INDEX

1. W.B.YEATS**
2. PATRICK PRINGLE*
3. S.T.COLERIDGE*
4. KUMUDINI LAKHIA
5. PHILIP LARKIN
6. A.R. WILLIAMS*
7. A.J CRONIN
8. NISSIM EZEKIEL
 1. JOHN DONNE
2. ISSAC BASHEVIS SINGER
3. KAMALA DAS
4. RABINDRANATH TAGORE*
5. GIRISH KARNAD
6. INGMAR BERGMAN
7. Bhabani Bhattacharya
8. Colin Dexter
9. Dilip Chitre
1. Charles Augustin De Coulomb*
2. Thales of Miletus
3. Benjamin Franklin
4. Oersted
5. Ampere and Faraday
6. Lorentz
7. Maxwell*
8. Newton*
9. Millikan
 1. Isaac Asimov
2. Robert Frost*
3. Gabriel Garcia Marquex
4. James Joyce
5. Joseph Conrad
6. Bi Shu-min
7. John Milton *
8. William Blake
9. Emily Dickinson**
10. JOYCE KILMER
 1. A.K Ramanujan
2. G.B.Shaw
3. Virginia Woolf**
4. D.H.Lawrence*
5. Amartya Sen
6. EVELYN GLENNIE
7. BISMILLAH KHAN
8. Subramania Bharati
9. Coates Kinney
10. William Butler Yeats**
11. Katherine Mansfield
12. Vaikom Muhammad Basheer
 1. Phoebe Cary
2. James Kirkup
3. Edward Lear
4. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam*
5. SANTOSH YADAV
6. MARIA SHARAPOVA
7. Kenneth Anderson
8. W. W. E. Ross
9. Vikram Seth
10. William Wordsworth**
11. Douglas James
12. Jerome K. Jerome
13. Gieve Patel
14. Maria Sharapova
1. Louisa May Alcott**
2. Tenzing Norgay
3. Venkat Iyer
4. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
5. Mrs. Adis Sheila Kaye Smith
6. General Ved Prakash Malik
7. Ruskin Bond**
8. Victor Hugo**
9. William Cowper*
10. Boey Kim Cheng
11. William Shakespeare***
12. Henrik Johan Ibsen
 1. KHUSHWANT SINGH
2. SHIRLEY TOULSON
3. GORDON COOK and ALAN EAST
4. TED HUGHES*
5. NATHALIE TROUVEROY
6. WALT WHITMAN*
7. NANI PALKHIVALA
8. TERENCE RATTIGAN
9. MARKUS NATTEN
10. JAYANT NARLIKAR
11. NICK MIDDLETON
12. ELIZABETH JENNINGS
 1. William Saroyan
2. Marga Minco
3. Masti Venkatesha Iyengar
4. J.B. Priestley
5. Amitav Ghosh
6. Mandeleine l’engle**
7. Ernest Harold Baynes*
8. T.S Eliot*
9. Oscar Wilde**
10. Okamoto Jun
11. Nicolas Gullien
 1. Anton Chekhov
2. Mulk Raj Anand
3. Arthur Conan Doyle*
4. Arundhati Roy
5. Jhumpa Lahiri
6. Bhabani Bhattacharya
7. William Somerset Maugham
8. Sujata Bhatt
9. Wole Soyinka
10. Padma Sachdev
 1. W. H. Auden
2. John Keats*
3. Arun Kolatkar
4. Mark Twain*
5. Bertrand Russell
6. S.Chandrasekhar
7. G.N.Devy
8. John Ruskin*
9. E.M.Forster
10. Kumudini Lakhia
 1. Jack Finney
2. Kalki
3. Tishani Doshi
4. S. Buck
5. John Updike
6. Susan Hill*
7. Colin Dexter*
8. Zitkala-Sa
9. Bama
 1. Ray Bradbury***
2. Walter De La Mare
3. R.K Narayan*
4. Hilaire Belloc
5. Joaquin Miller
6. William Shakespeare***
7. WYSTON HUGH AUDEN
W.B.YEATS
 W.B. Yeats was an Irish poet,
dramatist and mystic. He was
one of the driving forces behind
the Irish Literary Revival ,and
was co-founder of the Abbey
Theatre. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in
1923.
W . B . Yeats
1865-1939
PATRICK
PRINGLE
Patrick Pringle
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) is
regarded as the greatest physicist
since Newton. In the following
extract from The Young Einstein,
the well-known biographer,
Patrick Pringle, describes the
circumstances which led to Albert
Einstein’s expulsion from a
S.T.Coleridge
  S.T. Coleridge was imaginative
even as a child. He studied at
Cambridge. In 1797, he met
Wordsworth; the two belonged to
the first generation of Romantic
poets. Coleridge was responsible
for presenting the supernatural as
real and Wordsworth would try to
render ordinary reality as
remarkable and strange. Byron,
S . T . Coleridge Shelley and Keats belonged to the
next generation of Romantic Poets.
1772-1834 The genesis of this poem was a
vision seen by Coleridge in a trance-
like state of mind. He tried to
capture its essence but an
interruption caused an irreparable
JOHN DONNE
 John Donne was representative of the
metaphysical poets of his time. He set
the metaphysical mode by vibrancy of
language
and startling imagery, and a
preference for a diction modelled on
direct utterances. He was brought up
John Donne as a Roman Catholic (later he
1572-1631 converted to Anglicanism), and was
Dean of St. Paul’s Church till his
death. The total effect of a
metaphysical poem at its best is to
startle the reader into seeing and
knowing what he has not really noticed
or thought about before. Like all
Donne’s poetry this poem too reflects
ISSAC BASHEVIS
SINGER
 Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in Poland. His
father and grandfather were rabbis and he
was educated at the Warsaw Rabbinical
Seminary. In 1935 he emigrated to the US and
since then has worked as a regular journalist
and columnist for the New York paper, The
Jewish Daily Forward. Apart from some early
work published in Warsaw, nearly all his
Isaac Bashevis Singer fiction has been written in Yiddish for this
1902–1991 journal. It is relatively recently that Singer’s
work has been translated on any scale and
that his merit, and the endurance of his
writing, have been recognised by a general
audience. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature in 1978. His publications include—A
Friend of Kafka, The Seance and Other Stories.
KAMALA DAS
 One of the greatest literary figures in
Malayalam, Kamala Das was born in the
year 1934 in Punnayurkulum, in South
Malabar, Kerala. Her work, in poetry and in
prose, has given her a permanent place in
modern Malayalam literature as well as in
Indian writing in English. She is best
Kamala Das known for her feminist writings and focus
1934-2009 on womanhood. She has been the recipient
of such famous awards as the Poetry Award
for the Asian PEN Anthology, the Kerala
Sahitya Akademi Award for the best
collection of short stories in Malayalam,
and the Chaman Lal Award for fearless
journalism.
RABINDRANATH
TAGORE
 Rabindranath Tagore was a poet, novelist,
short story writer and dramatist. He was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1913. Tagore’s interest in drama was
fostered while he was a boy, for his family
Rabindranath Tagore enjoyed writing and staging plays. The music
1861-1941
in his plays is instrumental in bringing out the
delicate display of emotion around an idea.
The central interest in his plays is the
unfolding of character; of the opening up of
the soul to enlightenment of some sort.
GIRISH KARNAD
 Girish Karnad is a contemporary writer,
playwright, actor and movie director. He
is a recipient of the Padma Shri (1974),
Padma Bhushan (1992) and the Jnanpith
Award (1998). He writes in both Kannada
and English. His plays generally use
Girish Karnad history and mythology to focus on
Born 1938 contemporary issues. He is also active in
the world of Indian cinema. This play,
too, can be looked at from multiple levels
—the focus on values, both personal and
academic, and the issue of bilingualism
in today’s world.
INGMAR BERGMAN
 Ingmar Bergman is a well known Swedish director
of films noted for their starkness, their subtle use
of black and white and ‘shades’ of those
extremes, the ambiguity of their content, and a
certain brooding presence that seems to pervade
them all. The list of Bergman films is long; his
best known include The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild
Strawberries (1958), The Virgin Spring (1960), The
Ingmar Bergman Silence (1963), Persona (1967), The Passion of
1918-2007 Anna (1970), and Cries and Whispers (1973)—this
last film in colour, though emphasising red in all
its shadings. In the following selection, the
Introduction to Four Screen-plays by Ingmar
Bergman (1960), Bergman discusses how he
views the art of film-making.
Charles Augustin De Coulomb
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott : (1832-1888) An American writer in the mid to late
19th Century, is considered as one of the earliest feminist writers. Out
of the several books she wrote, her series, beginning with ‘Little
Women’, has been hugely popular among the masses and critics alike
for a century and a half. Her simple style and lively characters have
left a mark and influenced generations of children and adults alike. The
setting of her books is the suburbs of Boston. Her world view is
wholesome and full of believable yet charming characters which
captivates the readers .The following extract is from ‘Little Women’
first published in 1868. This story of four sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth and
Amy, their friend Laurie, their wise and loving parents of modest
means, living in a suburb of a city in the East coast of America has
caught the imagination of generations of readers young and old alike.
Each character is real and distinctive. We remain firmly with the sisters
through all their struggles, conflicts, triumphs and joys. It serves as a
guiding light to us in all the phases of our lives. The extract affords us
a tantalising glimpse into the book and narrates the beginning of a
lifelong friendship between Jo, the brightest and liveliest of the four
sisters and Laurie their wealthy, new neighbour. The March girls and
Laurie, become best buddies and much more as the book progresses.
Tenzing Norway
Tenzing Norgay (29 May1914- 9 May 1986), known
by birth as Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as
Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa
mountaineer.He was one of the first two individuals
known to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which
he accomplished with Edmund Hillary on 29 May
1953. Sr No Honour Medal Honoured by For 1 Tiger
Medal 1938 Himalayan Club III Everest Expedition 2
Star of Nepal 1953 King Tribhuvan All
accomplishments 3 Padma Bhushan 1959 Govt. of
India All accomplishements Tenzing describes the
climb to the top and all events occurred during the
historic climb. The article also describes what
brought him to climbing mountains.
ISAAC ASIMOV
ISSAC ASIMOV predicted the internet of today 20 years ago. “If my doctor told
me if I had only six minutes to live , I wouldn’t brood . I’d type a little faster.”
---------Isaac Asimov
Ask Google when Isaac Asimov was born and it’ll say January 2nd, but the truth
is , he chose that date himself so he’d have a day to celebrate. He was actuall
Born between October 4,1919 and January 2, 1920 , in Russia , and there are
no records of his birth so nobody , not even his family , really knew the exact
Date.

The Asimovs moved to Brooklyn with younger Isaac in 1923 , where his father
Opened a candy store . There was no question Isaac was smart; he taught
Himself to read at the 5 , skipped several grades , got his high school diploma
at 15 , and sold his first short story at the age of 19. Over his astonishing and
Prolific career he wrote or edited 500 books and over 90000 letters.
He is most famous for his Foundation series and I Robot , as well as coining
The term “robotics” and theorizing inventions and innovations nobody else
Had dreamed of.

It was he who conceived of the idea of the positronic brain , brought to life in
Iconic pop culture shows like Doctor Who, Star Trek : The Next Generation ,
and of course , the 2004 Will Smith blockbuster I , Robot .
 He Had a lot to say about
Contemporary life on earth
As well, believing strongly
That overpopulation is one
Of our biggest challenges,
And that the survival of our species
Is tied to the equality of women.
PHILIP LARKIN
Philip Larkin (1922–1985) was born in
Coventry, England. He is well-known as a
leader of ‘Movement’ in English Poetry in the
fifties. The principal works of Philip Larkin
are The North Ship, The Less Deceived, The
Whitsun Weddings and High Windows. His
themes—love, change, disenchantment, the
mystery, the inexplicableness of the poet’s
survival and death’s inevitability — are
universally liked by the readers. The above
poem has been taken from the volume, The
Less Deceived, which establishes a kinship
with the environment.
WILLIAM
BLAKE
1757-1827
William Blake was a poet, painter and
engraver. He abhorred the rationalism and
materialism of his times. What he saw and
painted were human beings beset with evil,
yet striving for the divine within them.
Blake’s lyrics appeared in two sets of
volumes: Songs of Innocence (from which The
Divine Image has been chosen) and Songs of
Experience (from which The Human Abstract
has been taken) representing the two
contrary states of the human soul. Most of
the poems in the first volume have
counterparts in the second.
WILLIAM SHAKESPHERE
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was one
of the greatest poets and dramatists of the
English language. Born at Stratford-on-
Avon, England, he went to London where
his reputation as a dramatist and poet was
established. His Sonnets, 154 in number,
probably written between 1593 and 1598,
were published in 1602. The above sonnet
is sonnet number 116 in which we have a
depiction of true love. His voluminous
work includes 37 plays and two narrative
poems.
JOHN MILTON
1608-1674
John Milton began writing poetry at the
age of ten. After finishing his formal
education at Cambridge, he read almost
everything available in Latin, Greek,
Italian and English. He was appointed Latin
Secretary where he worked so hard that
eyestrain, from years of late night
reading, caused him to become totally
blind at the age of forty- five. In the final
years of his life he wrote (through
dictation) Paradise Lost and Paradise
Regained.
JOHN KEATS
John Keats (1795–1821) was one of the greatest of the
younger generation of ‘English Romantic’ poets. He
started his career as an apprentice to a surgeon but
Ruth: a woman in the Bible who left her own people to
live with her mother-inlaw, Naomi. After the death of
her husband, marries Boaz and is the ancestor of King
David. 2019-2020 138 Woven words soon gave it up for
poetry. His poetic career lasted for only four years but,
during this short span, he evolved from an ordinary
poet to an exceptionally mature poetic force. His
poetry celebrates beauty, which he considered the
ultimate truth. It is portrayed in extremely sensuous
images that have been created through beautiful verbal
pictures. The image of the nightingale’s bower in the
poem is an apt illustration of the poet’s craft in this
respect.
Sujata Bhatt
Sujata Bhatt (born 1956)) was
educated in the USA and now lives in
Germany. She won the Commonwealth
Poetry Prize for the Asia section for
her collection of poems, Brunizem
(1988), from which ‘The Peacock’ is
taken. Two other books of poems by
her are Monkey Shadows (1991) and
The Stinking Rose (1994). She has also
translated Gujarati poetry into English.
WYSTON HUGH AUDEN
Wystan Hugh Auden (1907–1973)
was a student and later a Professor
of Poetry at Oxford University. One
of the most important poets of the
century, he has published several
collections of poems noted for
their irony, compassion and wit.
Although a modern poem, ‘Refugee
Blues’ uses the ballad form of
narration.
NIZZIM EZEKIEL
Nissim Ezekiel (1924–2004) was born in
Mumbai. He is today perhaps the best
known Indian poet to have written in
English. He had his education at Wilson
College, Bombay and later at Birbeck
College, London. A professor of
American Literature at Bombay
University, Ezekiel has written several
poems and some plays. A proficient
critic, Ezekiel lectured at a number of
universities in the U.S.A. and the U.K.
DILIP CHITRE
Dilip Chitre (1938–2009) was born in
Baroda. He writes poetry both in Marathi
and English. Travelling in a Cage, from
which the poem selected here has been
taken, was published in 1980. Apart from
poetry, Chitre has also written short
stories and critical essays. An Anthology
of Marathi Poetry 1945–1965 is one of his
most important works of translation. He
sees poetry as an expression of the
spirit. He lives and works in Mumbai.
TED HUGHES
Ted Hughes (1930–1998) completed his
education at Pembroke College,
Cambridge. In 1956, he married the poet
Sylvia Plath. He tried to make a living in
America by teaching and writing. Finally,
he returned to England. The most
remarkable quality of Hughes’ poems is an
intense and obsessive fascination with the
world of birds and animals; and though
essentially about birds, animals and
fishes, his poems shock us with unusual
phrases and violent images.
ARUN KOLATKAR
Arun Kolatkar (1932–2004) is a
contemporary Indian poet. He was
educated in Pune and earned a diploma
in painting from the J.J. School of arts,
Mumbai. He writes both in English and
Marathi and has authored two books.
The present poem is an excerpt from
Jejuri— a long poem in thirty-one
sections. A German translation of Jejuri
by Gievanen Bandin was published in
1984.
A.K.RAMANUJAN
1929-1993
A.K. Ramanujan is one of India’s finest
English language poets. He is best known for
his pioneering translations of ancient Tamil
poetry into modern English. At the time of
his death he was professor of linguistics at
the University of Chicago and was recognised
as the world’s most profound scholar of
South Indian languages and culture. His
interests included anthropology and
folklore.These influenced his work as a
craftsman of English. This poem represents
the complex distillation of a lifetime of
unusual thought and feeling.
EMILY DICKINSON
1830-1886
Emily Dickinson is regarded as one of
America’s quintessential poets of the
nineteenth century. She lived an
introverted and hermetic life, and
published very few of her poems in
her lifetime. Her output, 1789 poems
in all, were published posthumously.
Her poetry is characterised by
unconventional capitalisation and
extensive use of dashes, along with
unusual imagery and lyric style.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) spent
most of his life in the Lake district of
northern England, and the many hours that
he spent wandering about the hills and
woods led to the production of some of the
finest poetry on nature. His work Lyrical
Ballads, co-authored with Coleridge in
1798, is regarded as the beginning of the
English Romantic Movement. He selected
subjects from nature and rustic life. He
held the view that the language of poetry
should be simple and natural.