It is a fact that the true love never runs smooth;
however, love overcomes the difficulties and ends in a happy union. In romantic comedy,
dramatist doesn’t care for any rules of literary creation but writes according to the dictates of
his fancy. The three unities are carelessly thrown in the wind. Its aim is not satiric, corrective
but good nurtured laughter.

The Comedy of Humors

Ben Johnson is the first dramatist, who conceived and popularized this dramatic genre
during late sixteenth century. The term humor derives from Latin word ‘humor’ that means
liquid. It comes from a theory that human body has four liquids or humors, which include
phelgm, blood, yellow bile and black bile. It explains that when human beings have balance
of these humors in their bodies, they remain healthy. In it each character is the representative
of some humuor. The purpose of the writer is to satirize the follies and foibles, the weakness
and vices of contemporary characters which is taken from low life and vices of contemporary
society.

Comedy of Manners-
In the restoration Era (1660-1700) this form of dramatic genre deals with intrigues and
relations of ladies and gentlemen, living in a sophisticated society. The comedy of manners
reflects the culture of the upper class in which manners are supreme. This form relies upon

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high comedy, derived from sparkle and wit of dialogues, violations of social traditions, and
good manners by nonsense characters like jealous husbands, wives and foppish dandies. We
find its use in Restoration dramatists, particularly in the works of Wycherley and Congreve.

Sentimental Comedy
Sentimental drama contains both comedy and sentimental tragedy. It appears in
literary circle due to reaction of middle class against obscenity and indecency of Restoration
Comedy of Manners. This form gained popularity among the middle class audiences in
eighteenth century. This drama incorporates scenes with extreme emotions evoking excessive
pity.
The best known work of this genre is Sir Richard Steele's The Conscious
Lovers (1722), in which the penniless heroine Indiana faces various tests until the discovery
that she is an heiress leads to the necessary happy ending. Steele wished his plays to bring the
audience, "a pleasure too exquisite for laughter. Sentimental comedies continued to coexist
with more conventional laughing comedies such as Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to
Conquer (1773) and Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals (1775) until the sentimental
genre waned in the early 19th century.

The Satire

Origin-
Satire is a genre of literature. The satire has of classical origin. The ancient Greek writer
Aristophones wrote satirical plays. Satire is a light form of composition in which vice of folly
is held up to ridicule. The satirist makes use of ridicule, sarcasm or irony to expose folly. The
satire is found in both in poetry and prose. It has no fixed literary form. A verse satire may
be written in the form of ode, an elegy an ballad or anything else. A novel may be written
more as a satire than as a story. Butlers – Hudibras, Popes- Dunciad. Satirist aim is to expose
whatever he does not approve. He ridicules the vices of his ages, his contemporary society.
Example Chaucer & Langland attacked corruption in the church dishonestly of the traders
and the judges. G.B. Shaw’s Plays Attacked social conditions, problems and every aspect of
modern Civilization.

The Features of the satire

Satire is written on a person for personal grievance. Sometimes its written on person
of reform on him. Sometimes it’s on some social a evil so that should be renewed out of the
society.Satire is written ridicule not to be abuse. The purpose is to laugh at satire correct
ability more playful than hurtful.Satire should be at the same time forceful & outspoken.
A satire must be terse & concise. It must tell a great deal in brief.It is primarily a light of
literature.

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Farce:
Farce is low kind of comedy which provide boisterous laughter by the use of absurd
characters, situations and dialogue. The word comes from the Latin “to stuff” and a farce is
stuffed with absurd characters and incidents. It is characterized by exaggeration and
extravagance and there is much in it that is merely nonsense. Earliest use of this kind of
comedy can be find in ancient Greek Aristophanes. There is much farcical in the comedies of
William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, the scene in which Titania , the fairy
Queen, makes love to Bottom , the ass , is entirely farcical. Duke of Buckingham’s The
Rehearsal is one of finest examples of a full length farce. Oscar Wilde’s the importance of
Being Earnest recent example.

Conceit
Definition-
A Conceit is a figure of speech in which two vastly different (unlike) things are
likened together with the help of similes or metaphors. A comparison turns into a conceit
when the writer tries to make us admit a similarity between two things of whose unlikeness.
As a literary device, a conceit uses an extended metaphor that compares two very dissimilar
things.

There are two types of conceit Petrachan conceit and Metaphysical Conceit.
Petrachan conceit:
This kind of conceit uses hyperbole to exalt the subject. The Petrachan conceit, which
was especially popular with Renaissance writers of sonnets, is a hyperbolic comparison most
often made by a suffering lover of his beautiful mistress to some physical object—e.g., a
tomb, the ocean, the sun. In it poet compare two things .Edmund Spenser’s Epithalamion.
The earlier Petrarchan conceits are associated with the conventions of courtly love: the
woman in unobtainable or has rejected the lover; she is indifferent to the lover's suffering; the
woman's beauty is unmatched; the lover's misery is exaggerated. Shakespeare satirized the
tradition of Petrarchan conceits in Sonnet 130, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
/ Coral is far more red than her lips' red.". The woman in unobtainable or has rejected the
lover; she is indifferent to the lover's suffering; the woman's beauty is unmatched; the lover's
misery is exaggerated. Shakespeare satirized the tradition of Petrarchan conceits in Sonnet
130, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun / Coral is far more red than her lips' red .."

Metaphysical conceit:
This kind of conceit is used by a group of poets in seventeenth century England called
Metaphysical poets. The metaphysical conceit emerged in the 17th Century, most notably in
the poems of English churchman John Donne. Donne's poems often unfold his witty or
unusual comparisons wrested from traditional branches of intellectual inquiry, including
alchemy, cartography, theology, biology. The metaphysical conceit produces an
intellectualized analysis or application of the metaphor's elements. The complex logic of a
famously unusual comparison occurs in Donne's”A Valediction Forbidding Mourning."

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Donne uses the draftsman's compass as a metaphor that expresses his connection to his wife
over distance and time, including a playful sexual reference to the extended leg that grows
"more erect" as he nears home on his return to her. Other metaphysical poets were George
Herbert, Henry Vaughan, and Andrew Marvell.

So, the Petrarchan and metaphysical conceits are quite distinct in both tone and in the kind of
metaphor each creates. One grows directly out of the 13th-14th century tradition of courtly
love and relies on emotional exaggeration of the lover's emotional states and hyperbolic
comparisons of the lady's appearance, while the later form yokes unexpected objects (such as
a flea!) to the lover's intellectualized statement of love.

Poetic Diction

Poetic diction means the choice and arrangement of words in a line of poetry. Thus it
is a matter both of vocabulary and syntax. In almost all ages, poets have used a language
different from the language of everyday use. It was believed that, “the language of the age is
never the language of poetry”, and further that the calling of a poet is a noble and exalted one
and so his language also should be equally noble and dignified, different from common
language.
Thus it was considered necessary for a poet to avoid low, common and vulgar words,
especially in epic-poetry where the diction used should be lofty and sublime in keeping with
its lofty and exalted theme. For this reason, in all ages, the diction of poetry has tended to
differ from the language of prose, as well as from that of everyday speech. For example, in
his Fairy Queen Spenser intentionally used archaic and obsolete words, for his theme was
medieval, and archaic words like ‘methought’, ‘I ween’, etc., help to create a proper, old
world atmosphere. Milton used a highly Latinised and figurative diction for his Paradise
Lost, and in this way sought to impart epic dignity and elevation to his
language. Milton had considerable influence on the succeeding generation of poets, and this
influence was not all healthy. Much that is artificial and unnatural in the diction of the
Augustan Age may be traced to Milton.
Though poets in every age have used a specialised diction for their poetry,
never was such attention paid to the subject as in the age of Dryden and Pope. The critical
theory of the period laid great stress on the need of ‘decorum’. ‘Decorum’ implied that the
diction of poetry should be noble and exalted, that it should suit the genre and the characters
or personages in a piece of poetry, that the low and the vulgar should be avoided as their use
is below the dignity of the poet as well as that of his readers, and lastly that there must be
absolute economy in the use of words. The poet must say what he had to say in the fewest
and the best possible words. The best’ were the words which enabled the poet to convey his
meanings with absolute clarity, and with this end in view the use of the archaic, the obsolete,
the foreign and the technical words was to be avoided. The older poets like Chaucer, Spenser,
Shakespeare were guilty of such faults and it was felt, that they should be refined and
polished. They might be jewels but they were unpolished jewels, and it was their misfortune

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to have lived and produced in a barbarous age. Throughout the Augustan Age, numerous
efforts were made to refine Shakespeare, and many of his poetic beauties were lost on the
age.
Various devices were used to achieve a noble, pure and exalted diction, a diction proper for
poetry meant for refined and cultured audiences. First, Periphrasis or Circumlocution or a
roundabout way of saying things was widely used. In this way, efforts were made to avoid the
vulgar, the archaic and the technical. Thus Pope uses ‘finny creatures’ for ‘fish’, ‘Velvet
plain’ for a green table, ‘two-handed engine’ for a pair of scissors and so on. Secondly Latin
words and Latin constructions were abundantly used to impart dignity and elevation. Thus
Pope uses ‘Sol’ in place of the sun. Words are frequently used both by Dryden and Pope in
their original Latin sense. Thirdly, Figures of Speech, more particularly Personifications and
Hyperbole, were abundantly used to decorate the language and to impart to it force, dignity
and effectiveness. An instance of personification and Hyperbole may be given from The Rape
of the Lock:
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box
The Tortoise here and Elephant unite
Transformed to combs, the speckled and the white.
Another remarkable feature of Pope’s diction is his use of antithesis. This he uses it to
produce the mock-heroic effect:
Or stain her honour, or her new brocade
Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball.
Effective, telling, vivid and pictorial images (similes and metaphors) are used by Pope with
great frequency and abundance. There are frequent revisions and everything that is
superfluous or inapt is carefully eschewed. In this way, the diction acquires not only clarity,
elevation and perfection, but also epigrammatic terseness and condensation. There are more
quotable lines in Pope than in any other English poet outside Shakespeare.
Pope, in short, represents the best as well as the worst in the poetic diction of the 18thcentury.
He is the clearest as well as the most correct of English poets, but there is also much in his
diction that is unnatural and artificial. He bewitched and dazzled his age with his highly
ornate and polished language and the various stylistic devices used by him were imitated
throughout the century. Even the pre-romantics were unable to break free from his influence.
Gray, Collins, Crabbe, Blake and Burns all show his influence. The substance of their poetry
is much nobler, but their style continues to be stilted and artificial. Indeed, the full flowering
of romanticism in their poetry is checked and retarded by the dead hand of the past.
Circumlocution Personification, Latinism etc., all continue to be used by them and their
diction continues to be as artificial and unnatural as that of Pope and his imitators.
It was against this innane and affected poetic diction that Wordsworth
raised his powerful voice. Reacting against the artificiality of the poetic diction of Pope and
the ‘Popians’, he maintained that the language of poetry should be a selection of language
really used by men, and added that, “there is no essential difference between the language of
prose and poetry.” However, his own practice shows that there is such an essential difference.
Language is both a matter of vocabulary, the choice and selection of words, as well as of their
arrangement. Wordsworth follows his theory of poetic diction only in so far as the selection

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of words or vocabulary is concerned, and not always even in this respect. As far as the
arrangement of words is concerned, he frequently uses inverted constructions. Poems like
the Immortality Ode can by no stretch of imagination be regarded as having been written in
the language of everyday use. Moreover, as Coleridge was quick to point out, metre
medicates the whole atmosphere, and exigencies of rhyme and metre determine the diction of
a poet. Hence it is bound to be different from ordinary language. It should also be
remembered that the end of poetry is to give aesthetic pleasure and the use of ornament is an
element in that pleasure. Poetry is ‘musical speech’, and so the words used by a poet must be
selected both with reference to their sense and their sound. Obviously, for all these reasons,
we cannot agree with Wordsworth when he says that there is no essential difference between
the language of poetry and the language of prose.
Wordsworth’s attack on the 18th century poetic diction served to stress the
need of simplicity both in theme and treatment. But diction has continued to flourish, despite
Wordsworth’s condemnation of it. The verbal art of both Keats and Tennyson is beyond
praise, and many of their verbal beauties are echoed by the poetic diction of the Pre-
Raphaelites / Rossetti, Swinburne, and Morris. Rossetti’s love of ‘stunning’ words is well-
known and Swinburne is equally noted for his sensuous epithets and verbal music. Rossetti’s
influence on the next generation of poets was great; some adopted his idiosyncrasies; few
bettered his example. He helped to introduce a new school of poetry in which the diction
diverged as far from the ‘real language of men’ as in any part of the eighteenth century. The
reaction in our own times against this movement has been as vigorous as that of Wordsworth
was in 1801 against the ‘gaudiness’ of false ‘poetic diction’ of the 18th century.
Robert Bridges is a great stylist of the 20th century, who tries consciously to cultivate an
effective and elevated poetic style. He is a great craftsman with words. His poetry abounds in
vivid word-pictures. T.S. Eliot has a peculiar diction of his own. It has been called, “a mosaic
of quotations and allusions.” His poetry is the poetry of the city, and hence quite rightly his
vocabulary and his imagery are drawn from the facts and experiences of city life. He is terse
and epigrammatic, so terse and epigrammatic that often it becomes difficult to follow his
sense.
In short, poets in all ages have used poetic diction i.e. a poetic language which is
different from the language both of prose and of everyday use. From time to time such
devices to embellish and elevate the language of poetry have been much criticised, but
despite such criticism poets have continued to use them.

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 The Dramatic monologue
Introduction -
The Dramatic Monologue is a form of drama, of poetry; it is intended for presentation
to an audience. Dramatic monologue is a poem in which a single character reveals, in speech,
his own character and situation. It is addressed to a silent listener who never takes part in the
conversation. The dramatic monologue is dramatic because it is the utterance of an imaginary
character and not of the poet himself. The character is described through a conflict between
the opposite thought and emotions of the character itself. It is also called as “mono drama”.
The thoughts and emotions of the character are the actors while his soul is the stage.
A monologue is lengthy speech by a single person. A single person utters the speech that
make up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical situation. The duke is
speaking with an emissary for a second wife. A dramatic monologue is a long speech by a
single person. These poems are dramatic in the sense that they have a theatrical. To say that
the poem is a monologue means that these are the words of one speaker with no dialogue
coming from any other character.
The Dramatic monologue, also known as a persona poem, is a type of poetry written in the
form of a speech of an individual character.

The following three features of the dramatic monologue as it applies to poetry:

- A single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of
the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment.
- This person addresses and interacts with one or more other people; but we know of the
auditors' presence, and what they say and do, only from clues in the discourse of the single
speaker.
--The main principle controlling the poet's choice and formulation of what the lyric speaker
says is to reveal to the reader, in a way that enhances its interest, the speaker's temperament
and character.
- Its aim is character study or psycho-analysis without the other dramatic adjuncts of
incident and dialogue. Robert Browning is the chief explorer of this form A single person,
who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a
specific situation at a critical moment.
- This person addresses and interacts with one or more other people; but we know of the
auditors' presence, and what they say and do, only from clues in the discourse of the single
speaker.

Examples of dramatic monologue

One of the most important influences on the development of the dramatic
monologue is romantic poetry. However, the long, personal lyrics typical of the Romantic
period are not dramatic monologues, in the sense that they do not, for the most part, imply a
concentrated narrative. Poems such as William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey and Percy
Bysshe Shelley's Mont Blanc, to name two famous examples, offered a model of close
psychological observation and philosophical or pseudo-philosophical inquiry described in a

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specific setting. The conversation poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge are perhaps a better
precedent.
In the Victorian period, Robert Browning played important contribution to form of
dramatic monologue. His My Last Duchess is the most famous of his monologues, the form
dominated his writing career. Fra Lippo Lippi, Caliban upon Setebos, Soliloquy of the
Spanish Cloister and Porphyria's Lover, as well as the other poems in Men and Women are
greatest examples of dramatic monologue. His purpose was to show the personality of a
figure, historical and imaginary. His masterpiece Ring and the Book is ten lengthy
monologues , each story of a famous trial in Italian history is told from a different point of
view with a prologue and an epilogue. Mr. Sludge the medium is the self vindication of a
contemporary American spiritualist.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses, published in 1842, has been called the first true
dramatic monologue. After Ulysses, Tennyson's most famous efforts in this vein
are Tithonus, The Lotos-Eaters, and St. Simon Stylites, all from the 1842 Poems; later
monologues appear in other volumes, notably Idylls of the King.
Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach and Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse are
famous, semi-autobiographical monologues. The former, usually regarded as the supreme
expression of the growing skepticism of the mid-Victorian period, was published along with
the latter in 1867's New Poems.

Other Victorian poets also used the form. Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote several,
including Jenny and The Blessed Damozel; Christina Rossetti wrote a number, including The
Convent Threshold. Augusta Webster's A Castaway, Circe, and The Happiest Girl In The
World, Amy Levy's Xantippe and A Minor Poet, and Felicia Hemans's Arabella
Stuart and Properzia Rossi are all exemplars of this technique. Algernon Charles
Swinburne's Hymn to Proserpine has been called a dramatic monologue vaguely reminiscent
of Browning's work. Some American poets have also written poems in the genre- famous
examples include Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven and Sylvia Plath's Daddy.
Post-Victorian examples include William Butler Yeats's The Gift of Harun al-
Rashid, Elizabeth Bishop's Crusoe in England, and T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock and Gerontion.

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 Folklore
Definition

Folklore refers to the traditional knowledge, customs, culture of group of people. The
term of folklore was coined by William Thoms in 1846, to refer to the knowledge and
Traditions of the rural peasantry. Folklore is a collection of fictional stories about animals
and people, of cultural myths, jokes, songs, tales and even quotes. It is a description of
culture, which has passed down verbally from generation to generation in any written or oral
form. It is also known as folk literature or oral traditions. Folklore depicts the way main
characters manage their everyday life events, including conflicts or crises. Simply, folk
literature is about the individual experiences from a particular society. The study of folk
tradition and knowledge is called folkloristic. Although some folklores depict universal
truths, it is also that unfounded beliefs and superstitions are basic elements of folklore
tradition.

Folklore in Literature
Rudyard Kipling was keenly interested in folklore, as he has written many English
works based on folklore such as, Rewards and Fairies and Puck of Pook’s Hill. His
experiences in Indian environment have led him to create several works about Indian themes
and tradition. Since Kipling has lived a great deal of life in Indian region, therefore, he was
much familiar with the Indian languages. His popular work, The Jungle Books, consists of
plenty of such stories that are about traditional folktales. He also has Indian themes in his
work, Just So Stories, in he has given many characters recognizable names related to Indian
languages. Helen Bannerman has also penned an Indian themed folktale, Little Black
Sambo, during the same period.

What is Folklore?
Folklore refers to the tales people tell – folk stories, fairy tales, “tall tales,” and even
urban legends. Folklore is typically passed down by word of mouth, rather than being written
in books (although sometimes people write down collections of folklore in order to preserve
the stories of a particular community). The key here is that folklore has no author – it just
emerges from the culture and is carried forward by constant retelling.
Some stories, such as the Grimm’s fairy tales, are mistakenly referred to as folklore, but
actually they are not: they have a specific author, and therefore don’t fit the definition of
folklore. Such stories include Pinocchio, Hansel & Gretel, and Rapunzel. These are all fairy
tales, but they aren’t folklore, because they have specific authors.
Folklore in India
Dr. John Smith recorded the Rajasthani oral epic of Pabuji. Some famous Indian
Folklorist such as A.K Ramanujan, Devendra Satyarthi, Prafulla Dutta Goswami, and Anjali
Padhi.
Q. Explain a note on Folklore.

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 Irony
Definition
Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended
meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that
ends up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a
difference between appearance and reality.
The use of irony in literature refers to playing around with words such that the meaning
implied by a sentence or word is actually different from the literal meaning. Often irony is
used to suggest the stark contrast of the literal meaning being put forth. The deeper, real layer
of significance is revealed not by the words themselves but the situation and the context in
which they are placed.

Types of Irony
On the grounds of the above definition, we distinguish two basic types of irony: (1) verbal
irony, and (2) situational irony.

Verbal irony involves what one does not mean or the words used in a text convey a different
meaning from what they appear to be saying on the surface. For example, when in response
to a foolish idea, we say, “What a great idea!” This is verbal irony.

Situational irony occurs when, for instance, a man is chuckling at the misfortune of another,
even when the same misfortune is, unbeknownst to him, befalling him. Expectations from a
situation are dramatically different from the actual resolution of the plot. Samuel
Coleridge’s The ancient Mariner in which there is “water, water everywhere/No any drop to
think”.

Dramatic Irony:
Dramatic irony is an important stylistic device that is commonly found in plays, movies,
theaters and sometimes in poetry. The readers observe that the speech of actors takes on
unusual meanings. For instance, the audience knows that a character is going to be murdered
or making a decision to commit suicide; however, one particular character or others may not
be aware of these facts. Hence, the words and actions of characters would suggest a different
meaning to the audience from what they indicate to the characters and the story. Thus, it
creates intense suspense and humor. This speech device also emphasizes, embellishes and
conveys emotions and moods more effectively.
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
(Macbeth by William Shakespeare) This is one of the best examples of dramatic irony. In
this case, Duncun says that he trusts Macbeth not knowing about the prophecy of witches that
Macbeth is going to be the king and that he would kill him. Audience, on the other hand
knows about the prophecy. This is how it demonstrates dramatic irony.

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Jonathan Richman’s comedy movie, “There’s Something About Mary” contains several
instances of dramatic comedy. For instance, when Ted thinks that the police have arrested
him for picking up hitchhiker, the audience knows that the police interrogate him about a
murder. Therefore, Ted delivers innocuous lines by saying,
“I’ve done it several times before’ and ‘It’s no big deal,’ generate laughter.”
“Othello: I think thou dost.
And for I know thou ‘rt full of love and honesty
And weigh’st thy words before thou giv’st them breath…”
(From “Othello” by William Shakespeare)
This is another very good example of dramatic irony, when Iago manipulates Othello, and he
puts his faith in Iago as an honest man. However, Iago is plotting against him without his
knowledge. Again, audience knows that Iago is deceiving, but Othello does not.

Parody
Definition-
A parody is a work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work—
its subject, author, style, or some other target—by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Parody
is an imitation of a particular writer, artist or a genre, exaggerating it deliberately to produce a
comic effect. The humorous effect in parody is achieved by imitating and overstressing
noticeable features of a famous piece of literature, as in caricatures, where certain
peculiarities of a person are highlighted to achieve a humorous effect.

Origin-
The term ‘parody’ derived from the Greek words para, meaning “against” and oide,
,means ‘song. A parody is a work created in order to criticise or comment upon another text
by means of ironic or satirical imitation.

Examples-
One of the earliest example of parody comes from ancient Greece the battle of the
frogs and mice in which poet imitated the epic style Homer. Aristophanes parodied the
dramatic styles of Aeschylus in his plays Frogs. In Medieval England, Geoffrey Chaucer
parodied the chivalric romance with “ The tales of sir Thopas” in The Canterbury Tales
(1387-1400).
In the Elizabethan age, William Shakespeare wrote “Sonnet 130” in parody of
traditional love poems common in his day. He presents an anti-love poem theme in a manner
of a love poem mocking the exaggerated comparisons they made.Parodies are used for the
purpose of social or political commentary as Jonathan swift did in A Modest Proposal or
Lewis Carroll, who parodies Victorian schooling in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking Glass. A Parody may also criticise a certain style, form, or genre in
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey which parodies the Gothic novel. Alexander Pope’s the
rape of the Lock.

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 Pathos
Definition-
Pathos is a quality of an experience in life or a work of art that stirs up emotions of
pity, sympathy and sorrow. Pathos can be expressed through words, pictures or even with
gestures of the body. Pathos is a method of convincing people with an argument drawn out
through an emotional response.

Origin-
The Greek word pathos means suffering, experience and emotion, it was borrowed into
English in the 16th century, and the term usually refers to the emotions produced by tragedy
or a depiction of tragedy.
In Rhetoric, Aristotle identifies pathos as one of the three essential modes of proof by his
statement that "to understand the emotions—that is, to name them and describe them, to
know their causes and the way in which they are excited. Aristotle posits that, alongside
pathos, the speaker must also deploy good ethos in order to establish credibility.
Dante creates sympathy for the denizens of hell (an impressive feat!) in Inferno ,William
Shakespeare’s tragedies King Lear and Romeo and Juliet draw our attention to social malaise.
William Blake’s poem Chimney Sweeper and Holy Thursday arouse sympathy. The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, here Tom arouses feelings of pity in readers
minds by telling him like an animal, despite his honest feelings for her. He wishes he had
died and then she would feel sorry for him.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is well known for its pathos. Mr. Collin’s confession to
Elizabeth that he wants her to be his future partner evokes feelings of sympathy in readers.

Plot
Definition
Plot refers to the sequence of events inside a story which affects other events through
the principle of cause and effect. Plot is the main event of a novel, play, story or work of
literature .The structure of a novel depends on the organization of events in the plot of the
story. Plot is known as the foundation of a novel or story which the characters and settings
are built around. It is meant to organize information and events in a logical manner.
The Greek Philosopher Aristotle, fourth B.C. in his classic Book The Poetics, considered
plot or Mythos as the most important element of Drama even more important than
character. He believed that the events of the plot must casually relate to one another as being
either necessary or probable.

There are five main elements in a plot.

The first is the exposition or the introduction. This is known as the beginning of the story
where characters and setting are established. The conflict or main problem is introduced as
well.
The second element of a plot is known as the rising action which occurs when a series of
events build up to the conflict. The main characters are established by the time the rising

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action of a plot occurs and at the same time, events begin to get complicated. It is during this
part of a story that excitement, tension or crisis is encountered.
The third element of a plot is known as the climax or the main point of the plot. This is the
turning point of the story and is meant to be the moment of highest interest and emotion. The
reader wonders what is going to happen next.
The fourth element of a plot is known as falling action or the winding up of the story.
Events and complications begin to resolve and the result of actions of the main characters are
put forward.
The last element of a plot is the resolution or the conclusion or denouement. It is the end of
a story and ends with either a happy or a tragic ending.
Functions of a Plot
A plot is one of the most important parts of a story and has many different purposes. Firstly,
the plot focuses attention on the important characters and their roles in the story. It motivates
the characters to affect the story and connects the events in an orderly manner. It creates a
desire for the reader to go on reading by absorbing them in the middle of the story, wanting to
know what happens next. The plot leads to the climax, but by gradually releases the story in
order to maintain the reader’s interest. During the plot of a book, a reader gets emotional and
connects with the book, not allowing himself to put the book down. Eventually, the plot
reveals the entire story and gives the reader a sense of completion that he has finished the
story and reached a conclusion.
The plot is what forms a memory in the readers’ mind, allowing them to think about the book
and even making them want to read it again. By identifying and understanding the plot, the
reader is able to understand the message being conveyed by the author and the explicit or
implicit moral of the story.

Poetic Justice
Definition
The definition of poetic justice was created by the English drama critic Thomas
Rymer in 1678 in his book The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered. In literature, poetic
justice is an ideal form of justice in which the good characters are rewarded and the bad
characters are punished by an ironic twist of their fate.
It is a strong literary view that all forms of literature must convey moral lessons.
Therefore, writers employ poetic justice to conform to the moral principles. For instance, if
a character in a novel is pitiless and malicious in most part of the novel. His state has gone
beyond improvement. Then, the principles of morality demand this character to experience a
twist in his fate and be punished. Similarly, the ones who have suffer at his hand must be
rewarded at the same time.
Generally, the purpose of poetic justice in literature is to adhere by the universal code of
morality, in that virtue triumphs vice. The idea of justice in literary texts manifests the moral
principle that virtue deserves a reward, and vices earn punishment.
In Shakespeare King Lear
we see the evil characters, Goneril, Regan, Oswald and Edmund, thrive throughout the play.
The good characters, Lear, Gloucester, Kent, Cordelia, and Edgar, suffer long and hard. We
see the good characters turn to gods but they are rarely answered.

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 Lear loses his kingdom by the conspiracies of his daughters Goneril and Regan
supported by Edmund. At Dover, Edmund-led English troops defeats Cordelia-led French
troops and Cordelia and Lear are imprisoned. Cordelia is executed in the prison and Lear dies
out of the grief of his daughter’s death. Despite all the suffering that good undergoes, the evil
is punished. Goneril poisons her sister Regan due to jealousy over Edmund. Later, she kills
herself when her disloyalty is exposed to Albany. In a climactic scene Edgar kills Edmund
In Romeo and Juliet
In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, the enmity between Montague and Capulet family
finally comes to an end.

In Othello
In Shakespeare’s play Othello, many characters experience poetic justice
Desdemona deceives her father for Othello and finally killed by Othello.
Iago is sent to prison for all his evil deeds.
Cassio, who was a gentleman, is appointed as governor.

Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens

We see the role of poetic justice in the cruel character Mr. Bumble, in Charles
Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Mr. Bumble was a beadle(ceremonial officer) in the town where
Oliver was born – in charge of the orphanage and other charitable institutions in the town. He
is a sadist and enjoys torturing the poor orphans.
Bumble marries Mrs. Corney for money, and becomes master of her workhouse. Here his fate
takes a twist as he loses his post as a beadle, and his new wife does not allow him to become
a master of her workhouse. She beats him and humiliates him, as he himself had done to the
poor orphans. Right at the end of the novel, we come to know that both Mr. and Mrs. Bumble
end up being so poor that they live in the same workhouse that they once owned.

Examples of Poetic justice can be found in literature of all varieties. from novels to ballads
to film and drama to cartoons and television shows.

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 Setting
A location (geography) where something is set. Setting of a piece of literature is the time
and place in which the story takes place. The setting can also include social statuses, weather,
historical period, and details about immediate surroundings. Settings can be real or fictional,
or a combination of both real and fictional elements. Setting is an extremely important aspect
of almost every piece of fiction and drama, and can be an important element in poetry as
well. In many narrative examples the setting can act almost as a nonhuman character,
affecting the characters in many different large and small ways. Indeed, most plot lines are so
tied to their settings that they could not be put in other places, time periods, or socioeconomic
environments.
In this short excerpt of the prologue from Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare sets
up both the city in which the action takes place—Verona, Italy—as well as giving a taste of
the socioeconomic statuses of the characters.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Setting was a very important aspect of George Orwell’s works of literature. His
novel Animal Farm is set on a farm in England called Manor Farm, but there is not much
specificity about where exactly the farm is. Instead, Orwell focuses on the unique details of
the farm. This is because the farm works as a metaphor to stand in for all of Russian after the
Russian Revolution, and the animals on the farm stand in for the real people who were
involved in Communist leadership afterward. The setting is vague enough to be symbolic of
something greater than just a farm.

The Salinas Valley plays an important role in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. He starts
the novel with the above paragraphs, and goes on to describe this valley in much greater
length. Steinbeck based his plot on the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and
thus it was important for him to choose a setting that echoed the paradisiacal nature of the
Garden of Eden.
Authors may choose as their setting a space and time the authors has never seen, as in Sir
Walter Scott’s historical Novel Waverley , or an imaginary universe, such as the dystopian
settings in George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984.

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 Style
Definition

The style in writing can be defined as the way a writer writes and it is the technique
which an individual author uses in his writing. It varies from author to author and depends
upon one’s syntax, word choice, and tone. It can also be described as a voice that readers
listen to when they read the work of a writer.

In literature, style comprises many literary devices that an author employs to create a distinct
feel for a work. These devices include, but are not limited to, point of view, symbolism,
tone, imagery, diction, voice, syntax, and the method of narration. Style is a fundamental
aspect of fiction, as it is naturally part of every work of prose written. Some types of writing
are required to have a certain style, such as academic or journalistic writing. However, every
work of creative writing takes on its own style.

Style is not the proper arrangement of words, sentences and paragraphs. It is the putting
together of ideas in a correct , orderly way. According to W.H. Hudson style is composed of
roughly three elements classifies intellectual, emotional and aesthetic. The intellectual
elements consists of the science of writing : precision in the use of words ; clarity of
meaning economy in their use; harmony between thought and expression. The emotional
element brings thoughts clearly before the reader. The aesthetic element comprises the
artistic graces of style which give a immediate pleasure , an beauty and charm.

Style is closely connected with personality and character.

Types of Style

There are four basic literary styles used in writing. These styles distinguish the work of
different authors from one another. Here are four styles of writing:

Expository or Argumentative style

Expository writing style is a subject-oriented style. The focus of the writer in this type of
writing style is to tell the readers about a specific subject or topic and in the end the author
leaves out his own opinion about that topic.

Descriptive style

In descriptive writing style, the author focuses on describing an event, a character or a place
in detail. Sometimes, descriptive writing style is poetic in nature in, where the author
specifies an event, an object or a thing rather than merely giving information about an event
that has happened. Usually the description incorporates sensory details.

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Persuasive style

Persuasive style of writing is a category of writing in which the writer tries to give reasons
and justification to make the readers believe his point of view . The persuasive style aims to
persuade and convince the readers.

In literature, style is the way in which an author writes and/or tells a story. It’s what sets one
author apart from another and creates the “voice” that audiences hear when they read. There
are many important pieces that together make up a writer’s style; like tone, word choice,
grammar, language, descriptive technique, and so on. Style is also what determines the mood
of a piece of literature, so its importance is huge across all genres. Different types of literature
need different styles, and different styles need different authors!
Truthfully, style can be hard to define because it varies so much from each piece of literature
to the next. Two authors can write about the exact same thing, and yet the styles of the
pieces could be nothing like each other because they would reflect the way each
author writes. An author’s style might even change with each piece he writes. When it comes
to style, what comes easy for one author might not work for another; what fits one genre may
not fit for others at all; what thrills one group of readers may bore another. A reader might
love a certain genre or subject, but dislike an author’s style, and vice versa. In fact, it’s not
unusual to hear people say about a novel or a movie, “it was a good story, but I didn’t like the
style.”
While there are specific types of styles of writing, this article will focus on style’s overall role
in literature.

Examples of Style

Rather than merely sharing information, style lets an author share his content in the way that
he wants. For example, say an author needs to describe a situation where he witnessed a girl
picking a flower:

1. She picked a red rose from the ground.

2. Scarlet was the rose that she plucked from the earth.
3. From the ground she delicately plucked the ruby rose, cradling it in her hands as if it were
a priceless jewel.
Parts of Style

Here are some key parts that work together to make up a piece of literature’s style:

▪ Diction: the style of the author’s word choice

▪ Sentence structure: the way words are arranged in a sentence
▪ Tone: the mood of the story; the feeling or attitude a work creates
▪ Narrator: the person telling the story and the point-of-view it is told in
▪ Grammar and the use of punctuation
▪ Creative devices like symbolism, allegory, metaphor, rhyme, and so on

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 Tragedy
Definition
Tragedy is kind of drama that presents a serious subject matter about human suffering
and corresponding terrible events in a dignified manner. Branch of drama that treats in a
serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic
individual.

Origin
The term is Greek in origin. The subject matter of the Greek tragedies was derived
chiefly from Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” which included misfortunes of heroes of history
and religious mythology. The three prominent Greek dramatists were Aeschylus (525–456
BC), Sophocles (496–406 BC), and Euripides (480–406 BC).
Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy
Aristotle defines Tragedy in his famous work “Poetics” as:
“Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is admirable, complete (composed of an
introduction, a middle part and an ending), and possesses magnitude; in language made
pleasurable, each of its species separated in different parts; performed by actors, not through
narration; effecting through pity and fear the purification of such emotions.”
From the above definition, we can understand the objective of the Greek tragedies i.e.
“…purification of such emotions” also called “catharsis”. Catharsis is a release of emotional
tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit.

Types of tragedy
Tragedy can be divided in two ways, with reference to its form or structure and
with reference to its matter or theme. In ancient times Tragedy has divided in two forms –
classical tragedy and romantic tragedy. Classical tragedy is a literary genre, invented by the
Greeks around the 5th century BCE, that told a story of a hero and his subsequent demise. In
classical tragedy the Dramatist follows the three unities and the device of the chorus. Three
greatest Greek dramatists—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE), Sophocles (c. 496–406 BCE), and
Euripides(C.480-406BCE)belongs to the Classical Tragedy.
The classical dramatist follows the three unities and chorus in drama are: The unity of
action: a play should have one main action that it follows, with no or few subplots. The unity
of place: a play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress
geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place. The unity of time: the action
in a play should take place over no more than 24 hours. Examples of the Classical Plays
Sophocles’ - Oedipus the King , Antigone. The Chorus is an important element in Greek
Tragedy. The chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of actors who described and
commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation. Greek tragedy
had its beginnings in choral performances, in which a group of 50 men danced and sang
dithyrambs—lyric hymns in praise of the god Dionysus. Its business was to report what
happened off the stage and to make such moral comments from time to time.
Romantic Tragedy is different from classical tragedy. It never follows the three unities and
does not employ the chorus, being neither introduce physical action on the stage nor
compelled to be didactic. The dramatist introduce plot according to his own wish. The scene

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of action change as the plot requires. Shaped on the models of Seneca, the first English
tragedy appeared in 1561, written by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville. The play chose
the story of a British king and his sufferings at the hand of his two disobedient sons as a
subject matter. The importance of the play lies in the fact that it transformed the style of
English drama from morality and mystery plays to the writing of tragedies in the Elizabethan
era. William Shakespeare’s tragedies were famous as Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth,
Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra also Christopher Marlowe’s Tragedies were Dr.
Faustus and Jew of Malta.

Revenge Tragedy
Revenge tragedies are dramatic works in which one character seeks revenge upon
another character for an evil doing. Most often associated with the Jacobean era, these
revenge tragedies were actually a revival from Roman times. Excellent examples of revenge
tragedies include William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.
Tragicomedy
A mixture of tragic and comic elements existing in a single dramatic work. Samuel Beckett’s
absurdist play Waiting for Godot is a fine example of the form, where the comic elements are
not necessarily noticeable at first glance.
Domestic Tragedy
These dramas originated in the Elizabethan period, but broke from previously established
conventions, instead portraying the common man in a domestic setting as the tragic hero (as
opposed to a character of nobility in a palatial setting). Excellent examples include Henrik
Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh.

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LITERARY THEORY

Existentialism
Definition
Existentialism in the broader sense is a 20th century philosophy that is centred
upon the analysis of existence and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world.
The notion is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing their
essence or nature.
Meaning - the modern system of belief made famous by Jean Paul Sartre in the 1940s in
which the world has no meaning and each person is alone and completely responsible for
their own actions, by which they make their own character. The modern system of belief
made famous by Jean Paul Sartre in the 1940s in which the world has no meaning and each
person is alone and completely responsible for their own actions, by which they make their
own character.

Existentialism begins when there is decline in faith in supreme faith in supreme

power or the creator. Existentialism can be as theory which shows the relationship between
existence and essence , between being and becoming. They believe that human being are
totally free and are completely responsible for the choices they makes as well as for their
actions. It emphasizes the existence of individual in a hostile universe , an existence that is
marked by uniqueness and isolation which makes human experience inexplicable and
incomprehensible . Jean Paul, Sartre, Albert Camus and Simon de Beauvoir are the
exponent of this philosophy. They portray characters who are adrift in a meaningless and
despair, they try to create order in a notoriously incoherent universe.
Theological and Christian Existentialism
The early phases of Existentialism is described Christian Existentialism . it is mainly
associated Soren Kierkegaard .some Existentialist are against religious dogma but
Kierkegaard , Pascal , Dostovevsky, Kafka and other Existentialist had some faith of kind
. thus the theological dimension of Existentialism suggest not the acceptance of religion
experience but the element of choice which forms an inherent par to making a decision
about human religion experience . the Danish Philosopher , Kierkegaard (1813-1855)held
that God and human beings are two distinct entities and the relations between them cannot
be explained perfectly. And it is the main reason for resolving the incompatibly in and
through faith in God. As human beings from religious prayer find freedom from tension
and discontent and therefore find peace of mind and spiritual serenity.
Existentialist Ethics - Existentialism
1- Existentialism involves continues thought , expression and action – this is process by
ones essence is developed .
2- An individual is bound to make decisions and the responsibility of the choice is directly
that of the individual .
3- In this process, decisions that affect the free will of other individual are the most
crucial decisions .

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4- in a negative exercise of choice , the freedom of an individual may be curtailed and thus
care should be taken that freedom of the number is guaranteed by all decisions .
5-if the options available to an individual are reduced then there is lack of freedom to
express free will.
6- In such a formulation even death can be a matter of choice rather than being a
compulsion.

In simpler terms, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the
meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief is that
people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices
based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook. And personal choices become unique
without the necessity of an objective form of truth. An existentialist believes that a person
should be forced to choose and be responsible without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or
traditions.
Existentialism – Impact on Society
Existentialistic ideas came out of a time in society when there was a deep sense of
despair following the Great Depression and World War II. There was a spirit of optimism in
society that was destroyed by World War I and its mid-century calamities. This despair has
been articulated by existentialist philosophers well into the 1970s and continues on to this day
as a popular way of thinking and reasoning (with the freedom to choose one’s preferred
moral belief system and lifestyle).

An existentialist could either be a religious moralist, agnostic relativist, or an

amoral atheist. Kierkegaard, a religious philosopher, Nietzsche, an anti-Christian, Sartre, an
atheist, and Camus an atheist, are credited for their works and writings about existentialism.
Sartre is noted for bringing the most international attention to existentialism in the 20th
century.
Each basically agrees that human life is in no way complete and fully satisfying
because of suffering and losses that occur when considering the lack of perfection, power,
and control one has over their life. Even though they do agree that life is not optimally
satisfying, it nonetheless has meaning. Existentialism is the search and journey for true self
and true personal meaning in life.
Most importantly, it is the arbitrary act that existentialism finds most
objectionable-that is, when someone or society tries to impose or demand that their beliefs,
values, or rules be faithfully accepted and obeyed. Existentialists believe this destroys
individualism and makes a person become whatever the people in power desire thus they are
dehumanized and reduced to being an object. Existentialism then stresses that a person's
judgment is the determining factor for what is to be believed rather than by arbitrary religious
or secular world values.
Thus the Existentialist theme in literature makes for an attitude based on the
conflict between choice and destiny or fate and free will. Characters feel despair at their
predicament and therefore are described as the outsider. Over all theme of the absurd the
key to human existence.

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 The New Criticism
Introduction
It is dominant Anglo-American critical theory that introduced in the 1920s and
1930s, emphasizing the importance of reading a text as an independent and complete work
of art. It is one of the most influential literary theory, the New Criticism is a philosophy of
literary interpretation that stresses the importance of studying literary texts as complete works
of art. New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that
dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It
emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature
functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object. The movement derived its
name from John Crowe Ransom's 1941 book The New Criticism. The New Criticism is an
approach to the interpretation and teaching of literature that was formulated in the United
States in the 1930s and 1940s and dominated literary study in American colleges and
universities in the middle of the twentieth century. The New Critics emphasized the formal
structure of literary works, isolating the work from the author’s personality and social
influences.
The American New Critics were inspired by the critical essays of the Anglo-American poet-
critic T. S. Eliot and the Cambridge don I. A. Richards. In the essays of The Sacred Wood
(1920), especially “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” Eliot stressed, in contrast to
Romanticism, the aesthetic integrity of the poem and its independence from the personality of
the poet. Richards likewise insisted on the self-contained structure of a poem, as opposed to
its reference to the external world, and he emphasized, like Eliot, close reading of the text.
Beginning in the 1930s, American academics such as Cleanth Brooks, John Crowe Ransom,
Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, and William K. Wimsatt Jr. developed theories of literature
in which the poem is treated essentially as a unified structure of conflicting meanings in
tension. Hence ambiguity, irony, and paradox are the most prized qualities of great literature,
which provides an imaginative knowledge of the conflicts and complexities of human
experience transcending straightforward scientific rationality and empirical knowledge of
material fact.
The term “New Criticism” defines the critical theory that has dominated Anglo
American literary criticism for the last fifty years . Its focus on close reading and emphasis
on the text provided a corrective to fuzzy biographical criticism and subjective criticism. The
new criticism focuses on that every text as autonomous. History, biography, sociology,
psychology, author’s intention and readers private experience are all irreverent. They look
authors relationship to a work it is called “the intentional fallacy”. And they look at readers
individual response is called “the affective fallacy”. New criticism focuses on that each text
has a central unity. the reader will play an important part to discover its unity. The readers
job is to interpret the text. Readers efforts to discover text ambiguity ,tension, irony and
paradox.

However, as René Wellek has focused in various essays dealing the principles of New
Criticism, proponents of this theory had many differences among them, and beyond the
importance the New Critics afforded the literary text itself, there were many differences in

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the way they approached critical study of literary texts. Wellek writes that among the
growing number of New Critics in the 1930s, there were other critics. For example Ransom,
Allen Tate, Cleanth Brooks, and Robert Penn Warren among the leaders of what he calls the
“Southern Critics.” Mostly, they are grouped together due to their reaction against previously
established schools of criticism, such as impressionist criticism, the humanist movement, the
naturalist movement, and the Marxists, and the fact that many of them taught at Southern
universities at the time they created the theory of New Criticism. In addition to rallying
against traditional modes of literary interpretations, the most significant contribution made by
the New Critics, according to Wellek, was the success with which they established criticism
itself as a major academic discipline.
The most simplistic definitions of New Criticism identify it as a critical movement
that propagates the idea of “art for art's sake.” One of the most well-known texts detailing
New Criticism theory was published by Cleanth Brooks in 1947, titled The Well-Wrought
Urn. In this work, Brooks, in addition to articulating the theories of New Criticism, also
interprets many seminal poetic texts using the principles of the New Critics.
Although New Critics applied their principles of literary study to many genres in
literature, they held poetry in high regard, viewing it as the best exemplification of the
literary values they espoused. Among the American New Critics, a nucleus of writers and
critics, including Penn Warren, Ransom, and Tate set about defining their notion of a literary
aesthetic, especially as it related to poetry, during the 1920s. They published their views in a
bi-monthly literary review called The Fugitive, and worked to create what they believed was
a literary renaissance in the South, a view of writing and studying poetry that they saw as the
essence of modernism, and a sustained and valid response to the traditionally sentimental
literary conventions of the South. In later years, the New Critics expanded their definition of
the poetic aesthetic, theorizing that poetry, as a work of art, is the ultimate form of
communication, complete in meaning and form in itself. One of the most influential writers
of New Criticism poetic theory was I. A. Richards—his book Practical Criticism (1929)
detailed experiments in critical interpretations of poetry in which students were asked to
study texts of poems with no accompanying information on the author, or even the title of the
works. An unexpected result of the wide variety of student responses was a realization
regarding the importance of teaching the act of critical thinking and interpretation. For later
New Critics, including William Empson, it was this, the study of language and form that
became the subject of his book Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), a work in which he
explored the development of systematic modes of literary interpretation.
The main charge against the New Critics was their insistence on disregarding
historical and biographical information in the study of a literary text, and the stress they
placed on the “correct” reading of a text. Their method of critical study was perceived as
being too restrictive, and their demands on the reader seen as too authoritarian. More recent
evaluations of the New Criticism have defended their original intent—to refocus attention on
the literary work itself, rather than the writer or even the reader. In this, concludes
Willingham, the sustaining principle advocated by the New Critics was their insistence that
“literature requires and deserves responsible reading and readable response.”
The Basic Tenets of the New Critics

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It is yet too early to make any definitive evaluation of their work and contribution. Therefore,
it would be more fruitful to consider their basic tenets, tenets to which they all subscribe
despite their individual differences. These basic doctrines and principles may be summarised
as follows :
(a) To the New Critics, a poem, or a work of art, is the thing in itself, and the critic must
concentrate all attention on it and illuminated it. The function of the critic is to analyse,
interpret and evaluate a work of art. A poem is distinct from the poet and his social milieu; it
is a definite entity in itself and must be studied as such. The critic must devote himself to
close textual study, unhampered by any extraneous concerns.
(b) Moral and religious considerations, social, political and
environmental conditions, the details of the poet’s biography, are all irrelevant and are all
obstacles in the way of a real understanding of a, work of literature. The literary critic must
rid himself of all such extrinsic bias and prejudices. He must approach the work with an open
mind, ready to study it, “as is in itself.”
(c) The critic must not allow himself to be hampered and prejudiced by any literary theories
also.
(d) A poem has both form and content and both should be closely studied and analysed before
a true understanding of its meaning becomes possible.
(e) Words, images, rhythm, metre, etc., constitute the form of poetry and are to be closely
studied. A poem is an organic whole and these different parts are inter-connected and these
inter-connections, the reaction of one upon the other, and upon the total meaning, is to be
closely followed, and examined. That is why a prose paraphrase cannot convey the total,
and poetic, meaning of a poem.
(f) The study of words, their arrangement, the way in which they act and react on each other
is all important. Words, besides their literal significance, also have emotional, associative,
and symbolic significance, and only close application and analysis can bring out their total
meaning. The new critics, in their minute scrutiny of words, and the structure of poetry, have
propounded different theories. “From I. A. Richard’s concept of the ‘behaviour’ of words,
through Empson’s seven categories of “ambiguity” with their subdivisions, to John Crowe
Ransom’s principle of’texture’ of Robert Penn Warren’s preoccupation with symbols, or
Allen Tate’s theory of ‘tensions’, we find the same search for the meaning of words, for the
strange transformation they undergo as they react on one another for the way they contribute
to build up the structure of the poem— the unified whole of which they are the parts.
(g) Poetry is communication and language is the means of ::ommunication, so the New
Critics seek to understand the full meaning of a poem through a study of poetic language. As
R. C. Crane has aptly remarked : “So everything turns, for I. A. Richards, on the opposition
of ‘referential’ and ’emotive’ speech; for John Crowe Ransom, on the antithesis of logical
‘structure’ and poetic ‘texture’, and for Brooks, on the contrast between the ‘abstract’
language of science, and the ‘paradoxical’ language of poetry. Thus, for the New Critics
words are all important, and their study is the only key to the poetic meaning of the poem.
(h) The New Critics are opposed both to the historical and comparative methods of criticism.
Historical considerations are extraneous to the work of literature, and comparison of works of
art is to be resorted to with great caution and in rare instances alone for the intent and aim of
writers differ, and so their method, their techniques, their forms, are bound to be different.

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(i) They are also anti-impressionistic. Instead of giving merely his impression, which are
bound to be vague and subjective, the critic must make a close, objective and precise study of
the poem concerned.
(j) In short, they concentrate on close textual study, on the study of the form, design and
texture of poetry. The psychological state of the poet at the time of creation, as well as the
effect of the poem upon the readers are not to be allowed to divert attention from the text.
Stressing the point, Wimsatt and Brooks write in their book The Verbal iconT A poem should
not mean but be. A poem can be only through its meaning— since its medium is words—yet
it is, simply is, in the sense that we have no excuse for inquiring what part is intended or
meant. Poetry is a feat of style by which a complex of meaning is handled all atonce.” The
object of critical analysis should be the poem itself, to approach which either by way of its
origins in the mind of its maker or by way of its results in the mind of its maker or by way of
its results in the mind of the audience would be critical fallacies. They may be called
the intellectual fallacy and the effective fallacy. The former is “the confusion between the
poem and its origins. It begins by trying to derive the standard of criticism from the
psychological effects of the poem and ends in impressionism and relativism.” The
consequence of both these fallacies is that the poem itself, as an object of specifically critical
judgment, tends to be ignored.

Limitations and Shortcomings of New Criticism

The limitations of the New Critics were pin-pointed by a group of critics who have
come to be known as the Chicago critics. They are called ‘Chicago critics’ because they all
worked at the University of Chicago, and they form a homogenous group with little
difference in their views and critical methods. Ronald Crane is the most important member of
the group. He in his book Critics and Criticism (1952) has criticised the New Critics. Other
members of this group are Elder Olson and others. The, Chicago Group of Critics has done
the criticism of criticism and mentioned the following limitations of the New Critics :—
1. The New Critics are too much pre-occupied with textual analysis. Their excessive pre-
occupation with words, images, paradox, irony, etc., makes them forget that the poem is an
organic whole. In their pre occupation with the parts they ignore the beauty of the whole.
2. Their approach is dogmatic and narrow. According to them, it is through Textual study
and analyses alone that truth can be arrived at. However, there are a number of other
approaches—the historical, the sociological, the psychological, etc., and each has its own
value and significance. All possible ways should be tried to arrive at the full truth about a
poem.
3. A work of art has two functions, aesthetic and moral. While the older criticism erred in its
over-emphasis on the moral concern of literature, the New Critics go to the other extreme in
their entire neglect of it. Art cannot be divorced entirely from life.
4. In their insistence on the objective and scientific study of a work of art, they entirely
ignore the reactions of the critic. The subjective element cannot be totally done away with,
and the impressions of the critic have their own significance.

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5. As T. S. Eliot has pointed out, textual analysis can establish only the literary quality of a
work, to determine its greatness other methods are also necessary. Literature is certainly an
art-form, but it has other values aJso, besides the literary.
6. The textual approach may work well with some genres, but it is not equally effective
with all genres. There are different kinds of poetry, and different critical techniques are
needed for their valuation. The same technique cannot be effective both with the lyric and the
epic.
7. The New Critics are wrong in ignoring the study of the history of literary criticism. A
historical study shows that various critical tools have been used effectively in different ages
and countries, and their use may be worthwhile in the present also. Thus, for example, the
Aristotelian literary philosophy and poetics may still be of use in evaluation and
interpretation. A historical study is the only way of understanding the comparative merits of
the rival schools of criticism. The critic must, therefore, master the critical traditions and
from among the rival critical techniques choose the one best suited to his purposes.
8. A poem is certainly an artistic structure, and must be studied as such. The understanding of
the poetic meaning of a poem is essential, and textual and structural study is an effective tool
for the purpose. But social and biographical factors may also determine its meaning and a
knowledge of them may also help the critic to illuminate the work under study. Hence, the
new critics are wrong in totally ignoring the social background of the poet.

Important figures in New Criticism

John Crowe Ransom was an American scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist
and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism.
The seminal manifestos of the New Criticism was proclaimed by John Crowe Ransom
(1888–1974), who published a series of essays entitled The New Criticism (1941) and an
influential essay, “Criticism, Inc.,” published in The World’s Body (1938). This essay
succinctly expresses a core of New Critical principles underlying the practice of most “New
Critics,” whose views often differed in other respects. As Ransom acknowledges, his essay is
motivated by the desire to make literary criticism “more scientific, or precise and
systematic”; it must, says Ransom, become a “serious business.”1 He urges that the emphasis
of criticism must move from historical scholarship to aesthetic appreciation and
understanding. Ransom characterizes both the conservative New Humanism and left-wing
criticism as focusing on morality rather than aesthetics. While he accepts the value of
historical and biographical information, Ransom insists that these are not ends in themselves
but instrumental to the real aim of criticism, which is “to define and enjoy the aesthetic or
characteristic values of literature.”

Cleanth Brooks was the central figure of New Criticism, a movement that emphasized
structural and textual analysis—close reading—over historical or biographical analysis.
Brooks advocates close reading because, as he states in The Well Wrought Urn, "by making
the closest examination of what the poem says as a poem" a critic can effectively interpret
and explicate the text. For him, the crux of New Criticism is that literary study be "concerned

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primarily with the work itself". New Criticism involves examining a poem's "technical
elements, textual patterns, and incongruities" with a kind of scientific rigor and precision.
From I. A. Richards' The Principles of Literary Criticism and Practical Criticism, Brooks
formulated guidelines for interpreting poetry . Brooks formulated these guidelines in reaction
to ornamentals theories of poetry, to the common practice of critics going outside the poem
(to historical or biographical contexts), and his and Warren's frustration with trying to teach
college students to analyze poetry and literature .
Wimsatt’s most influential theories come from the essays “The Intentional Fallacy” and “The
Affective Fallacy” (both are published in Verbal Icon) which he wrote with Monroe
Beardsley. Each of these texts “codifies a crucial tenet of New Critical formalist orthodoxy,”
making them both very important to twentieth-century criticism.The Intentional Fallacy,
according to Wimsatt, derives from “confusion between the poem and its origins” –
essentially, it occurs when a critic puts too much emphasis on personal, biographical, or what
he calls “external” information when analyzing a work. Wimsatt and Beardsley consider this
strategy a fallacy partly because it is impossible to determine the intention of the author —
indeed, authors themselves are often unable to determine the “intention” of a poem — and
partly because a poem, as an act that takes place between a poet and an audience, has an
existence outside of both and thus its meaning can not be evaluated simply based on the
intentions of or the effect on either the writer or the audience. For Wimsatt and Beardsley,
intentional criticism becomes subjective criticism, and so ceases to be criticism at all. For
them, critical inquiries are resolved through evidence in and of the text — not “by consulting
the oracle”.
The Affective fallacy (identified in the essay of the same name, which Wimsatt co-authored
with Monroe Beardsley, as above) refers to “confusion between the poem and its results” .It
refers to the error of placing too much emphasis on the effect that a poem has on its audience
when analyzing it.
Wimsatt and Beardsley argue that the effect of poetic language alone is an unreliable way to
analyze poetry because, they contend, words have no effect in and of themselves,
independent of their meaning. It is impossible, then, for a poem to be “pure emotion” which
means that a poem’s meaning is not “equivalent to its effects, especially its emotional impact,
on the reader”.

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 Rasa Theory

History and Development

Concept of rasa theory apply to the all forms of art and literature. Rasa theory is
applied to poetry and drama. According ancient tradition drama was accepted as the most
complete art form, bringing together the other different forms like music , dance , and
poetry.
The rasa theory is mentioned in Chapter 6 of the ancient Sanskrit text Natya
Shastra attributed to Bharata Muni, but its most complete exposition in drama, songs.
According to the Rasa theory of the Natya Shastra, entertainment is a desired effect of
performance arts but not the primary goal, and that the primary goal is to transport the
individual in the audience into another parallel reality, full of wonder and bliss, where he
experiences the essence of his own consciousness, and reflects on spiritual and moral
questions.

Although the concept of rasa is fundamental to many forms of Indian

arts including dance, music, theatre, painting, sculpture, and literature, the interpretation and
implementation of a particular rasa differs between different styles and schools. The Indian
theory of rasa is also found in the Hindu arts and Ramayana.
Bharat Muni in his treatise on Natya Shastra formulated the theory of “rasa” in
th
the 4 century A.D. Natya Shatra is considered the fifth veda envisioned the Gods as the
audience of theatre. As per rasa theory, all genuine aesthetic experience is essentially
transcendental in nature, stemming from the only source of ananda, the divine. The aesthetic
pleasure of theatre is determined by how successful the artist in expressing a particular
emotion evoking the rasa. The rasa is created by the actor in his acting enjoyed by the
spectator in production of a play. The combination of several emotion yields in rasa (in a
play) thus combination of different emotions results in rasa. The rasa theory was mostly
applicable to dance – drama. In addition, the rasa theory may be also seen from audience
point of view. The spectator identifies themselves with the characters and the situation on
the stage. The protagonist of the rasa theory clearly says that the cultures spectator becoming
one with the characters in rasa, in contrast the actor doesn’t become one with the role. He
acts deliberately to evoke the rasa.

A rasa literally means "juice, essence or taste". It connotes a concept in Indian

arts about the aesthetic flavour of any visual, literary or musical work, that evokes an emotion
or feeling in the reader or audience, but that cannot be described. Rasa Literary means ‘taste’.
It is the essence of a dramatic work. Various literary and dramatic devices such as rhyme,
rhythm, stage directions and music are used to achieve this effect. When a spectator loses
his egotistic pragmatic self and enters a higher mode of existence, rasa is attained.
English literature is very vast and varied. It provides us with different forms of
writings like poetry, novel, drama, myth, short story, comedy, satire, tragedy etc. All sorts of
genres are affected by the Rasas under Rasa Theory by Bharat Muni.

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The term rasa first time used in Bharatmuni’s treatise on aesthetic, Natyasastra . Rasa is
compared with Aristotelian idea of catharsis , its intention to evoke feelings among the
reader. In rasa theory an actor enacts the emotions and the audience tastes it, that is the
spectator is encouraged to developed a sort of detached sympathy, as opposed to the
empathetic reactions required by catharsis. Rasa expresses difference between tasting an
emotion and experiencing it.

The Natyasastra is close to Aristotle’s Poetics for art appreciation. Aristotle ‘s concern were
tragedy as form of art.
In English, Rasa is known as Aesthetics which itself teaches a lot but the actual
“rasa‟ can be achieved when we go through the theory by Bharata Muni. The concept of
Aesthetics deals with the sense of beauty and taste. It shapes our aesthetic judgment,
understanding, emotion and attitude. Rasa Theory teaches us more into this sphere. Under
the influence of Rasa the reader or the spectator becomes the 'Rasika'. Especially today’s
world is all about hustle and bustle, one does not have time and enough space for someone.
The purgation of feelings of a person is unable to reach to its zenith. He remains devoid of
any permanent accompany.
Literature is the ultimate source of entertainment and pleasure for him. If he is able to
find out rasa through it, then he can have sort of psychological and mental relief out of his
readings.
Rasas and English Literature
English Literature constitutes of endless number of writings. All are based on
varied themes and subjects. All can be a different source of entertainment for different
individuals. To start with the relevance of Rasas in English literature one needs to know
about how many rasas are there and what does each rasa means. The treatise on rasa theory
can be found in Chapter 6 of the Natyasastra. Bharata lists eight dramatic types of rasa:
erotic, comic, tragic, violent, heroic, fearful, macabre and fantastic.

There are eight rasas according to Bharata Muni.

These are:
Bhayanak (Fear) Rasa: It deals with the emotion of fear.
Hasya(Comedy)Rasa: It explains the emotion of joy/laughter.
Raudra(Violence) Rasa: It arouses the emotion of anger.
Adbhuta(Marvellous) Rasa: Emotion of wonder is expressed.
Bibhatsa(Macbre) Rasa: Feeling of disgust is talked about.
Sringara (Erotic) rasa: It explains the emotion of erotic/love.
Veera (Heroism) rasa : It highlights the emotion of heroism.
Karuna (Tragedy) rasa: It explores the emotion of sadness.

All these rasas can be found in different forms of English Literature. One can derive the
immense state of pleasure out of these rasas while enjoying a text or any piece of art. This
can be well illustrated through the different works of literature by eminent writers relating
them to one of the rasas individually.

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Emotion of Fear :
Fear is when some elements arouse a kind of terribleness. One feels horrified or
is laid towards something good or wrong. Macbeth by William Shakespeare arouses a sense
and emotion of fear while we read it. It is the major motivating factor in the actions of its
character. Macbeth was fearful of being caught due to his wrong deeds in the case of the
murder of the King Duncan. His actions were also partially the resultant of the fear created by
the fearful prophecy of the witches. The troublesome sleep of Lady Macbeth is again a sign
of fearfulness. She loses sanity as she is consumed by fear and guilt.

Emotion of Laughter:
A sense of comedy, farce that makes us laugh and feel happy is what is created by
this rasa. William Shakespeare‟s “A Midsummer Night‟s Dream‟ creates comedy. The
words, action and the plot are to some extend humorous. It is created when reader is more
aware about the situation of a character than the character does. It occurs on how the readers
perceive the circumstances of four lovers. Both Lysander and Demetrius leave off being in
love with Hermia and fall in love with Helena, and they do not know the reasons for this but
contrary to it the viewers are aware of it. The characters‟ confusion and mess creates comedy
inthe play. They indulge in arguments which are silly and for fun of the reader.

Emotion of Anger :
When e feel a sort of anguish or we try to have revenge, anger is evoked.
Chimney Sweeper by William Blake evokes the anger towards society. The parents sell their
kids to sweep the soot. The choking soot is dangerous for the young kids. The unsatisfactory
minds of children and the wrong judgment of society with them is the main source of anger in
the poem.
Emotion of wonder :
The gestures of surprise or wonder are created when something unexpected
happen. Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot keeps us wondering what next is going to
happen. Even at the end of the play we still wonder. Vladimir and Estragon keep on waiting
for Godot in the play in spite of the fact that they do not even know who Godot is.

Emotion Of Disgust:
To have a feeling of unlikeness, when you do not like to achieve something as it is
actually or as it is exhibited you suffer from the emotion of disgust. The poem The Flea by
John Donne exhibits some elements of disgust. The flea is taken to join the two bloods
together. The body of the flea is taken to as the marriage bed. The idea of having sex and then
comparing it with the instances of the fleais really disgusting. The harm that can be caused to
a lady is compared to that of the killing of an insect.

Emotion of Love:
Love is to be passionate and in deeply attached with something or someone, it
tells one to completely devote his self to someone. William Blakes sonnet “She walks in
beauty” presents the theme of love. The speaker compares her beloved to lots of beautiful

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things like stars , the dark sky shining etc. The beauty is described in so much affectionate
way that one can easily come to know how much does the speaker loves his beloved.
He says that her face is “sweet” and “pure”. She is not just presented as beautiful but is also
said to be “good” and “innocent”.

Emotion of Heroism:
When someone is presented to be your role model or a kind of personality
whom you can follow, he is taken to be the hero of the task. His courage, bravery, boldness is
all that is talked about. He has a sense of proud or the reader feels a sense of proud on that
figure. P.B Shelley in Ozymandias , describes about the boastful attitude of the king. The
lines “ Ozymandias, King of King; if anyone wishes to know what I am and where I lie, let
him surpass me in some of my exploits,” they present his heroic qualification.

Emotion of Sadness:
Sadness can be created by any unwanted activity of life. You may want
something in life but due to inability to achieve something you can be sad. Even the bad
happening in life can turn you upset. It is basically getting your mood spoilt when something
goes opposite to your desires. A monologue by Robert Browning i.e “The Last Ride Together
“expresses the dejected condition of a rejected lover. He wants to have a last sign of love with
his beloved in the source of last ride.

There are three types of emotions or Bhavas

Thus, These rasas are related to our life. We somehow relate our happenings of life with
these rasas . We can even have a sense of commonness with the characters when we assume
the reading based on these rasas. A kind of sympathy could be created with those characters
or the sufferer around us for the same cause. We can even find out rest when we observe that
what all is happening with us is actually the part of life and has happened and is happening
with people around us.

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ONE ACT PLAY
A Marriage Proposal
Anton Chekov
Introduction of Anton Chekov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904 was a Russian
playwright and short-story writer, who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short
fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories
are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August
Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of
early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his
literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress.
Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was
revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which
subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three
Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.
A Marriage Proposal is a one-act play. It is also farce based on humour situation.

Characters
Stepan Stepanovitch Chubokov, 70 years old, country farmer.
Natalia Stepanovna, his daughter, 25 years old
Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov

Summary

Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov, 35 years old, a neighbour of Tschubukov, a large and

hearty, but very suspicious landowner Lomov come to visit his neighbor, Tschubukov. He is
wearing a dress jacket and white gloves. Tschubukov expresses a great pleasure. He
welcomes him saying him angel and gives him a warm handshake. But he is surprised to see
him in a evening dress, and thinks that he is on his way to some engagement. Lomov tells
him that he has no engagement except with him. He tries to explain the purpose of his visit,
but he gets nervous and excited.

Tschubukov has a daughter named Natalia. She is twenty-five old, an excellent

housekeeper but unmarried. In fact, he has come with a proposal to marry Natalia. He is so
nervous that he finds it very difficult to tell Tschubukov the purpose of his visit. He says that
he has come to ask him for a favor, though he does not deserve it. Tschubukov thinks that he
has come to borrow money, and asks him not to beat about the bush. After much discussion,
Lomov tells him that he has come to ask for the hand of his daughter, Natalia. Tschubukov
naturally feels very happy and kisses him. He says that he will go to call his daughter and
assures Lomov that she will at once accept this proposal. When Lomov is left alone, he feels
that he is cold and his whole body is trembling. He thinks that Natalia is an excellent

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housekeeper, not at all bad-looking, well-educated - what more he should ask. Moreover, if
he does not marry now, he will never get married. He has been already thirty-five. He has a
weak heart, and he suffers from palpitation and numbness. The worst of all is the way he
sleeps. He hardly lies down and begins to doze when he gets a pull in his left side and
something begins to hammer in his left shoulder and in his head. He walks about a little, lies
down again and feels the same way again. This continues the whole night. Only a well-
regulated life can help him in this respect. Marriage alone can bring this much-needed peace
and regularity in his life.
Natalia comes and is surprised to see Lomov, because her father has told her
that there is a dealer who has come to buy something. She begs to be excused for wearing an
apron and an old dress. She was shelling peas for drying. She asks if he would like to have
something to eat. Then she offers him smoke, and talks about the weather. She is also
surprised to find him in a formal dress, and tells him that he seems to be looking better. She
thinks that perhaps he is on his way to a ball. Lomov gets excited. He is unable to express the
purpose of his visit. He wants to be brief, but in his excitement he starts beating about the
bush. He speaks of the old relations of the Lomovs and the Tschubukovs. He tells her that his
late aunt and his late uncle had a great regard for her father and her late mother, and
furthermore his property adjoins hers; his Oxen meadows touch her birch woods.
Natalia is shocked to hear that the Oxen Meadows belong to Lomov. She claims that the
meadows are hers, and not his. Poor Lomov feels all the more excited. He tries to explain that
once there was a dispute over the Oxen Meadows, but now everybody knows that they belong
to him. His aunt's grandmother put the meadows, free from all costs, into the hands of the
peasants of her father's grandfather for a certain time while they were laying bricks for his
grandmother. These people used the meadows free of cost for about forty years and began to
consider the land as theirs. Natalia, however, does not believe it. Lomov is prepared to show
the papers, but of no use. She tells him that they have owned the property for nearly three
hundred years; the meadows are not worth much, but she cannot stand injustice.

If he keeps explaining it for two days, she will not be convinced. She does
not want to take his property, and she refuses to give up what belongs to her. The discussion
turns into a quarrel and the marriage proposal is forgotten. Natalia tells him that she will
immediately send her reapers to the meadows. Lomov promises to turn them out. They shout
at each other.
In the course of their quarrel, Tschubukov enters. When he is arguing about the Oxen
Meadows, he sides with his daughter. Lomov again tries to explain, but Tschubukov does not
listen. He tells Lomov that the latter cannot prove anything by yelling. He would rather give
them to the peasants than let him claim them. Lomov becomes rude. Tschubukov begs him to
address him respectfully for he is not used to have people address him in that tone of a rude
person. Lomov calls him a land-grabber, and tells him that he will prove in the court.
Tschubukov gets furious, calls him an intriguer and accuses his whole family. In this way,
they start to pull each other's family. Lomov says the entire race of the Lomov has always
been honorable, and never has one been brought to trial for embezzlement as Tschubukov's
uncle has been. Tschubukov tells Lomov that the latter's grandfather was a drunkard and that

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his aunt had eloped with an architect. Lomov say that Tschubukov's mother was
humpbacked. So they drag their ancestors in their foolish quarrel.
Now Lomov gets much excited. The palpitation of his heart becomes unbearable. His eyes
are blurred. His foot goes numb. It seems as though he were dying. He takes his hat, and
staggers out of the room. Tschubukov warns him not to come into his house again. The father
and the daughter curse him and tell him all sorts of dirty names.
After Lomov has gone, Tschubukov says that the fool had the courage to come to him with a
marriage proposal. When Natalia hears that he had come to propose to her for marriage and
that is why he was dressed in evening clothes, she begins to weep and falls into an armchair.
She blames her father for not telling her that before. She goes into hysterics, and asks her
father to bring him back immediately. The poor father feels embarrassed: they have insulted
him and thrown him out of their house; and now he should call him back. How ridiculous! He
feels like shooting himself. Natalia blames her father and calls him brutal. She thinks if it
were not for him, Lomov would not have gone. Her behavior, indeed, is very funny.
Tschubukov rushes out and calls him back.
Lomov returns; he is in a wretched state. His heart is beating terribly; his side is hurting him;
his leg is lamed. Natalia feels sorry for her mistake, and admits that the Oxen Meadows
belong to him. She suggests that they should talk about something else. She wants to avoid
every possibility of dispute, and wishes Lomov to make the proposal straight away. She asks
him if he is going on hunting soon. Lomov replies that he expects to begin after the harvest.
His dog, Guess, has gone lame: perhaps it is a dislocation, or maybe he has been bitten by
some other dog.
Lomov is very proud of his dog; he has bought him for a hundred and twenty five roubles and
thinks it is very cheap. Natalia however, does not agree. Her dog, Squeezer Leap, cost more
than eighty five roubles, and he is in every way better than Guess. They are again dragged
into an argument over the superiority of each other's dogs. In his opinion Squeezer Leap is
over-short; he has a short lower jaw, and therefore he cannot catch his prey. Natalia cannot
stand this. She thinks that her dog is pure-bred, whereas his dog is old, ugly and skinny and
nobody can figure out his pedigree. She does not like when a person does not say what he
really thinks. In the course of hot discussion, Lomov again gets excited; he feels the
palpitation of heart, and his heart is bursting.
The father again enters the room. Both turn to him for opinion. He says Guess certainly has
his good points. He is from a good breed, has a good stride, strong haunches, and so forth.
But he has two faults he is old and he has a short lower jaw. Lomov tells Tschubukov that on
a hunting expedition his dog, Guess, had run neck to neck with the Count's dog. But Leap
was left behind. Tschubukov says that the Count struck his dog with a whip; that is why he
was left behind. Lomov reminds him that his dog was whipped because instead of running
after the fox, he bit the sheep. Tschubukov, however, does not agree. He requests Lomov to
stop that argument. But that does not seem possible. Tschubukov gets angry. He tells Lomov
to stay at home with his palpitation; he is not fit for hunting. They again abuse each other and
call names. Lomov begins to see stars; every part of his body is bursting. He falls into a chair
and faints.
Seeing Lomov faint, Natalia thinks that he is dead. She starts weeping and crying, and
requests her father to call in the doctor. The poor father feels miserable. He holds a glass of

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water to Lomov's lips, but the latter does not drink water. The father finds himself in a
terrible situation. He is so mad with desperation that he wants to shoot himself. In the
meantime, Lomov comes to senses. He sees mist before his eyes. Tschubukov does not want
to take any more chance by leaving them alone. He at once speaks out that his daughter is
willing to marry. He thrusts Lomov's hand into his daughter's hand and gives them his
blessings. He just wants to be left in peace. Lomov is still dazed. He is not able to understand
what is going on. At last they kiss each other and are reconciled. But they again start
quarrelling over their dogs. Natalia says, "Guess is worse than Leap. Lomov says, "Better".
Amid their shouting, the poor old father shouts, "Champagne, Champagne".

Q. Give a brief character sketch of Lomov.

Ans:-Lomov was a young, unmarried man of thirty five. He was anxious to get married as he
had already reached a critical age. Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov is a prententious, proud, self-
serving, argumentative, impetuous, hysterical hypochondriac. A wealthy landowner, he
comes to his neighbor with the overt intentions of marriage, but he really wishes to expand
his own land boundaries. So he decided to propose a girl in the neighbourhood. Her name
was Natalya, a girl of twenty-five years old. Lomov thought that she was a good housekeeper
and was not bad looking., an excellent house keeper. Further she was unmarried. Lomov was
a funny character.
He was suffering from palpitation. He behaved as if he were eccentric. He was so
eager to marry Natalya. But when he came to propose to her, he started quarrelling over
trifles. He quarrelled on issues like Oxen Meadows and pet dogs named Squeezer and Guess.
He even abused Natalya and her father Chubukov while quarrelling. He is worried that
Natalia will refuse and remains nervous. A hypochondriac, Lomov thinks he is cold, and
believes he has a roaring in his ears. Further, he complains of a weak heart, insomnia, strange
aches, and other ailments.

When he does speak to Natalia, he does not ask her to marry him; instead, he becomes
disputatious soon after bringing up the land between their properties. He and Natalia begin
shouting, and Lomov threatens to take the Tschubukovs to court. Complaining of his heart,
Lomov collapses. When her father complains about Lomov's audacity to propose marriage,
Natalia begs her father to bring him back, so Lomov returns, but begins to argue with Natalia
about their dogs. This prompts more spasms and aches until the father intervenes so that they
will marry. In his farce, Chekhov ridicules the Russian landowners for whom marriage was
more a land deal than a love match. Having long been the neighbour of Stepan
Stepanovitch Tschubukov, Lomov comes to him in formal attire and speaks with.
Q. A marriage proposal is one act play
Ans- one act play
Q.A marriage proposal is farce
Ans- Farce
Q. A marriage proposal is satirical comedy
Ans- satirical comedy

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Q. What is Lomov wearing ?
Ans- a dress – jacket and white gloves.
Q. Why has Lomov come to Chubukov’s home?
Ans- to propose to his daughter
Q. Why is Natalia and Lomov ‘s first quarrel?
Ans- the oxen Meadows
Q.Why Natalia is dressed in her underclothing?
Ans- She was shelling peas for drying.
Q. Lomov and Natalia were quarrelling over?
Ans- pet dogs ( Guess and Squeezer)
Q. what incident is compared the merits of Guess and squeezer?
Ans- the counts hunt

Q. Give a brief character sketch of Natalya.

Ans:-Natalaya was a young unmarried girl of twenty five years. She lived in the
neighbourhood of Lomov, a young unmarried man. She was an excellent housekeeper and
was not bad looking. She was thirsting for love. Her father called her a lovesick cat. Lomov
said that she was well educated, but she did not seem to be so. She was very quarrelsome and
abusive by nature. She began a bitter quarrel with Lomov over a piece of land that had little
value of 12 Roubles. She said that those meadows were not much worth to her but she could
not stand unfairness. But when she learnt that Lomov had come to propose to her, she forgot
all fairness and unfairness. She began to wail over the lost chance .She forced her father to
call him back. But in no time, she started quarrelling with him again. It was on their dogs.
Both claimed their respective dogs to be of a superior breed.
With her father's saying that "a dealer has come to buy something," Natalia enters the
front room to find there Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov. She greets him affably. However, it is not
long before she argues with Lomov about the meadows, not realizing that he has come to
propose marriage. Instead, she speaks vehemently of the injustice of his accusations: "Say
what you will, I can't bear injustice."
When Lomov tries to smooth over the situation, Natalia argues that he can explain all he
wants, but the meadows still belong to her family. And, when the father enters, the argument
continues. Natalia is tenacious; she adamantly insists that the meadows are theirs.
After Lomov leaves, Natalia calls him a "good-for-nothing," and her father adds other words
such as "Loafer! Scarecrow! Monster!"
However, soon her father reveals to Natalia that Lomov came to offer her a proposal of
marriage. She shouts, "Bring him back! Bring him back!" Soon, too, she begins to argue with
Lomov about his dogs.
Q. A Character sketch of Stephan Stepanovitch Tschubukov.
Natalia's father, Tschubukov has a little fun with his daughter as he tells her that a dealer has
come when Lomov comes to propose. But, when his daughter and Lomov argue, he, too,
becomes hysterical, shouting names at Lomov and complaining, Oh, I know you, you are
only waiting to find an excuse to go to the law! You're an intriguer, that what you are! Your
whole family were always looking for quarrels. The whole lot! Then, after his daughter begs
him to bring Lomov back, Tschubukov threatens that he will cut his own throat, but he does

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not. Later, when Lomov collapses, Tschubukov says he should have cut his own throat, after
all.

Q. What does Chubukov at first suspect that Lomov has come for? Is he sincere when he later
says “and I’ve always loved you, my angel, as if you were my own son”? Find reason for
your answer from the play.
Ans:-Chubukov at first suspects that Lomov has come to borrow money. Chubukov is not
sincere in saying this. After some minutes, Chubukov starts fighting with Lomov over petty
matters. In fact, he sides with his daughter in fighting with Lomov. He even abuses Lomov
calling him with bad names. This shows his insincerity in saying this flattering sentence.

Q. How does Lomov come to Chubukov’s house? What for does he come? How is he
received?
Ans:-Lomov comes to Chubukov’s house in the evening dress with gloves on. He comes to
propose to his daughter Natalya. He is received with all the respect by Chubukov. It is clear
by Chubukov’s words like ‘my angel’, ‘my dear fellow’, ‘my treasure’.
.
Q.Why did Lomov wants to get married?
Ans:-Lomov was 35 years old. it is critical age. It was high time that he should settle for a
quiet and regular life. Moreover, he was suffering due to a weak heart called palpitations and
sleep-sickness called numbness. He wanted company and someone to look after him, so he
wanted her to get married.

Q. What happens to Lomov when he is in an excited state?

Ans:-Lomov’s heart beat increases. His lips tremble. There is twitch in his right eyebrow.
The worst thing is the way he sleeps. When he goes to sleep, something pulls in his left side.
It comes to his shoulder and head. He jumps like lunatic.

Q.How does Natalya excite Lomov to the point of verbal fighting?

Ans:-Natalya doesn’t agree to the point that Oxen Meadows are not theirs. She says that upto
that she thought Lomov was a good neighbor. They lent him their threshing machine last
year. They had to postpone their threshing till November. How was Lomov giving her his
own land?

Q.Why does Natalya ask her father Chubukov to fetch Lomov in at once when they have
fought verbally? How does she accuse her father?
Ans:-Actually Chubukov says that Lomov came to propose to Natalya for marriage. Natalya
didn’t know it. So she at once changes and asks her father to fetch Lomov in then. She also
accuses Chubukov that he drove Lomov out.

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Q. How do Lomov and Chubukov fight after talking about dogs, etc?
Ans:-Chubukov says that Lomov should sit at home with his heart beats. He is not at all a
hunter. Lomov replies that he goes hunting to intrigue only. This starts their verbal fight.
Lomov calls him an ‘intriguer’. Chubukov calls him ‘pup’. Lomov calls him ‘old rat’.
Chubukov calls him ‘fool’, etc.
Q. How is ‘the Proposal’ a great comedy?
Ans:-‘The Proposal’ is a great comedy. It is because of the characters and subject matter and
how they behave. Natalya, Lomov and Chubukov fight over foolish things. All these create a
lot of laughter. The verbal fights over Oxen Meadows and dogs are really full of humour.
Q. Justify the title of the play The Proposal.
Ans:-The title of the play is 'The proposal' and it is a very apt one because the whole play is
about Lomov proposing Natalya. Right from the beginning to the end of the play, the story
revolves round a marriage proposal. Lomov comes to Natalya's house to propose to her but
even before he does it, they both start fighting. As a result, Lomov becomes sick and leaves.
Natalya's father informs her about the intention of Lomov and she starts lamenting over the
loss. Lomov is called back and once again an argument ensues before proposing. Hence, we
can say that the title is perfect for the play.
Q. Sketch the character of Stephen Chubukov ?
Ans:-In the play The Proposal Anton Chechov has presented three characters. Stephen
Chubukov is one of them. He was a land owner who had a daughter named Natalya. He was a
very quarrelsome man but had a habit of speaking politely to everyone initially. He welcomes
Lomov in a polite manner and is happy when he says he has come to propose to his daughter.
Chubukov was a man to be carried away easily and so when Natalya and Lomov had an
argument he too joined in and insulted Lomov. Chubukov is projected as a loving father but a
greedy man who is looking for a good match for his daughter.
Q. What happens to Lomov when he is in an excited state?
Ans:-Lomov’s heart beat increases. His lips tremble. There is twitch in his right eyebrow.
The worst thing is the way he sleeps. When he goes to sleep, something pulls in his left side.
It comes to his shoulder and head. He jumps like lunatic.
Q. How does Natalya excite Lomov to the point of verbal fighting?
Ans:-Natalya doesn’t agree to the point that Oxen Meadows are not theirs. She says that upto
that she thought Lomov was a good neighbor. They lent him their threshing machine last
year. They had to postpone their threshing till November. How was Lomov giving her his
own land?
Q. Why does Natalya ask her father Chubukov to fetch Lomov in at once when they have
fought verbally? How does she accuse her father?
Ans:-Actually Chubukov says that Lomov came to propose to Natalya for marriage. Natalya
didn’t know it. So she at once changes and asks her father to fetch Lomov in then. She also
accuses Chubukov that he drove Lomov out.
Q. How do Lomov and Chubukov fight after talking about dogs, etc?
Ans:-Chubukov says that Lomov should sit at home with his heart beats. He is not at all a
hunter. Lomov replies that he goes hunting to intrigue only. This starts their verbal fight.

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Lomov calls him an ‘intriguer’. Chubukov calls him ‘pup’. Lomov calls him ‘old rat’.
Chubukov calls him ‘fool’, etc.
Q. How is ‘the Proposal’ a great comedy?
Ans:-‘The Proposal’ is a great comedy. It is because of the characters and subject matter and
how they behave. Natalya, Lomov and Chubukov fight over foolish things. All these create a
lot of laughter. The verbal fights over Oxen Meadows and dogs are really full of humour.
Q. What issues do Lomov and Natalia quarrel about?
Ans- A marriage proposal is one act play, also it is farce. Lomov and Natalia’s quarrel over
meaning things as the oxen meadows and their pet dogs Guess and Squeezer. Lomov sys that
the oxen meadows belongs to me and my Guess is good better than squeezer.

While the Auto Waits

William Sydney Porter
Introduction of the Author-
William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), known by his pen
name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. His stories are known for their surprise
endings, hundreds of short stories including "The Ransom of Red Chief" (1910),The four
million(1906)The trimmed lamp(1097) "The Duplicity of Hargraves" (1902), and "The Gift
of the Magi" (1905); waifs and strays(1917)

Summary-
The story is about a poor girl who pretends to be rich while reading in the park, met a
man who is in love with her. This man lies about himself, supposing to be poor. They both lie
each other but none of them expose the lie. One day she came in the park in grey sat on the
bench reading her book. When she turns a page, the book slips from her hand, and the young
man returns it to her with a smile. Already the young man falls in love with her because he
constantly keep watch her since last few days. They both discuss about weather, people
passing and crowding, each way, along these paths. The young man replied that they are
going to the dinner and other places. These people fascinate the girl, their little dreams, and
their common worries. The girl pretend s that she belongs to the rich family and she is weary
of money, money and money. She said that I am sick of pleasure, of jewels, of travel, of
society, of luxuries of all kinds. She says that when have so many millions suffered lot.
But the young man would like to study the habits and customs of the wealthy class. The
girl says the idea putting ice in champagne is gone.
The girl would like to marry a man who belongs to the lowly class or humble person. One
who is worker and able to think over the situation. The young man was cashier in the
restaurant. The girl makes wrong pronunciation of the young man’ name. She says the
young man what is your business. The man replied that I am working as cashier in the
restaurant. She says that it would be disappointed if I marry a commoner in my family. All
the magazine would comment upon it. She might be cut from the family fortune.
The girl says that I am late for the engagement and chauffer is waiting in the corner of the
park. Suddenly the waitress approaches there and says to the girl “ what are you doing here”?

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The girl neglects waitress saying and her identity to her. The girl pretends that chauffer is
waiting for me in the corner of the park in the automobile. But the girl speaks lie to the
waitress. The waitress says to the girl are you come with drink.
Then the waitress goes to tell the girl’s mother about her reality.
At last Chauffer came there to tell the young man shall I cancel the dinner reservation.
O Henry’s one act play has twist ending.

Objective questions
1. What is the girl doing at the park?
Ans - reading
2. What does the young address the girl as, which offends her?
Ans- Honeysuckle
3. Why does the girl not want to read?
Ans- the light is too poor to read.
4. What action does the girl describe, which the young man questions?
Ans- adding ice to glasses and drinking champagne, instead of chilling it
5. We are drawn to that which:
Ans- we do not understand.
6. What kind of man does the girl want to fall in love with?
Ans- a man from a lowly social sphere
7. What profession does the young man claim to have?
Ans- cashier at a restaurant
8. What is the girls real name?
Ans- Mary– Jane Paker
9. The Girl’s real profession is:
Ans- waitress
10. The car is waiting for
Ans- the young man.

1. What does the girl claim to come to the park for?

Ans- The girl came there in the park because, she said I can be near the great, common,
throbbing heart of humanity. He part in life is cast where its beating is never felt.
2. How does the girl describe her life?
Ans- the girl pretends that she is weary of money, satisfied with money, money, money. She
is sick of pleasure, of jewels, of travel, of society, of luxuries of all kinds. She consumes that
suffering from millions. Drivers dinners, theatres, balls suppers , balls suffered lot in her life.
3. What role does the waitress play in the story?
Ans- the waitress showed the girls ( mary jane parker) reality. The girl belongs to the poor
class family. The girl was working in the restaurant .The waitress sys to the girl you are
getting late for the job. Already she is being late for the job, but the girl consciously didn’t
pay attention to the waitress. At last the girl and the waitress went for the job.

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1. What twists (turn) does this story have?
In the story, “While the Auto waits” there is a very prominent twist at the end of the
tale. The story tells us a Parkenstacker who comes across the young girl who in gray dress,
reading, in a park. The young man makes advances but the woman pertains to be of an upper
class and talks something about dissatisfaction with her “rich” life, then leaves him to return
to where her driver waits for her in an automobile. The young man follows, and watches her
leave the park and enters into a restaurant and begins working as a cashier. He has a look at
her book, which she has inadvertently dropped on the grass, and steps up, into his own
automobile, where his driver has been waiting for him. From this short story we learned that
it doesn’t pay to lie, or be proud, as both the man and the woman from the story lose out in
the end. We need to be an honest person and be proud of our own life.
From the short story, the woman is a self-deception, vanity, who is yearning upper class
luxury life and the man is Careful, calm and full of calculation, and be good at hide himself.
In this conversation both the man and the woman are trying to cover up their own identity,
and coincidentally pointed to the each other’s identity, the end is their return to play their real
social role, which makes this play, has a strong ironic effect.
For the details, this short contains some interesting points. First of all, it is inclusion that at
the beginning the woman read the book and the man picks up the book at the end of the story.
The book is a metaphor indicates the rich life. The woman read it pretend her upper class
lady, then with her left the park and goes back to her real life. The book that is the rich life
was dropped. Also as the man picks the book up the ironic feeling stands vividly revealed on
the paper that the woman had been reading Arabian Nights, which is about betrayal,
corruption and deceit. With small see big, the Automobile is the carrier that the author used to
describe social false, vanity phenomenon. Satirize people who chase money and glory,
reflecting the gap between rich and poor, which bring people psychological distortion. The
author wants to criticize unhealthy ways and customs of the society.

In the story, “While the Auto Waits” there is a very prominent twist at the end of the tale, and
the reader are left with no explicit moral epilogue. The story tells us a young man who comes
across a woman who in gray dress, reading, in a park. The young man makes advances but
the woman pertains to be of an upper class and talks something about dissatisfaction with her
“rich” life, then leaves him to return to where her driver waits for her in an automobile. The
young man follows, and watches her leave the park and enters into a restaurant and begins
working as a cashier. He has a look at her book, which she has inadvertently dropped on the
grass, and steps up, into his own automobile, where his driver has been waiting for him.

2. Bring out the irony in the play.

Ans- The young man who, is rich and in the upper class, falls in love with a girl so he decides
to tell a lie that he is poor man. The girl that the man loves also pretends to be
rich women. But the fact is opposite. Although the man and the girl know they both lie
each other, they don't expose the lie.
Parkenstacker, has been coming to this very park for quite some time following this same
maiden. The mystery woman goes into great detail about her life, her millions…as if she is so

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discontent and drawn overly bored with the statures and stipulations of the upper class. She
almost makes it seem as if she is in a class above that of which is consider “upper”, as if
almost a royal figure by the mentioning of “the Drake and the Prince”.
She makes mention of this figures of royalty when the young man questions if she will truly
be able to fall in love with just a common man. By never offering her name to Mr.
Parkenstacker she has left so much to be desired for in this short play, so much more you
want to initially know about her. I start imagining if she is the heir to a textile fortune,
possibly from a wealthy family with a rich history in banking on the most supreme of levels.
Early on you do not even realize that Parkenstacker is doing just the same as the young lady
is. They are both putting on airs as they say, each wanting to unknowingly trade shoes for a
day or for an eternity even. Mr. Parkenstacker is portraying to a commoner who has not true
idea of having financial authority but claiming to consider he somewhat a connoisseur of the
rich and well-to-do class. He begins by attempting to summarize up what her life is like
which leads to her expounding more on her alleged lifestyle.
The young lady almost seems as if she wants out of this dreaded long life of balls, dinners,
plays, operas, and being around other people only drawn to her by her financial status or
monetary circles. She is living in a world where your name is so powerful she feels as if she
cannot dare give him that small piece of information for he will surely know just who he is
talking with on this park bench. Then we have a break in the play when the waitress from the
restaurant across the street enters the park, evidently looking for this young lady whom we
now address as Mary-Jane Parker.
Claiming that she is tired of her pulling off these shenanigans and being late for work a third
time and the owner being furious. The waitress is the vital part of this play for if not for her
we would have left off thinking Mr. Parkenstacker was a poor common man and the
aforementioned unknown lady was of the wealthy class. As the chauffer finally approaches
Mr. Parkenstacker and the end and asks him shall he cancel the dinner reservations, then and
only then do we see what has transpired. Mr. Parkenstacker is actually the wealthy one and he
has been attempting to ask this lady, Mary-Jane Parker out on a date for quite some time but
the one time he has had the courage to approach her she has been called out in scandal.

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POETRY

Upagupta

Rabindranath Tagore
Introduction of the poet:
Rabindranath Tagore (7th May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a poet of India. His
name is written as Rabindranath Thakur in Indian languages. He was also a philosopher and
an artist. He wrote many stories, novels, poems and dramas. He is also very well known
for composing music. His writings greatly influenced Bengali culture during the late 19th
century and early 20th century. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was the
first Asian ever to win this prize. Rabindranath Tagore was popularly known as "Gurudev."
His major works included Gitanjali (Song Offerings), a world-famous poetry
book; Gora (Fair-Faced); Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World); and many other works
of literature and art. Tagore was also a cultural reformer. He made it possible to make art
using different forms and styles.

Introduction of the poem:

Upagupta was a Buddhist monk. He was the spiritual teacher of
the Mauryan emperor Ashoka. The Poem “Upagupta” establishes the impermanence of
sensual pleasures, the root cause of sorrow being attachment to material pleasures etc. and
many such philosophical and spiritual truths. Tagore achieves this through the incidents in the
life of a dancing girl and her meeting with an ascetic called Upagupta.

Summary:
The poem presents two moments in the life of a dancing girl. The dancing girl comes to
Upagupta, the disciple of Buddha on a dark night and invites him to her house. Upagupta
rejects her invitation saying,
“when the time is ripe, I will come to you”.
She is described as proud of her youth and beauty (“drunk with the wine of her
youth”). She meets the ascetic again after a long time when she is stricken with black
pestilence and is thrown out of the city. The ascetic comes to her and consoles her. He says
that it is the right time to visit her. The two moments shown in the life of the girl are the two
cardinal moments in her life-two important phases of one’s life. The poem may appear to
have no movement but it has in the case of the inner as well as the outer life of the dancing
girl. A great transformation occurs in her life.

The two meetings are highly symbolic. The description of Nature adds to it.
On her first meeting with the ascetic, the sky is dark, without stars and is horrid with
lightning and storm. Though it is a dark night, the dancing girl is bright with her jewels
shining like stars. Though she carries a lamp (light) she is in darkness (metaphorically) i.e.,

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she is ignorant. The ascetic doesn’t need such a light because he has seen the inner light
(avatara jyoti). The poet describes him sleeping in darkness.
Light and darkness are used quite symbolically and ironically here.
On her second meeting, the sky is bright with full moon(Buddha attained
enlightenment on a full moon night), whereas her life is dark with sorrow, being stricken with
‘black’ pestilence. The darker side of life is shown here. Her very statement during her first
meeting with Upagupta “the dusty earth is not a fit bed for you” anticipates her own future
condition of which she is ignorant. A sannyasi knows that everything returns to the dusty
earth. The body and the palaces erected on the earth are also subject to decay (“the base of
the rampart”). During her second meeting with the ascetic she is seen lying down on the same
dusty earth. In the first meeting she steps on the breast of the ascetic while in the second it
said that she lay “at his feet”. How her life has taken an unexpected turn is well illustrated
here.
The spring season too is described with symbolic undertones. The branches of
the trees laden with flowers are described as “aching”. It implies that it is a burden. The
period of youth in one’s life too is like the spring season. The woman described as “drunk
with the wine of her youth” experiences the pain of this pride later. Youth too is a burden, an
aching burden. The festival of flowers mentioned also conveys the same. The people are
always after “spring”, i.e. they are after material pleasures. They approach the girl when she
is young and beautiful and desert her when she has lost her charm. The young ascetic is
described as walking in the “lonely street”. People are not interested in spiritual truth. Earlier
too, the poet mentions that “the doors were all shut” before the ascetic.
The poem depicts the inner transformation of the dancing girl. Once she was
proud of her body and its beauty but she comes to know that it is also subject to decay like
any other thing in nature. But there is something which remains constant unaltered by nature
or its challenges. She discovers this spiritual truth. The ascetic remains the same in both the
meetings. He is not at all attached to worldly pleasures. He is aware of the happy and sad
sides of life. That is why his action is described as “austerely beautiful”.
It should be noted that the ascetic asks the girl to go on her way (“go on your
way”) and not on his way. He does not impose a path on her. This is the fundamental feature
of Buddha’s teaching. He says, “Be a light unto you”. When the ascetic says, “When the time
is ripe” he doesn’t refer to the ripe time for him but for her. Only when she realizes the
impermanence of material pleasures from her own bitter experiences, the time will be ripe for
her. Only then she will understand what is real and what is unreal(“serpent and the rope”).
One discovers oneself only when one is free of delusions. Earlier she came to him as to any
other attractive man. She was so proud of her youth that she couldn’t see his spiritual beauty.
It is in the second meeting that she finds it.

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Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Upagupta, the disciple of Buddha, once, he lay asleep on the dust by the city wall
of Mathura. Lamps were all out, doors were all shut, and stars were all hidden by the murky
sky of August. Whose feet were those tinkling with anklets, touching his breast of a sudden?
He woke up startled, and the light from a woman's lamp struck his forgiving eyes. It was the
dancing girl, starred with jewels, clouded with a pale-blue mantle, drunk with the wine of her
youth. She lowered her lamp and saw the young face, austerely beautiful. 'Forgive me, young
ascetic,' said the woman; 'graciously come to my house. The dusty earth is not a fit bed for
you. 'The ascetic answered, 'Woman, go on your way; when the time is ripe I will come to
you. 'Suddenly the black night showed its teeth in a flash of lightning. The storm growled
from the corner of the sky, and the woman trembled in fear. The branches of the wayside
trees were aching with blossom. Gay notes of the flute came floating in the warm spring air
from afar. The citizens had gone to the woods, to the festival of flowers. From the mid-sky
gazed the full moon on the shadows of the silent town. The young ascetic was walking in the
lonely street, while overhead the lovesick koels urged from the mango branches their
sleepless plaint Upagupta passed through the city gates, and stood at the base of the rampart.
What woman lay in the shadow of the wall at his feet, struck with the black pestilence, her
body spotted with sores, hurriedly driven away from the town? The ascetic sat by her side,
taking her head on his knees, and moistened her lips with water and smeared her body with
balm. 'Who are you, merciful one?' asked the woman. 'The time, at last, has come to visit
you, and I am here,' replied the young ascetic.
Stars were all hidden by the murky sky of August. So his feet were tinkling with
anklets touching his breast of a sudden . he woke up startled and a light from a woman’s lamp
fell on his forgiving eyes. The spring season too is described with symbolic undergone. The
branches of the trees laden with flowers are described as “ Aching”. It implies that it is a
burden. The period of youth in one’s life too is like the spring season. The woman
described as drunk with wine of her youth’s experiences. The pain of this pride later. Youth
too is a burden , an aching burden. The festival of flowers. The people are always after ‘
spring’ they are after material pleasures. They approach the girl when she is young and
beautiful and desert her when she has lost her charm . the young ascetic is described as
walking in the “lonely street”. People are not interested in spiritual truth.
The poet says
‘The doors were all shut’ before the ascetic.
Throughout the poem, poet depicts the inner transformation of dancing girl . once she was
proud of her body and its beauty but she comes to know that it is also subject to decay like
any other thing in nature. But there is something remains constant unaltered by Nature or its
challenges. She discovers this spiritual truth. The ascetic remains the same in both the
meetings. The ascetic is not attached with worldly pleasures. He is aware of happy and sad
side of life. That is why his action is described as “ austerely beautiful”. It is not an action
resulting from the ego. He woke u and started looking at the woman, it was dancing girl with
jewels. She wore a pale , blue mantle. She drunk with the wine of her youth. She saw young
face ‘ austerely beautiful’. She said to young ascetic . the duty earth is not fit bed for you.
Ascetic said “ woman go on your way. When the time is rip , I will come to you”.

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He doesn’t impose a path on her. This is fundamental feature of Buddha’s teaching. He
says , Bea light up to you. Suddenly the storm assembled from the corner of the sky. The
woman trembled in a fear of some unknown danger. A year has not yet passed after along
time. It was evening of a day in April in spring season. The branches of the trees were full of
blossom. Flute was coming the spring air.

The citizens had gone to the woods for the festival of flowers. The sky was looking with full
moon on the town. The young ascetic was walking along the lonely street. While overhead
the love sick koels uttered from the mango branches their plaint. Upagupta passed through
the city gates and stood at base of the rampart(a large wall). A woman lying at his feet with
her body spotted with sores of small –pox. She had removed from the town to avoid her
poisonous contagion. She was suffering from humiliation . the ascetic sat by her side. He took
her head on his knees and moistened her lips with water and put her body with sandal
balm.
The woman asked, ascetic “who are you, merciful one”
Ascetic replied the time at last has come to visit you. The ascetic replied to the woman.
Now she realize the impermanence of material pleasures from her own bitter experience.
Now she discovers oneself only when one is free of delusions. Earlier she was so proud of her
youth that she couldn’t see ascetic spiritual beauty, but in the second meeting.

Question and answer:

What did the dancing girl ask the ascetic to do? Why did he decline her invitation?

A: The dancer was attracted by the ascetic's austere handsomeness. So she invited him
to her house and enjoy the pleasures of life. But the ascetic was not inclined to bodily
pleasures and earthly possessions. He, therefore declined her invitation but
promised to go to her when the time was ripe (when she actually needed his help).

Q: "Woman, go on your way...." Do you think 'your way' has any special significance?
What was her way? What was his way?

A: The words, 'your way' of Upagupta have a special significance. Upagupta asks the dancing
girl to get on with her worldly pleasures. She is too young to renounce material and physical
pleasures. Her way was to enjoy the pleasures of life whereas his way was to lead a simple
and spiritual life. As a saint, he renounced the worldly pleasures.

Q: "Who are you, merciful one?" asked the woman. Who is asking the question? Who is
the 'merciful one'? When had the woman met him first?

A: The dancing girl is asking the question. the 'merciful one' is Upagupta. One night in
August, when Upagupta slept on the dust by the city wall of Mathura, the dancing girl came
there with a lamp. That was her first meeting with Upagupta.

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Q: 'The time, at last, has come to visit you, And I am here". Who said this? To whom? In
what sense had the time come?

A: Upagupta said this to the dancing girl. The dancing girl suffering from a deadly disease
and she was driven away from the town. She lay in the shadow of the city wall suffering
miserably. It was the ripe time for the ascetic to come to serve her.

Q. What is the message this poem is trying to convey?

"Upagupta" is a fine poem written by Rabindranath Tagore. The poem has a beautiful theme.
It shows that a person is known by the action he does. The greatness of his characters is
reflected through his deeds. One must practice the principle of simple living and high
thinking in life. Physical beauty is short-lived. So one should not feel proud of it. Only good
actions done by a person is remembered by people. They live even after his death.
1. Where was upagupta sleeping?
Ans- beside the city wall of Mathura.
2. Who disturbed upagupta ‘s sleep?
Ans- a dancing girl.
3. What does the phrase “ drunk with the wine of her youth” mean?
Ans- the dancing girl was excessively proud of her youth.
4. Which was not a fit a bed for upagupta , according to the dancing girl?
Ans- the dusty earth
5. What made the woman tremble in fear?
Ans- unknown danger .
6. When did Upagupta return to the city?
Ans- on a warm April evening.
7. Why was the city deserted and lonely?
Ans- the citizens had gone to the woods to celebrate the festival of flowers.
8. What did Upagupta see at the city gates?
Ans – the dancing girl, abandoned and stricken with disease.

Question & Answers:

Graciously come to my house
The dusty earth is not a fit bed for you
The ascetic answered, "woman go on your way
When the time is ripe, I will come to you"
What did the dancing girl ask the ascetic to do? Why do you think he declined her invitation?
What did he promise her?
Ans. a) The dancing girl asked the ascetic to come to her house
b) She felt that the dusty earth was not a fitting bed for him. In fact she was attracted by his
beauty but the ascetic had already given up all the worldly pleasures. So he declined her
invitation
d) He promised that he would visit her when the right time had come.
Woman, go on your way,
When the time is ripe, I will come to you.

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Do you think 'your way' has any special meaning? What was 'her' way? What was ‘his’?
Ans. a) It has a special meaning 'your way' means the way the dancing girl is leading the life -
a life of enjoying bodily pleasures, a worldly way (or earthly pleasures)
b) Her way was the way of enjoying worldly pleasures.
c) Upagupta was an ascetic. An ascetic is one who follows the principle of self-denial. His
way is spiritual the one of annunciation and meditation.
"Who are you, merciful one?" asked the woman.
Who is asking the question? Who is the 'merciful one'? When had the woman met him first?
Ans. a) The dancing girl is asking the question. She is now stricken by a dreadful disease and
driven away from the town. The merciful one is Upagupta, the young ascetic. The woman
had first met him when she was in her youthful pride.
The ascetic sat by her side, taking her head on his knees, and moistened her lips with water
and smeared her body with balm.
"Who are you, merciful one?" asked the woman.
"The time, at last, has come to visit you, and I am here," replied the young ascetic.
Who was the young ascetic? Who was the woman he was treating?
Why did the woman call him 'the merciful one'?
Why did the ascetic tell the woman that the time to visit her had come at last?
Ans. a) They young ascetic was Upagupta.
b) The woman was the dancing girl who met him at the temple gate long ago when she was
young. She was very proud of her youth when they first met.
c) When she was attacked by a dreadful disease, she was driven away from the town. Nobody
cared for her. Then he was the only one who pitied her and helped her the young ascetic sat
by her. He took her head on his knees, put some water on her lips and applied balm to her
body. So she called him 'the merciful one'.
d) When the woman lay down suffering from a dreadful disease, who was really in need of
somebody's help. So the ascetic said that the time at last had come to visit her and serve her.
It was the time she needed him the most to soothe her in sorrow, nurse her and lead on the
right path.
The time, at last, has come to visit you, and I am here,
who is the 'I' in the poem? Who is 'you' in what sense has the time come?
Ans. a) 'I' in the poem is Upagupta.
b) 'You' is the dancing girl.
c) The time has come for the ascetic to come to her in order to attend on her, when she is
really in need of his help.
The time, at last, has come to visit you,
And I am here, what is the significance of these words spoken by the ascetic?
Ans. When Upagupta first met the dancing girl, she welcomed him to her house. But he did
not accept her invitation. He told her that he would come when the time was ripe. But not
who was suffering from a dreadful disease. She was driven away by the people from the
town. So the ascetic decided to cure her and put her on the proper path. He tells her that the
time has come to visit her.
Two kinds of lives are depicted in the poem Upagupta. What are “They”?
Ans. Two kinds of lives are depicted in the poem Upagupta by the two main characters -

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Upagupta and the dancing girl.
Upagupta is a disciple of Buddha and depicts a life of renunciation and spiritual pursuit.
The dancing girl is drunk with the wine of their youth and depicts a life of worldly pleasures
and material pursuit.
What did Upagupta mean when he said to the young woman that he would come to her when
the time was ripe?
Ans. When Upagupta said to the young woman that he would come to her when the time was
ripe, means that his way was one of renunciation, meditation and helping others in time of
need. So he came to help her when she needed it most.
What happened as soon as the young ascetic had spoken his words? (Mar 2000)
Ans. suddenly the black night showed its teeth in a flash of lightening. The storm growled
from the corner of the sky and the woman trembled in fear.
Additional Questions & Answers:
Why was the dancing girl up and about at that time of the night? The girl touched Upagupta
with her feet. Why? What had happened?
Ans. a) the dancing girl was on her way back home from the royal court at that time of the
night. She approached the city wall.
b) When touched Upagupta with her feet because she could not see him in the darkness of the
night.
c) So she begged his pardon. She invited him to her house saying that the dusty earth was not
the proper place for him to sleep.
"He woke up started and the light from a woman's lamp struck his forgiving eyes". What
woke up Upagupta? Why was he started? Would anyone have liked it? Why his eyes are
described as 'forgiving'?
Ans. a) the touch of the dancing girl woke him up.
b) He was started because he was suddenly woken up and also he saw a beautiful woman in
front of him.
c) No one would have liked a strong light striking one’s eyes when one opened.
d) His eyes are described as 'forgiving' because there were no signs of anger in them.
'Forgive me, young ascetic', said the woman. Why did she ask him for his forgiveness? What
had she done?
Ans. a) the dancing girl touched the ascetic with her feet because she could not see him in the
darkness of the night. So she asked him for his forgiveness.
b) She invited him to her house.
Suddenly the black night showed its teeth in a flash of lighting
the storm growled from the corner of the sky and the woman trembled in fear
that shows teeth when angry? Who growls? What is nature compared to? Do you think fate
was indicating what was to come? How did the woman react?
Ans. a) a monkey shows its teeth when angry.
b) A tiger growls.
c) Nature is compared to a tiger
d) Fate was indicating what was to come.
e) The woman trembled with fear.

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Why were the street lonely and the town silent? What was happening to the woman, while the
whole world was rejoicing? What had the people done to her? Why do you think she was
driven away hurriedly?
Ans. a) the street was lonely and the town silent because it was midnight.
b) While the whole world was rejoicing, the woman was suffering from a dreadful disease.
c) the people had driven her away from the town
d) the people were afraid that her disease would spread fast in the town.
What did the ascetic do?
A. The ascetic sat by the side of the woman and took her head on his knees. He moistened her
lips with warm water and daubed her body with balm.

Reference to context
1. The young ascetic answered, "Woman,
go on your way;
When the time is ripe I will come to you."

Reference: This lines are taken from Upagupta poem, written by Rabindranath Tagore.
The Poem “Upagupta” establishes the impermanence of sensual pleasures, the root cause of
sorrow being attachment to material pleasures etc. and many such philosophical and spiritual
truths.
Context: The dancing girl comes to Upagupta, the disciple of Buddha on a dark night and
invites him to her house. Upagupta rejects her invitation saying,
“when the time is ripe, I will come to you”.
She is described as proud of her youth and beauty (“drunk with the wine of her
youth”). She meets the ascetic again after a long time when she is stricken with black
pestilence and is thrown out of the city. The ascetic comes to her and consoles her. He says
that it is the right time to visit her.

2. "The time, at last, has come to visit you, and

I am here," replied the young ascetic.
Reference : This lines are taken from Upagupta poem, written by Rabindranath Tagore.
The Poem “Upagupta” establishes the impermanence of sensual pleasures, the root cause of
sorrow being attachment to material pleasures etc. and many such philosophical and spiritual
truths.
Context: the ascetic says, “When the time is ripe” he doesn’t refer to the ripe time for him but
for her. Only when she realizes the impermanence of material pleasures from her own bitter
experiences, the time will be ripe for her. One discovers oneself only when one is free of
delusions. Earlier she came to him as to any other attractive man. She was so proud of her
youth that she couldn’t see his spiritual beauty. It is in the second meeting that she finds it.

108
 Dover Beach

Matthew Arnold
Introduction of the poet:
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was Victorian English poet
and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. Matthew Arnold has been
characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on
contemporary social issues. He published number of volumes of poetry as the strayed
reveller and other poems(1849) Empedocles and Etna and other poems(1852) . His poems are
meditative and melancholic qualities. His critical essays are appreciated for their depth of
knowledge and thought.

Introduction of the poem:

"Dover beach" is a beautiful poem written by a famous poet Matthew Arnold; from
the romantic era. The poem is melancholic and pessimistic in nature and shows human
misery through the ages. It is published in1867, in New Poems. Dover Beach is one of the
greatest elegies of Arnold and strikes a note of sadness. Poem express the loss of religious
faith in the Victorian age. It was age of science, progress, industrial revolution. Arnold
discloses his melancholy preoccupation with the thought of the inevitable decline of
religious faith. "Dover Beach" is a melancholic poem. Matthew Arnold uses the means of
'pathetic fallacy', when he attributes or rather projects the human feeling of sadness onto an
inanimate object like the sea. At the same time he creates a feeling of 'pathos'.

Summary:
The poem has nostalgic feeling. It is religious, sceptical, philosophical and emotional.
Matthew Arnold visited with his wife frances lucy Wightman to the Dover Beach, region of
England. The poet is sitting near the English Channel. Poet is sitting near the English
Channel at Dover. The chalk-cliffs are looking bright as the moonlight is reflected in the
poem. On the other side of the English Channel can be seen Calais against the shore. Arnold
describes the tranquil English channel at Dover. It is a moonlight night. The moonlight is
reflected on the water. The tide is full. The moonlight is also reflected on Calais, a place on
the French coast.
The poet asks his wife to listen to the harsh sound of the waves of the sea alternately
advancing and retreating and carrying away the pebbles from the sea beach and flinching
them back to the beach. He wants to his wife to notice how the pebbles move along with the
waves of the sea. The pebbles are constantly being drawn towards the sea and thrown back
to the seashore. The rise and fall of the waves caused musical sound to the poet an eternal
note of sadness. The waves are constantly dashing against the seashore. In spite of the harsh
sound there is rhythm in it. It brings to Arnolds mind an eternal note of sadness. They remind
the poet of time and change for the world is always in a state of flux. The poet finds in the
rhythm movement of the waves a note of sadness. Poet finds similar thought of himself and
Sophocles. He recalls that the famous Greek tragic dramatist Sophocles also heard a note of
sadness in the waves of the Aegean sea which symbolised for him the rise and fall in life

109
before two thousand five hundred years ago. Both of them regarded the sea as a symbols of
man’s life – rise and fall of human sufferings.
Poet compares the sea with religion. Once the sea of religion was full. In other word
people all over the world had deep religious faith, but in the Victorian age. The sea of faith
has run dry. People become sceptical, decline of faith men are getting more and more
materialistic , waves of sea recede, the coast looks naked , dry and cheerless, and the pebbles
sprawl on the shore hideously similarly when the sea of religious faith recedes , the pebbles
of scepticism are left. Symbolic meaning of the sea, the sea is in full tide, and that sight
reminds them that once upon a time the sea of faith was full to the brim. People had deep
religious fervour but in the wake of expansion of science and technology. People become
more and more materialistic and sceptic. They didn’t care to think if God existed or not. Poet
says that the entire society is crumbling down. Religion and traditional values are dying fast.
Man don’t find happiness in this materialistic world. Poet says that entire society is become
victim of materialism. Arnold tells his wife that the landscape and sea looks so lovely and
enchanting on a moonlight night. But this beauty is a mere deception, an illusion and not a
reality. Victorians do not find any joy or happiness in this world. Only Love, alone is true,
which will sustain their spiritual distress.
In such an uncongenial atmosphere of disbelief and incertitude, Arnold says that the
only thing that endures is love. Love is the only solace in life. The world before them looks
like a lovely dream on a moonlight. But it is an enchanting illusion. It has no certitude or
peace or joy. The world is darkling plain. Poet compares the Victorians with the ignorant
soldiers fighting in the dark . Soldiers are engaged in a battle on a dark night , they are
confused whom they are fighting. In this world men are fighting in the dark, completely
ignorant whom they are fighting against and what exactly they are fighting for. They are
purposeless and fighting like automata. The Victorians are exactly like these ignorant
soldiers. They are caught in materialism. They don’t know materialism will destroy their
ruin.
1. Where is the poet standing, when he begins to recite the poem?
Ans- on the Beach at Dover.
2. What does the poet hear when he stands there?
Ans- the grating roar of pebbles on the strand.
3. The light gleams on which coast?
Ans- French
4. What does the image of sea signifies?
The sea is everywhere in "Dover Beach." It shows up in different places and in different
forms, but we feel its power all over the place. Sometimes it's a physical location, like the
English Channel or the Aegean Sea, and it is a metaphor for the fate of humanity.
5. What is the tone of the poem?
Dover Beach is one of the greatest elegies of Arnold and strikes a note of sadness. Poem
express the loss of religious faith in the Victorian age. It was age of science, progress,
industrial revolution. Arnold discloses his melancholy preoccupation with the thought of
the inevitable decline of religious faith.
6. Pathetic Fallacy in Dover Beach.

110
 “Dover Beach" is a melancholic poem. Matthew Arnold uses 'pathetic fallacy', when
he attributes or rather projects the human feeling of sadness onto an inanimate object like the
sea. At the same time he creates a feeling of 'pathos'. The reader can feel sympathy for the
suffering lyrical self, who suffers under the existing conditions. He wants to evoke people’s
real consciousness in deep heart with self-introspection, because the Victorian era are facing
the transitional period, the rising of Capitalism and middle-class as well as the rapid
development of science had greatly hurt the origin of social structure and weaken the
integrant religious belief of western world from long time ago.

Reference to context
1. "Melancholy, Long, Withdrawing Roar"
Reference: These poetic lines find in Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Poem express the
loss of religious faith in the Victorian age. It was age of science, progress, industrial
revolution. Poet laments the loss of religious faith in the Victorian age.
Context: With a loved one, the poet looks out across the Straits of Dover toward the French
coast and listens to the endless washing movement, landward and seaward, of the waves
which seem to him to "bring/ The eternal note of sadness in." In ancient Greece, Sophocles
heard the sound and was reminded of "the turbid ebb and flow/ of human misery. . . ." To
Arnold, whose religious faith–like that of many of his contemporaries–had been weakened by
the influence of such scientific ideas as those of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, the
waves' sound has a very different meaning.
2. "The Sea Of Faith Was Once, Too, At the Full"
Reference: These poetic lines find in Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Poem express the
loss of religious faith in the Victorian age. It was age of science, progress, industrial
revolution. Poet laments the loss of religious faith in the Victorian age.
Context: Arnold, critic of nineteenth century life, could not accept the old religious faith with
its worn conventions and could find no solid basis for a new faith that he struggled toward. In
"Dover Beach" he describes the ebb and flow of the sea, which brings in an "eternal note of
sadness." His mind bridges the centuries to Sophocles, who heard the same note on the
Aegaean. Arnold then compares the full tide of the sea at Dover Beach with the "Sea of Faith
3. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a
land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new.
Reference: These poetic lines find in Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Poem express the
loss of religious faith in the Victorian age. It was age of science, progress, industrial
revolution. Poet laments the loss of religious faith in the Victorian age.
Context: Matthew Arnold Says that the entire society is crumbling down. He finds in this
Victorian age there is horror that the traditional values and religion are dying out men are
between two world, one is dead and the powerless is to be born . Materialism, scepticism
and agnosticism are prevalent in the society. There is no joy, happiness or comfort
anywhere. He tells his wife that the landscape and sea looks so lovely and enchanting on a
moonlit night. But this beauty is a mere deception, an illusion, and not a reality. Only is love
true. In such a state of chaos, disorder and disintegration, Arnold’s belief that only love can
protect mankind and spiritual distress., because love is unchanging.

111
4. The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Reference: These poetic lines find in Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Poem express the
loss of religious faith in the Victorian age. It was age of science, progress, industrial
revolution. Poet laments the loss of religious faith in the Victorian age.
Context: Matthew Arnold is sitting near the English Channel at Dover Beach. He describes
the calm English Channel at Dover. English Channel is looking placid and tranquil , it
evokes his thoughts and feelings. It is moonlight time. The moonlight is reflected on the
water of the sea. The tide is full. Suddenly the poet is filled with the thought that the
world has become dry, full of shingles. The sea of faith has dry, scepticism , and agnosticism
are everywhere.
5. Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery
Reference: These poetic lines find in Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Poem express the
loss of religious faith in the Victorian age. It was age of science, progress, industrial
revolution. Poet laments the loss of religious faith in the Victorian age.
Context: Poet finds the rhythm movement of the waves express a note of sadness. He finds
resemblance famous Greek tragic dramatist Sophocles also heard a note of sadness in the
waves of Aegean sea, which indicated for the poet rise and fall in life. Observing the waves
of the sea, suddenly the poet is filled with the thought that the world has become dry, full of
shingles. The sea of faith has dry, scepticism, and agnosticism are everywhere. Poet finds
English society has become more and more materialistic due to loss of religious faith. And
they are not happy with present state.

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 The Chimney Sweeper
William Blake
Introduction of the poet:
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter,
and printmaker. He is considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts
of the Romantic Age. The purpose of his poetry was didactic. He wants to free human beings
from the various slavery and tradition. His poetry express revolutionary attitude. His poetry
includes social and political philosophy for mankind. His first publication of poetry include
poetical sketches (1783), songs of innocence (1789) and songs of experience (1794).
Introduction of poem:
The poem was written in 1789, in a children’s point of view. “The Chimney Sweeper”
poem taken from the Songs of Innocence. It took place during the French and industrial
revolution. William Blake depicted the miserable lives of the little kids who had to work as
chimney sweepers. This poem links exposure of the social evil of the child chimney-sweep
with the theme of the exploitation and vulnerability of innocence. It is humanitarian poem.
The poem has an obvious humanitarian and symbolic significance. Poet points out that
society allowed children to take part in child labour and their conditions become
wretched.

Summary:
A child chimney-sweeper tells his story. His mother died in his infancy and, while the
child was still very young, his father sold him as a sweep. He goes on to tell of another child,
Tom Dacre, who cried when his head was shaved. The sweep consoled him, and that night
Tom dreams of liberation.
In Tom's dream, an angel sets the children free from their ‘dark coffins' (the sooty chimneys
or their bodies in death) so that they can play on the open green, wash in the river and enjoy
the sun (when their lives have made them black with soot and kept them in cramped dark
chimneys away from the sun). They then leave everything behind and play in the wind, riding
on clouds. The angel tells Tom that if he is good, he will have God for his father and be
eternally happy. When Tom wakes in the darkness before dawn, he goes to work happy,
despite the cold. The speaker concludes with the moral advice that anyone who does their
duty need have no fear of harm.
In "The Chimney Sweeper," the speaker relates that after his mother's death, he
was sold by his father to be a chimney sweeper when he was so small he could scarcely say
the word sweep. In the 18th century in England small boys, sometimes no more than four or
five worked, climbing the narrow chimney flues to clean them, collecting the soot into bags.
Having to breathe this soot and often becoming deformed from the narrow flues, the boys
were subjected to terrible conditions and often were treated miserably by their masters. Yet,
in spite of these conditions, the speaker's attitude seems positive as he tells little Tom Dacre
not to worry about his shorn hair because now the "soot cannot spoil [it]." Tom becomes
"quiet," perhaps repressing his worry. He dreams of the other sweepers in black coffins.

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Then, an "Angel who had a bright key" releases them into the clean beauty of Nature where
he has "God for his father," and never suffers from unhappiness.

The speaker in the poem is a chimney sweeper of a very young age . It was time of
revolution in industrial. Many little boys being employed by master - sweeps for sweeping
chimneys. A boy was sent up a chimney in order to sweep away the soot that had
accumulated on the inner walls of the chimney. The father sold their son, children to master
sweep who trained them for the work which was not only unhealthily but dangerous. In the
poem speaker is motherless . The boy was sold to a master –sweep at a very early age, even
before he could pronounce the world ‘ sweep’ ‘weep’ is the traditional cry of a chimney
sweeper . it conveys to us the distress of the little sweepers. Their face , hands, and body
come black. It is as if he slept in soot at night. The chimney sweepers heads were shaved in
order to avoid the risk of their hair catching fire.

Critical Appreciation of the poem:

The chimney sweeper were small boys. Children become sweeps at the age of six
years. The living conditions of the chimney sweepers were very miserable. Although some
masters took reasonably good care of their sweeps but most them kept them worse than
animals. They returned to their lodgings. They carried heavy bags of soot. “In soot I sleep”.
Toms dream of coffins, little Tom Dacre cried when they shaved his head. As the speakers
makes it clear, toms hair cut is a ritual, like a soldier or prisoner has to undergo. Tears were
common in a chimney sweepers new life for some time. The children did cry when forced
by slaps, prodding’s. Their life was uncertain , they got struck and suffocated. To tom
Dacre, the new sweeper unaccustomed as yet to being shut up in a narrow black space. A
dream of being locked up in a coffin of black. It is natural for them to dream wistfully of
leaping, laughing , running and being able to wash in a river and shine in the sun.
The poem expresses miserable living conditions of the little kids who had to work
as chimney sweepers. The speaker says after his mother died he was sold off by his
father so that his child labour could be used to make money. In William Blake’s time there
was great demand of little kids because it was an age of industrial revolution. Throughout
the poem , he wants to give a sense of protest in our hearts against the oppression of the poor
children by the rich. Yet, in spite of these conditions , the speaker attitude seems positive as
he tells little Tom Dacre not to worry about his cut hair because now the ‘ soot cannot spoil
it’. He dreams of the other sweepers in black coffins. The angel who had a bright key releases
them into the clean beauty of Nature where he has “God for his father” and never suffers
from unhappiness.
“So if all do their duty they need not fear harm”.
The speaker of the poem is sweeper who is small child depicts the child labour throughout
poem, during the industrial revolution child become labour. There were 5 to 13 years old.
The father sold their children to the master of the company. They were small even they
couldn’t utter the word ‘sweep, weep’ their master sent them to clean the chimney and
living conditions was miserable. They sleep in soot while collecting it. It is common for the
new sweeper to cut the hair like soldier or prisoner. Cutting the hair it starts their new life.

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The speaker says that there is little tom Dacre cried when his head, cutting the hair of the
new sweeper is common because master think that soot cannot spoil their white hair.
Once Tom Dacre dreaming in his sleep. He had dream a thousand of sweepers are
locked up in coffins of black. Most of the sweeper died at early age 25 because they live
in factory. They think that angel would come and make them free from the clutches of
factory owner. Later they will enjoy the beauty of Nature; once again their innocence will re-
back. They will rise upon the clouds and sport in the wind. Angel told To Dacre if he had
been a good boy. He had have God for his father. Sweeper go with brushes and bags.

Objective Questions -
1. What happened to the chimney sweeper’s mother ?
Ans- she died when he was very young.
2. What did the chimney sweeper’s father do?
Ans- He sold the chimney sweepers off at a young age.
3. Why did Tom Dacre cry?
Ans- his hair was shaved off.
4. Toms Head was shaved so that
Ans- soot would not spoil his hair.
5. What did Tom Dream of?
Ans- several boys like him locked up in coffins.
6. Who sets the boys free?
Ans- An angel.
7. What hope sustain the boys as they perform their hard labour?
Ans – angels setting them free from their labour.
8. What do the coffins symbolize?
Ans- Black coffins are the symbolic of the lives that the sweeps lived, being poor outcasts in
society and having stained unwashed skin and often disfigured bodies.

Descriptive Questions
1. Describe Tom Dacre’s dream.
Ans- Tom dreams of an angel would come to rescue them all. He imagines them being free
on a green plain. This symbolizes a freedom in life, to run and play as children should. Then
he pictures them rising upon clouds, perhaps a reference to the heavenly afterlife. A more
morbid interpretation of these dreams is that the only escape for the child worker is through
death and dreams. In Tom’s dreams, he sees thousands of sweepers locked up in black
coffins. 2. What is the message throughout poem?
Ans- The poem “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake deals with a couple of themes:
innocence and faith, and misery and death. The poet’s intention is clearly one of critique, as
he tries to make society aware of the miserable lives working children have and that resorting
to God and religion as a way of ignoring or accepting this situation is a hypocritical attitude.
The theme of innocence and faith/religion is explored in the poem through the character of
Tom, a boy who has just become a chimney sweeper.

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3. Why was little Tom crying in the chimney sweeper?
Ans- The speaker of this poem is a small boy who was sold into the chimney-sweeping
business when his mother died. He recounts the story of a fellow chimney sweeper, Tom
Dacre, who cried when his hair was shaved to prevent vermin and soot from infesting it.
4. What is the main theme of the Chimney sweeper?
Ans- The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence) theme of Innocence. Their innocence has
been stolen from them. They're forced to live a "black" life, covered in soot and facing a
premature death.
5. What is the chimney sweeper about?
Ans- The speaker of this poem is a small boy who was sold into the chimney-sweeping
business when his mother died. He recounts the story of a fellow chimney sweeper, Tom
Dacre, who cried when his hair was shaved to prevent vermin and soot from infesting it.
6. What is the rhyme scheme of Chimney sweeper.
Ans- The entire poem is compound of six stanzas. Each of them is a quatrain, which means
that it includes four lines. The rhyme scheme in the poem is AABB – CCDD – EEFF –
GGHH – IIJJ - KKLL. ... For that reason, he uses this specific rhyming scheme in this poem.

7. Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.
The chimney sweeper tells us that despite the fact that it's totally frigid outside, and these
kids are having to get to (hard) work, Tom's all right with it all.
Tom's happy and warm because he believes (thanks to the lesson the angel gives him in that
dream) that if you do your duty, no harm will come to you.
In other words, if he keeps chimney sweeping like a good little boy, he'll be taken care of.
We might think of Tom's belief is a coping mechanism; the only way to get through the day
is to believe that they don't have to fear harm.

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 After Apple-Picking
Robert Frost
Introduction of the Poet:
Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) was a famous American poet. He dealt with
themes from rural life in New England, USA, using the setting to examine complex social
and philosophical issues. His important poetical works are A Boy’s Will (1913), North of
Boston (1914), M0untain Interval (19l 6), New Hampshire (1923),C011ected Poems
(1930), A Further Range (1936) and A Witness Tree (1942).As a popular and oft-quoted
poet, Frost was honoured with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize four times. His poetry is largely
traditional in terms of metre, and exudes lyrical grace.

Introduction of the poem:

Here the poet gives his reflection on boredom and drudgery in the aftermath of the
task of picking apples. The work-weary apple-picker is unable to enjoy his life amid the
pristine beauty of Nature, trapped in the utilitarian ways of modern civilization.

Summary:
The poet describes his experience after; he has completed apple picking in a garden. He
wants to tell us that man wants to perform many ambitious and programme of life, but he has
a little energy to perform them. He is tired with his labour and goes to sleep. The dreams and
ambitions of man’s life may colour his dreams. He may see the unfilled tasks of his life in his
dreams.
Poem is a great symbolic poem. Poet uses a lot of symbolism in this poem. The setting of the
poem is that a farmer is picking the apples. His two pointed ladder is stick against the tree
and going towards the heaven. He has filled a lot of barrels with apples, but still, there is a
barrel which is empty. Although he has picked. The farmer become tired. The farmer is
symbol of man, apples are human desires and ladder is symbol of mans relation with God.
The poet mingles the world of reality and dream in this poem. The farmer is feeling that there
is essence of winter sleep. The scent is of apples is coming. He is hanging between the world
of reality and sleep. He cannot remove the strange from his eyes and brain.
He is dreaming that the snow which he got early in the morning from the world of snowy
grass, is melting different things are taking shape from his dreaming, and he is not sure of
their identity. The winter symbol sleep is the symbol of the eternal sleep; snow may be the
symbol of life, morning is the start of life.
The poet mentions that magnified apples are appearing in this dream. Sometimes stem (hot
water) and at times blossom end. Every fleck is clear to the poet. He feels that the ladder is
moving with branches of tree. The farmer hears the sound on the apples falling in the cellar
bin. It expresses philosophy of the poet.
The farmer is fed up of apples picking. He is tired of plucking the apples. But it is interesting
to note that the desires for it. There are a thousand apples still to be plucked. Whether an
apple falls on the ground or not whether it is bruised or spiked or not, all apples will have to

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go to the cider – apple heap. Whether wish is completed or not, ends in this temporary life.
Although the poet has used apples a symbol of disease, yet he is discussing the life of a man.
The final rest of man is death.
The farmer is not assuring of his sleep. A heavy sleep is hovering on him, but he is not sure
of the identity of sleep. His sleep long like a woodchuck or ordinary human sleep. The poet
is not certain that whether it is an eternal sleep of human sleep. We pray it may be some
human sleep.
.
Poe called The poem begins with the description of the apple-picker who has stuck his
two-pointed ladder through a tree upward. There is barrel that didn't fill, and there are two or
three apples more that he didn't pick upon some bough, but he is now completely tired with
apple-picking.
He feels sleepy, as the winter is well on and the scent of apples is well out. All the objects of
Nature appear strange to him now. In the job of apple-picking, he fell into a trance and started
dreaming. He is not sure of the kind of dream he saw, but he knows at least one thing that big
apples appeared and disappeared. He feels that his ladder was, as though, swayed to and fro
along with the wind. After describing the delight of the eyes, he describes the delight of the
ears. He tells that from the cellar bin he keeps hearing the rumbling of load on load of apples
coming in. He feels also completely tired because of apple-picking.
He wishes that the harvest of apples should be bumper (large), and when his wish is
fulfilled, he feels that he is exhausted due to overwork. There are ten thousand apples before
him and it is difficult for him to allow anyone of them fall down lest they should be spoilt and
worthless. The apple-picker guesses the thing that will trouble him in his sleep, be it whatever
kind of sleep. Had he stayed in the apple-orchard, the woodchuck would have told him if his
sleep was like the birds, or it was simply human.

Objective Questions
Q .What essence saturates the air ?
Ans- winter sleep
Q. What is the main message of 'After Apple Picking'?
Ans-The opportunities we do and don't take in life
Q. What is the form of 'After Apple Picking'?
Ans -Dramatic Monologue
Q. What made the speaker drowsy?
Ans- the scent of apples
Q. What is it written in? What is the effect of this?
Ans- Loose Iambic Pentameter: rhythm of the heartbeat, feel sleepy like the speaker, stresses
the core of human experience
Q. What strange sight did the speaker see?
Ans- fresh green grass in the middle of winter
Q. What is the literal meaning of 'After Apple Picking'?

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Ans- • The speaker is on the verge of sleep
• Reflecting on his long day of work apple picking
• He can't escape the thoughts from his working life - there are things he still needs to do
Q. What is the metaphorical meaning of 'After Apple Picking'?
Ans-• Opportunities in life - those that are taken/not taken
• the demands of modern society
• Harshness of New England farm
Q. What are the symbols in 'After Apple Picking'?
Ans-Religious, apples, woodchuck, metaphor of apple picking, sleep
Q. Quote about the smell of apples
Ans- "The scent of apples"
Q. Quote about the look of apples
Ans- "Magnified apples appear and disappear"
Q. Quote about speaker's foot
Ans- "My instep arch notonly keep the ache"
Q.Quote about the ladder
Ans- "I feel the ladder sway"
.Quote about the sound of apples
Ans- "The rumbling sound. Of load on load of apples coming in"
Q. Quote about the importance of apples
Ans- "Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall"
Q. Quote about sleep
Ans- Repetition of "Sleep"
Q. What is the tone of 'After Apple Picking'?
Ans- Sleepy
Q What is the language of 'After Apple Picking'?
Ans- Conversational, speech-like, intimate
Q. Explain poets feeling in the apple picking process?
Ans- In the poem, the narrator has been picking apples all day, day after day, for the entire
harvest season. As the harvest comes to an end, the narrator is extremely tired from all of the
hard work. So tired, in fact, that he is in a very dreamlike state. He wonders if the strange
feeling that he has is simply a tired feeling from all of his hard work, or perhaps, something
else. When Frost writes about the sleep of the woodchucks, he is referring to the sleep of
winter. Frost also uses the concept of winter, which in the metaphorical language of seasons,
has strong associations with death. The interpretation of this poem is as follows: the narrator
is either entering a new season in his life, or about to die, as represented by late fall. The
feeling of tiredness that the narrator writes about seems to consume him. This could mean
that this tiredness is of living, and that the narrator just wants to leave Earth.

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 A Prayer for Daughter
W. B. Yeats, 1865 - 1939
Introduction of the Poet:
William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one
of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary
establishments, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre. W.B. Yeats’ collection of poems The
Wanderings of Oisin was published; and in the same year Yeats fell deeply in love with a
beautiful revolutionary named Mod Gonne. His unrequited and life-long love for Mod Gonne
forms the subject of many of his intense and striking poems. He was recipient of the Nobel
prize winner in 1923 for literature.

Introduction of the Poem:

The poem portrays how a father, who has been blessed with a daughter, prays
for the future happiness and welfare of her. The poet hopes that instead of growing up to be a
very beautiful woman, his daughter should be blessed with the attributes of a virtuous and
great soul. She should be well-mannered and full of humility rather than being strongly
opinionated, to avoid intellectual detestation because that can drown her in misery.
Summary
A furious storm, born on the Atlantic ocean, is sweeping the Irish countryside. There
is any hardly obstacle in the way of the storm to diminish its intensity. Only the wood around
Lady Gregory’s estate and one hill, on which there is no growth of shrubs or trees, serve as
some kind of obstacle in its way. The storm is furious that it brings haystacks and roofs down
to the ground. The poet is in state of excited reverie. In other words he is lost in thought, but
his thoughts are of kind to excite or agitate him.
The intensity of the storm makes him think that the years of the future
have come out of the destructive innocence of the Atlantic ocean in response to the wild
beating of a drum. The beating of the drum was a call to the members of a tribe to come
quickly from wherever they were at the moment and get ready for battle. Here it seems to the
poet that the future years have come in response to the beating of some drum. Dancing to a
frenzied drum convey the wilderness and fierceness of the storm that is howling .The sea is
destructive or murderous and yet innocent. The sea is innocent because it has no personal ill
- will against anyone, and yet it is a destructive force which has given rise to the storm.
The poet wishes his daughter should grow in to beautiful woman.
However he does not want that she should be so beautiful as to become a cause of heart-ache
or emotional torment to some stranger by making him fall in love with her. He does not want
his daughter should be so beautiful that while looking at herself in the mirror, she should get
extravagant ideas of her physical charms and should thus begin to think her beauty to be a
sufficient end in itself. If she is so beautiful as to become very proud of her beauty, she will
lose her natural kindness and her emotional warmth. Helen was an extraordinarily beautiful
woman. But her elopement with Paris brought Trojan War caused destruction and bloodshed
between Greeks and the Trojan (Menelaus and Paris). Thus Helen beauty proved a curse to
others.

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 ‘That great queen’ refers to Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love. She is
believed to have merged from sea foam. Having had no father, she knew no discipline and
therefore she merely led by her whims. Because of her indiscipline, she chose a husband
who was most unsuited for her. She got married to the lame god Smith. Thus even her
beauty she was unhappy with her husband and developed an illicit love affair with another
God. The horn of plenty is in ancient mythology, the horn of a goat represented as
overflowing with flowers, fruits and corn. Thus it express plenty and prosperity. Poet feels
sure that lovely women eat crazy salad with their food as a result of which they develop some
crazy tendency so as to wreck their own lives.
The poet would like his daughter to learn courteous manners. Women who are not
extraordinarily beautiful will not attract true lovers if they don’t possess genuine courteous
and good manners. The heart of men have to be won by courtesy and affection. Their hearts
will not come as gifts to women who do not possesses exceptional beauty. The poet takes
own references as beautiful Maud Gonne. The poet behaved like a fool and fell in love with
Maud Gonne because of her beauty. Like a fool he thought that she too loves him.
Subsequently he became disillusioned and realised that his passion for Maud Gonne was a
sheer waste of time. Thus he married another woman George lees. Form he always received
a glad kindness.
The poet would like his daughter to grow like a flourishing tree hidden from the
public gaze. He would like her thoughts to be cheerful like the songs of a bird. He would like
her thoughts not to create any friction or conflict among others but to contribute to large
heartedness and generosity in the world. He would like her not to get involved in any
competitive struggle except for the sake of fun. He wishes her to live like a green laurel tree
rooted permanently in one dear spot. Poets mind knows that to be choked (unable to speak
because of upset) with hate well be chief of all evil chances. Poet admired his beloved but she
caused a great depression of spirit and she is now of the view that the public is not to be
relied upon or to be trusted. If a man has no hatred in his mind for anyone, no harm can come
to him from the storms of life.
The kind of intellectual hatred Maud Gonne had is the worst form of hatred. The
poet would like his daughter not to have strong opinions of an intellectual kind because such
opinions lead only to suffering and happiness. He cites example of loveliest woman Maud
Gonne who came from aristocratic family but whose views are strong intellectual opinions
made a mere windbag of her. Under the influence of her strong political opinions she has
sacrificed her prosperity and her intellectual qualities of birth and breeding in order to
become an angry and propagandist.
If a human being drives out all hatred from his mind, his soul will recover its
original, basic innocence. Such a human being will learn that his soul has in itself the seeds of
all the joy that one meets in life. The will of such a soul is Gods own will. The poet’
daughter can, by ridding her and of all hatred, lead a happy life no matter what the attitude of
people towards her might be and what hostile opinions they might express.
Finally, the poet wants his daughter to be married to a man who belongs to a family
that believes in the values of custom and ceremony. Custom and ceremony are opposed to
arrogance and hatred. Custom and ceremony give birth to innocence and beauty.

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Critical Appreciation

The poem was written in 1909, a few weeks after the birth of Yeats eldest
child, a girl, Annie Yeats. The poet had purchased the old Tower or castle at thoor Ballylee,
renovated it. This tower or castle forms the background to this prayer. The poem express the
poets solicitude for his infant daughter.
The poets infant daughter sleeps in its cradle well covered and protected from the violent
storm which rages outside. The stormy wind comes direct from the Atlantic opposed only by
the wood of Lady Gregory’s estate and one bare hill. A storm also rags within the soul of
the poet. He is full of gloomy foreboding as regards the future of humanity.
The sea wind screams upon the tower, below the arches of the bridge connecting the castle
with the main road and in the elms above the flooded river. The poets mind is haunted with
fear and he imagines that the future years have come out of the sea dancing the frenzied
dance of war and bloodshed . So like an affectionate father prays for his daughter. The poet
prays to God to give beauty to his daughter, but not too much beauty, because too much
beauty , makes a woman proud and cruel . Such woman begin to consider their beauty
sufficient in itself and forget that it should be conductive to the happiness of life. While
making this prayer the poet has in mind the proud and obstinate Maud Gonne and how she
rejected his passionate and devoted love.
The poet now gives examples from history and legend of over beautiful
women who suffered much themselves and caused a great suffering to others. Thus the
extreme beauty of Helen was responsible for the war of Troy and the consequent death and
destruction. The Greek Goddess of youth and beauty, Venus or Aphrodite who rose out of
the sea was self willed and obstinate and foolishly married a lame Iron –Smith. The folly
of Maud Gonne’s marriage with Major Mac bridge is thus hinted at and the past is linked up
with the present. The poet is sure that beautiful women eat some such foods as makes them
act foolishly and ruins their happiness.
The poet further prays that his daughter may have above all courtesy, an aristocratic virtue
which the poet valued highly. It is courtesy which enables even those who are not entirely
beautiful to win the heart of others. The poet reflects on the wisdom and content which his
marriage with Mrs. George Lees has brought him. Poet acted like a fool for the sake of over
much beauty of Maud Gonne loved her and thought that he was loved in return. The
kindness and courtesy of Mrs. George Lees ultimately won his heart. Poet prays that the soul,
the inner life of his daughter should flourish and reach self fulfillment like a flourishing tree.
She should herself by happy and cheerful like the linnets and make other also happy by her
influence. The tree not only symbolizes inner life, but also stands for constancy in place and
for the life of tradition. Poet wishes that her life should be rooted in one place and tradition
like a laurel tree. The poet looks into his own mind and heart his daughter should be free
from evil. The poet wishes that his daughter should avoid the faults of Maud Gonne. She
acted foolishly by marrying John MacBride, a worthless ‘vainglorious lout’ full of sound
and ‘fury signifying nothing’. His daughter should free from all intellectual hatred. She
would enjoy an organic innocence and inner peace. His daughter should married to a

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husband belonging to an aristocratic family, her husband take her to a home where all is
traditional and ceremonious because it preserve spiritual values.

Multiple choices Question

1. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?
Ans- “A Prayer for My Daughter” is a regular verse poem, mainly iambic pentameter, with
an aabbcddc rhyme scheme.
2. Where is the child sleeping?
Ans- in a cradle.
3. What obstacles stay the wind?
Ans-Gregory’s wood and a hill
4. Why has the speaker walked and prayed for over an hour?
Ans- because of the great gloom in his mind.
5. What is the speaker brooding about?
Ans- the coming storm
6. Being too beautiful may cause one to:
Ans- lose natural kindness
7. What does the speaker want his daughter to learn most of all?
Ans- courtesy
8. Which kind of hatred is the worst, according to the speaker?
Ans- Intellectual hatred
9.What is an opinionated compared to?
Ans- a linnet and a green Laurel
10. Once hatred is driven away, the soul recovers.
Ans- radical innocence
11. What are the roots of innocence and beauty?
Ans- custom, ceremony
12. What is the theme of the poem?
The poem is concerned with the chaotic modern world. It shows a father is worried for his
daughter’s future in an uncertain political situation. The father is tense about how he can
possibly protect his daughter from the raging storm outside, because she is very beautiful.
Therefore, he prays for her as well as gives advice about how to live successfully on earth.
13. Why does the speaker not desire to have his daughter grow up to be exceptionally
beautiful?
Ans- Helen’s extraordinary beauty was the cause of much suffering to the fool Menelaus
and to the Greeks and Trojans as well. This is how Yeats uses myth to support his view that
woman should not have outstanding beauty; by implication, his daughter should have beauty,
but not be extremely beautiful. Next, the poet refers to Aphrodite, “that great Queen”, the
goddess of love in Greek mythology, who was said to have arisen from the sea. She was
beautiful but not wise in the choice of her husband: she married Vulcan, god of fire and
patron of smiths, who was lame. Thus, according to the poet’s view, since highly beautiful
women cause destruction and make wrong choices.
14. What does the speaker feel about a woman having opinions?

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Ans- Yeats uses myth to support his view that woman should not have outstanding beauty;
by implication, his daughter should have beauty, but not be extremely beautiful. According
to the poet’s view, since highly beautiful women cause destruction and make wrong choices.
15. What kind of house does the speaker wish his daughter would live in?
Ans- The poet wishes his daughter to settle down in a family that is aristocratic, and uphold
the values of ceremony and custom.
16. How is the soul transferred when it is rid of hatred?
Ans- Poet wishes to bestow upon his daughter a mind free from hatred, because such an
innocent mind, which is devoid of bitterness, can remain unaffected by the storms and
vicissitudes of life.
17. Yeats use of storm as symbol in the poem.
Ans- The poem is written against the backdrop of a raging storm. A violent storm from the
Atlantic Ocean has come over the Irish countryside. The raging storm represents the state of
unrest and chaos in a world rocked by the onset of the First World War, as well as of the
upheaval in the Irish political scene.
18. Why poets desire that his daughter’s mind be free of hatred.
Ans- The poet reflects on the fact that his mind has dried up of late, because of the agonies he
suffered due to Maud Gonne. Yet he knows that to be filled with hatred or bitterness towards
others is incorrect. He wishes to bestow upon his daughter a mind free from hatred, because
such an innocent mind, which is devoid of bitterness, can remain unaffected by the storms
and vicissitudes of life.
18. Imagining in excited reverie …of the sea.
Reference: This poetic lines taken from poem ‘A prayer for daughter’ by W. B. Yeats. The
poem portrays how a father, who has been blessed with a daughter, prays for the future
happiness and welfare of her.
Context: Poet has heard the sea-wind, or the storm coming from the Atlantic ocean. The poet
knows that all these are the imagination of his excited brain — excited by the war-torn,
blood-bathing tumult of the world. The poet imagines that the future years have come in
response to some “frenzied drum”, out of the sea. The expression “murderous innocence” is
an oxymoron. The sea is destructive when it brings high tides and storms; yet it is innocent
because it is devoid of personal malice.
19. ‘Hearts are not had a gifts …made wise.’
Reference: these poetic lines taken from poem ‘A prayer for daughter’ by W. B. Yeats. The
poem portrays how a father, who has been blessed with a daughter, prays for the future
happiness and welfare of her.
Context: The poet further prays that his daughter may have above all courtesy, an
aristocratic virtue which the poet valued highly. It is courtesy which enables even those who
are not entirely beautiful to win the heart of others. The poet reflects on the wisdom and
content which his marriage with Mrs. George Lees has brought him. Poet acted like a fool for
the sake of over much beauty of Maud Gonne loved her and thought that he was loved in
return. The kindness and courtesy of Mrs. George Lees ultimately won his heart. Poet prays
that the soul, the inner life of his daughter should flourish and reach self fulfillment like a
flourishing tree. She should herself by happy and cheerful like the linnets and make other also
happy by her influence.

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20. That all her thoughts may like the linnet be..a quarrel .
Reference: these poetic lines taken from poem ‘A prayer for daughter’ by W. B. Yeats. The
poem portrays how a father, who has been blessed with a daughter, prays for the future
happiness and welfare of her.
Context: Poet wishes his daughter to be like a flourishing tree and her thoughts to be like a
linnet. The poet wishes to see his daughter grow up to have a joyful, fulfilled life. He would
like her thoughts to be as joyful and innocent as that of the bird linnet. The linnet’s song is
suggestive of its magnanimity or generosity. He would like his daughter to be motivated not
by malice to begin a chase or a quarrel, but by innocent cheerfulness and fun. The poet prays
that his daughter would imbibe rootedness and stability in her life like an evergreen laurel
tree, rooted in one place. The tree “also comes to stand for constancy and for the life of
tradition” --- values which Yeats upheld in life.
21. How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony’s a name for the rich horn,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.
Reference: This poetic lines taken from poem ‘A prayer for daughter’ by W. B. Yeats. The
poem portrays how a father, who has been blessed with a daughter, prays for the future
happiness and welfare of her.
Context: Yeats expresses desire that his daughter would be married in an aristocratic family.
Yeats came to believe in the aristocratic way of life uphold the values of ceremony and
custom. The aristocratic way of life is contrasted with the crudity of the common masses. He
believes that his daughter shall find innocence and beauty through custom and ceremony.
Yeats believes that ceremony and custom are emblems of abundance and peace in life.

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