Summary of literary texts and key concepts of literature

About the poet: Nissim Ezekiel (1924-2004) was a Jewish poet of Indian origin. He was a multi talented personality. Apart from being the foundational literary figure in Post Colonial Indian Poetry, he was an actor, playwright, editor and art critic. Some of his mentionable works are A Time to Change, Sixty Poems , The Unfinished Man and others . The Night of the Scorpion was included in The Exact Name published in 1965.  In an unequivocal way, the poem depicts the visions of a harsh reality of an Indian’s life. With an unobtrusive personal tone, the poet simultaneously criticises and comes to terms with the contemporary scene. On the Poem: The poem begins with the poet-persona’s recollection of the harrowing experience of witnessing his mother bellowing in pain due to a scorpion’s sting in a murky, rainy night. On that fateful night, as he recalls, his mother was stung by a scorpion which crawled in to hide itself under the sack of rice. The intermittent rain outside for ten h

On the poet: George Herbert (1953-1633) was one of the renowned exponents of the Metaphysical School of Poetry who dealt with religious and spiritual themes in his poems. He was a Welsh poet and priest of the Church of England who had been recognised as “one of the foremost British devotional lyricists”. About the poem: The Pulley is a highly religious Metaphysical poem written by George Herbert. The poem is imbued with various religious connotations and allusions. The concept of a pulley has been used in the poem as a metaphysical conceit .The word ‘pulley’ means a wheel on a shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction. In the first stanza, the poet –persona states that when God creates Human race, he poured all his blessings on them out of his bounty. He made sure that every possible treasure should be provided to them. During his span of life, they were entitled to enjoy all luxuries and treasures of nature. Initially, they were endowed with strength. Su

About the Poet : William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was one of the exponents of romantic poetry who had a considerable role in the development of the Romantic Movement in England. His poems are marked with the pantheistic creed and romantic imagination. His oeuvre consists of reflective poems, lyrics, odes and sonnets . Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey and Ode on Intimations of Immortality are some mentionable work of Wordsworth. Source of the Poem : The Reverie of Poor Susan is a romantic poem written in 1797 at Alfoxden. Later, it was published in the collection of Lyrical Ballads in 1798. About the poem: This is a lyric poem which revolves round the emotional experience of the emigrant girl, Susan. The girl recollects the fond memories of her native land in the countryside after listening to the melodious song of a thrush while passing through the Wood Street on a misty morning. She falls into a deep trance instantly. She envisioned a picture of a serene rustic s

Love is the highest value which makes us fundamentally human. In Christianity, Love has been considered a unique virtue. Universal love is the essential concept solemnized by almost every religion in the world. Human society has been always highly prescriptive about the idea of love in conjugal relationship. Society has scripted a notion of romantic ecstasy in this regard from the dawn of history. In ancient Greece, they used three loosely synonymous words to define love, ‘Eros’ which means sexual love, ‘Philia’ which means friendship, and ‘Agape’ which means compassion. In Plato’s Symposium (210-212), particularly the speech of Socrates recounts the doctrine about Eros, that he modestly says, has been imparted to them by the wise woman Diotima. She bids us not to linger in the love evoked by the beauty in a single human body, but to mount up as by stair,” from one going on to two and from two   to

About the poet:   Sympathy is a poem written by African- American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).His parents were enslaved in Kentucky before the Civil War. Dunbar was a prodigious child who started writing stories and verse at the age of six. At the age of 16, he published his first series of poems. The above mentioned poem was published in a collection titled lyrics of the Hearthside in1899.Being a Black American; it is obvious that he experienced the racial discrimination and prejudice rampant in the society. The pain of slave captivity has been expressed poignantly in the poem. Summary of the poem:  In the first stanza, the poet persona affirms that he knows what the captive bird feels being confined in a cage .It is a heart rending experience for the captive bird to see the bright sunbeams radiating through the hilly slopes and to watch the crystal clear river flowing gently. When the first bird sings and the first bud blooms emanating its mild fragrance, the caged bird

Sylvia Plath’s Mirror : Summary and Critical Appreciation    The poem is not at all enigmatic about its speaker as the very first line reveals the identity of the speaker-‘I am silver and exact’. In this poem the mirror describes its existence and its owner who grows older as the mirror watches. The first stanza describes the mirror, which seems to be like one of those people who don’t tell white lies-it’s truthful and exact but not cruel. The mirror describes itself as silver and exact. It is not judgemental about anybody but merely swallows what it perceives and reflects it back without any alteration. It considers itself a four cornered eye  of God, which sees everything for what it is .Most of the time the mirror looks across the empty room and meditates on the pink speckled wall  It has looked at the wall for so long that it describes the wall as ‘part of my heart’. The image of the wall is interrupted only by people who enter to look at themselves and the darkness that come

Ulysses by Lord Tennyson: General note, summary and critical analysis. ON THE POET : Lord Tennyson(1809-92) was the most recognised and representative poet of Victorian era during much of Queen Victoria’s reign .He succeeded Wordsworth as Poet  Laureate in 1850.He started writing poetry at an early age emulating the  style of Lord Byron. Tennyson was the only poet to voice the profoundest hopes and doubts, the noblest ideals and aspirations of the age .His talent excelled in the genre of elegy. In Memoriam, an elegy written to mourn his dearest friend Arthur Henry Hallam’s death was one of the finest specimens of his craftsmanship. His ability to observe nature keenly is plausible on his representation of nature’s both as benevolent and malevolent in his poetry. His lyrics were full of pictorial representation as if he explored the musical resources of language. HIS WORKS : Mariana, The Lady of Shalott, The Lotos Eaters, The Epic, Crossing the Bars, Ulysses, Tears Idle Tears,