Understanding poetry

Elective Course in English VI (EEG-06)

Max. Marks: 100
Course code: EEG-06/Ast/2014-15
Max. Marks: 100
Answer questions One and Two and any three of the reminding questions.
1. Scan the following passages and comment on their prosodic features:

205=100
54=20

a. Confusion shame remorse despair,

At once his bosom swelled
The damps of death bedewed his brow,
He shook, he groaned, he fell
b. May thou month of rosy beauty,
Month when pleasure is a duty,
Month of bees and month of flowers,
Month of blossom laden bowers.
c. How fleet is the glance of the mind
Compared with the speed of its flight:
The tempest itself lags behind
And the swift winged arrows of light
d. Merrily, merrily, shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
(Hint: You may consult unit 2 in MEG 01.)
2. Explain the following passages with reference to their context supplying brief critical
comments where necessary:
10+10=20
a. Since Brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality oersways their power,
How this rage shall beauty hold a plea
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
b. When I heard the Earth-Song
I was no longer brave
My avarice cooled
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Loke lost in the chill of the grave.

3. What elements of the epic have been parodied in Canto III of the Rape of the Lock?
4. Attempt a critique of Lord Byron as a poet.
5. Critically appreciate either Ulysses or Dover Beach.
6. For Eliot, time is a continuous flux. How does he connect the past with the present in the
Journey of the Magi?
7. How does A.K. Ramanujan in A River comment on Indian city culture vis--vis Indian rural
life?

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Answers
Answer questions One and Two and any three of the reminding questions.

1. Scan the following passages and comment on their prosodic features:

54=20

a. Confusion shame remorse despair,

At once his bosom swelled
The damps of death bedewed his brow,
He shook, he groaned, he fell
Ans.: There can be no doubt that the powerful mind of Dryden justly appreciated the strength of
our old literature, although he so far bows before the spirit of his age as to deface it for the
reception of that age. Even when he revised and spoiled Chaucer's works, he felt the power of
them. But he resigned his own judgment to that of his contemporaries. This Samson in his
captivity consented to make merry and carouse with his captors to translate the songs he loved
into the Philistine dialect. He had a fine appreciation of the old ballads. "I have heard," says a
Spectator, "that the late Lord Dorset, who had the greatest wit tempered with the greatest
candour, and was one of the finest critics as well as the best poets of his age, had a numerous
collection of old English ballads, and took a particular pleasure in the reading of them. I can
affirm the same of Mr. Dryden, and know several of the most refined writers of our present age
who are of the same humour." He is, I think, the first collector of poems who conceded to
popular ballads their due place, who admitted them into the society of other poems poems
by the most Eminent Hands, who perceived their excellence, and welcomed them accordingly.
To other collectors of that date it was as disgraceful to a poem as to a man to have no father, or to
be suspected of a common origin. Dryden rose above this prejudice. He showed one or two
ballads the same hospitality as he extended to the poetasters of Oxford and Cambridge, whose
name was Legion at this time.
b. May thou month of rosy beauty,
Month when pleasure is a duty,
Month of bees and month of flowers,
Month of blossom laden bowers.
Ans.: Following fast upon May Day comes another festival, like it redolent of flowers, when all
who can leave behind the " Maddening crowd's ignoble strife," hie to the woods and fields to
welcome Whitsuntide. It is the season when, according to the quaint old tale of Reynard the Fox,
"the woods are gay and glad-some, and every tree is clothed with the green and white livery of
glorious leaves and sweet-smelling blossoms; and when the earth is covered with the fairest
mantle of flowers, and the joyous birds pour out with delight their harmonious song." of King
Charles II. oak leaves and gilded oak apples are worn. Oak branches are suspended over doors
and windows. Nowhere is this custom held in more esteem than in the fine old town of Chester,
where houses and public buildings are most fitly adorned on every agth of May.
c. How fleet is the glance of the mind
Compared with the speed of its flight:
The tempest itself lags behind
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And the swift winged arrows of light

Ans.: Loneliness is not the same thing as being alone; it is a state of mind. Loneliness is not the
same thing as solitude. Sometimes, a person seeks solitude, to be with his/her thoughts. To seek
solitude is not undesirable. Sometimes, a person feels lonely amidst a crowd. It is said that in a
hierarchical organisation, it is always lonely at the top.
Time seats heavy on the lonely person Peanuts are sometimes called 'Time Pass' and are sold as
such. A lonely person, having nothing else to do, pops up these into her/his mouth to 'kill' time.
Time is so precious. Should we kill it? I read this somewhere: Do not suffer loneliness; whenever
you feel lonely, convert the feeling into solitude and enjoy it!
d. Merrily, merrily, shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
(Hint: You may consult unit 2 in MEG 01.)
2. Explain the following passages with reference to their context supplying brief critical
comments where necessary:
10+10=20
a. Since Brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality oersways their power,
How this rage shall beauty hold a plea
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
Ans.: Since neither brass nor stone nor earth nor the limitless ocean is strong enough to resist the
sad force of mortality, how can beauty possibly resist deaths rage when beauty is no stronger
than a flower? How could your beauty, which is as fragile as the sweet breath of summer, hold
out against the destructive assaults of time when neither invulnerable rocks nor gates of steel are
strong enough to resist its decaying power? What a frightening thing to think about! Alas, where
can I put your beauty, times most precious creation, to hide it from time itself? Whose hand is
strong enough to slow time down? Who will forbid its destruction of your beauty? Oh, no one,
unless this miracle proves effective: that in the black ink of my poetry, the one I love may still
shine bright.
b. When I heard the Earth-Song
I was no longer brave
My avarice cooled
Loke lost in the chill of the grave.
Ans.: Suddenly he stopped; unfortunately, he couldnt remember the remainder. So I took over,
and recited the rest of the sonnet . Powell looked at me with a mixture of admiration and awe and
exclaimed that he had not come across someone who could quote Shakespeare offhand with such
felicity even in the hallowed universities of Cambridge and Oxford. He added that his
achievements paled into insignificance before Shakespeares poetry that, in his view, represented
the pinnacle of human intellectual achievement.
While I regard myself as fortunate for having received such high praise especially from some
one of the stature of Powell, what is meaningful was Powells utter humility while talking about
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Shakespeare. I am indeed aware of the stature of other great men in various fields of intellectual
endeavour. I am not downplaying their accomplishments. But when we refer to Shakespeare
alone, I feel that all comparisons must cease.
Who could have said it better than Shakespeares own compatriot Ben Jonson who wrote: Soul
of the Age/The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage!/My Shakespeare rise ; I will not lodge
thee by/Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie/A little further to make thee a room/Thou art a
monument without a tomb. And again: Leave thee alone for the comparison/Of all that insolent
Greece or haughty Rome/Sent forth or since did from the ashes come./Triumph my Britain, thou
hast one to show./To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe./He was not for an age, but for all
time!
3. What elements of the epic have been parodied in Canto III of the Rape of the Lock?
Ans.: The opening of the poem establishes its mock-heroic style. Pope introduces the
conventional epic subjects of love and war and includes an invocation to the muse and a
dedication to the man (the historical John Caryll) who commissioned the poem. Yet the tone
already indicates that the high seriousness of these traditional topics has suffered a diminishment.
The second line confirms in explicit terms what the first line already suggests: the amrous
causes the poem describes are not comparable to the grand love of Greek heroes but rather
represent a trivialized version of that emotion. The contests Pope alludes to will prove to be
mighty only in an ironic sense. They are card-games and flirtatious tussles, not the great battles
of epic tradition. Belinda is not, like Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships
(see the SparkNote on The Iliad), but rather a face thatalthough also beautifulprompts a lot
of foppish nonsense. The first two verse-paragraphs emphasize the comic inappropriateness of
the epic style (and corresponding mind-set) to the subject at hand. Pope achieves this
discrepancy at the level of the line and half-line; the reader is meant to dwell on the
incompatibility between the two sides of his parallel formulations. Thus, in this world, it is little
men who in tasks so bold... engage; and soft bosoms are the dwelling-place for mighty
rage. In this startling juxtaposition of the petty and the grand, the former is real while the latter
is ironic. In mock-epic, the high heroic style works not to dignify the subject but rather to expose
and ridicule it. Therefore, the basic irony of the style supports the substance of the poems satire,
which attacks the misguided values of a society that takes small matters for serious ones while
failing to attend to issues of genuine importance.
With Belindas dream, Pope introduces the machinery of the poemthe supernatural powers
that influence the action from behind the scenes. Here, the sprites that watch over Belinda are
meant to mimic the gods of the Greek and Roman traditions, who are sometimes benevolent and
sometimes malicious, but always intimately involved in earthly events. The scheme also makes
use of other ancient hierarchies and systems of order. Ariel explains that womens spirits, when
they die, return to their first Elements. Each female personality type (these types correspond to
the four humours) is converted into a particular kind of sprite. These gnomes, sylphs,
salamanders, and nymphs, in turn, are associated with the four elements of earth, air, fire, and
water. The airy sylphs are those who in their lifetimes were light Coquettes; they have a
particular concern for Belinda because she is of this type, and this will be the aspect of feminine
nature with which the poem is most concerned.
Indeed, Pope already begins to sketch this character of the coquette in this initial canto. He
draws the portrait indirectly, through characteristics of the Sylphs rather than of Belinda herself.
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Their priorities reveal that the central concerns of womanhood, at least for women of Belindas
class, are social ones. Womans joy in gilded Chariots indicates an obsession with pomp and
superficial splendor, while love of Ombre, a fashionable card game, suggests frivolity. The
erotic charge of this social world in turn prompts another central concern: the protection of
chastity. These are women who value above all the prospect marrying to advantage, and they
have learned at an early age how to promote themselves and manipulate their suitors without
compromising themselves. The Sylphs become an allegory for the mannered conventions that
govern female social behavior. Principles like honor and chastity have become no more than
another part of conventional interaction. Pope makes it clear that these women are not
conducting themselves on the basis of abstract moral principles, but are governed by an elaborate
social mechanismof which the Sylphs cut a fitting caricature. And while Popes technique of
employing supernatural machinery allows him to critique this situation, it also helps to keep the
satire light and to exonerate individual women from too severe a judgment. If Belinda has all the
typical female foibles, Pope wants us to recognize that it is partly because she has been educated
and trained to act in this way. The society as a whole is as much to blame as she is. Nor are men
exempt from this judgment. The competition among the young lords for the attention of beautiful
ladies is depicted as a battle of vanity, as wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-knots strive.
Popes phrases here expose an absurd attention to exhibitions of pride and ostentation. He
emphasizes the inanity of discriminating so closely between things and people that are
essentially the same in all important (and even most unimportant) respects.
Popes portrayal of Belinda at her dressing table introduces mock-heroic motifs that will run
through the poem. The scene of her toilette is rendered first as a religious sacrament, in which
Belinda herself is the priestess and her image in the looking glass is the Goddess she serves. This
parody of the religious rites before a battle gives way, then, to another kind of mock-epic scene,
that of the ritualized arming of the hero. Combs, pins, and cosmetics take the place of weapons
as awful Beauty puts on all its arms.
4. Attempt a critique of Lord Byron as a poet.
Ans.: George Gordon Byron was born with a lame foot, and his sensitivity to it haunted his life
and his works. Overhearing a girl he was infatuated with refer to him as "that lame boy" certainly
must have deepened his disappointment at being born with this deformity. A fragile self-esteem
made Byron extremely sensitive to criticism, of himself or of his poetry, and he tended to make
enemies rather quickly. His poetry, along with his lifestyle, was considered controversial in his
time and often deemed "perverted" or even "satanic,". The fact that he was often discontent and
unhappy, combined with a constant desire for change meant that he created an unstable world for
himself, though he never gave up his individual freedom to choose his own path and his own
destiny.
He inherited the title of Lord Byron at the age of ten, giving him a rank in society, and a bit of
wealth to go along with it. But by the time he was in college, Byron began to build up large debts
due to an extravagant lifestyle. It is said that, at one point, he kept a pet bear in his rooms at
Trinity College in Cambridge. Also while at Cambridge, he developed a great fondness for a
choirboy named John Edleston.
Throughout his life, Byron fought a battle with obesity. He seemed obsessed with food, as well
as being a picky eater. His letters to others, as well as his journals, indicate that he practiced
starvation, often eating only one meal a day. Occasionally he would slide to the other extreme,
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drinking large amounts of soda-water or consuming great quantities of magnesia and Epsom salts
in an effort to keep his weight down.
Lord Byron was once called 'mad, bad and dangerous to know.' In this lesson, you'll learn about
this poet who is one of English Romanticism's most celebrated and prolific figures.
Introduction to Lord Byron
Lord Byron - he is no ordinary poet. A refrain that I talk about a lot when I talk about poets and
authors is that they were unappreciated in their lifetime, and nobody liked them and they
struggled for acceptance. Lord Byron did not have that problem. His poetry was popular. He was
popular. He had a real way with the ladies and some dudes, actually, too. He was a tabloid
celebrity of his day. If there was a People magazine back then, he would have been all over it.
They'd be like, 'who's he with now?' And there'd be a list of all these women and 'scandal' in big
red letters across his head. He left a trail of heartache that inspired Fatal Attraction- type
responses. It was nuts.
We're going to look at his early years, including the story of his name, which is interesting as
well. We'll talk about how he got exiled from England. Oh, yeah. He wrote poetry, too. He didn't
just go around womanizing - he wrote some stuff. So, we're going to talk about all that.
First off - the name, Lord Byron - he sounds like an important guy. He wasn't born an important
guy. He was born George Noel Gordon in London in 1788. His father was Captain John 'Mad
Jack' Byron, which is kind of an awesome name on its own. So, George should've been Byron.
That would make sense. Why was he born Gordon? Who's Gordon?
His mother was an heiress. Her name was Catherine Gordon. His dad, Captain Byron - Captain
Mad Jack, had squandered his first wife's fortune and she died, and then he married Catherine. In
order to claim her estate, so he could also squander her fortune, he took Gordon as his surname,
so that's why Little Byron has Gordon as his surname. So, basically, it's kind of progressive - the
man took the wife's name - if it weren't motivated out of greed. But that's how he got to be
Gordon. But then he was christened George Gordon Byron; at school he was registered as
George Byron Gordon. It's all very confusing.
Then, when he was ten, his great uncle died, who was William Byron, the 5th Baron Byron,
which is hard to say. He wasn't such a great guy. He was known as the 'Wicked Lord' and 'Devil
Byron.' He's not filling in good footsteps. When he died, George became the 6th Baron Byron,
which is why he got to be a lord, so that's how he ended up Lord Byron.
7. How does A.K. Ramanujan in A River comment on Indian city culture vis--vis Indian
rural life?
Ans.: The poem A River is written by A.K. Ramanujan. In this poem, the poet has compared
and contrasted the attitudes of the old poets and those of the new poets to human suffering. He
has come to the conclusion that both the groups of the poets are indifferent to human sorrow and
suffering. Their poetry dose not reflects the miseries of the human beings. He has proved this
point in the present poem. The river Vaikai on whose bank the historic city of Madurai stands has
been mentioned in the poems of many poets, both past and present. The river is intimately
associated with the life and culture of the Tamil people. The peculiar thing, which appeals to the
poets, is that the river presents two different spectacles in two different season. It is completely
dry in summer and flooded in full in the rainy season. In this poem, the poet refers to the river
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Vaikai which flows through the city of Madurai. The word Madurai means a sweet city. It is a
Tamil word. As a matter of fact, this city is the center of Tamil culture and learning. It is also a
holy city full of temples including the famous Minakshee temple. The poets have written many
poems on the temples and the river. In the present poem, A.K. Ramanujan deals with the river.
In the poem A River, we get two pictures based upon two different kinds of description. In the
summer, the river is almost empty. Only a very thin stream of water flows. So the sand ribs on
the bed of the river are visible. The stones that lie on the bed of the river also exposed to view.
The portion of the river under the bridge has also been described. We get a vivid picture of the
river in the summer season. There is also the picture of the river in the rainy season. Generally,
all kinds of poets have written about it in their poems. During the rainy season when the floods
crone the people observe it very anxiously. They remember the rising of the river inch by inch
from time to time. They remember how the stone steps of the bathing place are submerged one
by one. They see how three village houses were damaged and carried off by the floods. They
now how two cows named Brinda and Gopi were carried away. They also know how a pregnant
woman was also drowned in the river during the flood. Both the old and new poets have
mentioned these things in their poems. But the way they have described these things in their
poems shows that they were not much alive to or sympathetic with human suffering.
They did not mention the name of the woman who was carrying twins. Before their birth, she
was drowned in the flooded river. At the time of drowning, most probably the twins must have
kicked the sides of her womb. She must have got much pain out of this. But both the new poets
and old poets did not refer to all these miseries of the woman in their poetic creations. This
becomes ultimately clear that they are not sympathetic with suffering human beings. They are
totally callous and indifferent. This kind of attitude makes their poetry weak and unappealing,
dry and cheerless. The tone of the poem is based on sarcasm and irony. The structure of the poem
has been in paragraphs and single lines. There are four longer verse paragraphs and a shorter one
in the beginning. There are only two single isolated lines. This kind of structural arrangement
contributes to the effect of irony. It also helps to grasp the main points clearly. Secondly, a word
can be said about the language used in the poem. It is very simple on account of which the
thought sequence of the poem is presented unmistakably and clearly.

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