BRITISH POETRY

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BRITISH POETRY

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MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMME IN ENGLISH

MEG-1 : BRITISH POETRY

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

CHAUCERS POETRY

Geoffrey Chaucer (1345-1400) was the son of John Chaucer, a wine merchant of London. In 1357, he
was employed in the service of Lionel, who later on became the Duke army of Clarence. In 1359, he
joined the army of Edward III that attacked France Chaucer was taken prisoner in this war. His release
was arranged through the payment of money. He married Phillipa, probably the daughter of Sir Payne
Roet. He was Knight of the shrine for Kent in 1386 and went on Canterbury pilgrimage in April 1388.
About this time he was the clerk of the king’s work at various places including Westminster Abbey. He
was buried in Westminster Abbey and a monument was erected to him in 1555.

Chaucer’s Writings may be divided into three periods:

1. The period of French influence 1359-72:-

In this period, Chaucer used the octo syllabic couplet during this time he wrote part of
the Romance of the Rose and in 1369 he wrote the book of the Duchess.

2. The period of Italian influence 72-86:- In this period he was greatly influenced by
great Talent writers Dahre and Boccacu. He left the octo syllabic couplet. During this time he used
mainly the “heroic” stanza of seven lines and began to use for heroic couplet. In this period he wrote the
House of fame the parliament of Fowls.

3:- The Period of Maturity 1386-400:- In this period he wrote this best work. The
Canterbury tales. It was designed about 1387. It was written mostly in heroic couplets. It consists of
about 17000 lines. The main prologue is especially interesting. It presents a vivid (lively) picture of un
temporary (belonging to the same time) life. A party of twenty nine pilgrims gathers at a Tabard inn in
south work this party was about to travel to the shrine of Becket at Canterbury Chaucer draws a
striking portrait of each these pilgrims. After supper (lack meal of the day). The host proposes that they
shall shorten the way by telling each two stories on the way out and two on the way back. The teller of
the best stories shall have a free super on his return. The host will accompany them and act as a guide.
The pilgrims agree and the tales follow. There is a short prologue at the beginning of each tale but the
plan by which each pilgrim would tell four tales was cut short. Even the reduced plan was not
completed. The work contains only twenty three tales. The idea of a collection of tales different in style
to suit their tellers and unified in form by uniting the tellers in a common purpose is Chaucer’s own

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collections of stories were common at the time but only Chaucer hit on this simple device for securing
natural probability, psychological variety and a wide range of narrative interest.

In all literature there is nothing similar to the prologue. It is the exact picture of an
entire nation- high and low god and evil, old and young dearned and ignorant male and female,
religious and non religious, town and country land and sea but without extremes. The characters are
realistic. They are both types and individuals.

General Framework of the Canterbury Tales?

When the sweet showers of April have broken through the dry spell of March
completely and bathed every vein which holds in the blossoming of flowers. When Zephyr
(personification of west wind in Greek Mythology) with his sweet breath has given life to young growth
on plants in each forest field. When the young sun has completed half his annual round, just emerging
from Aries, When small birds whose instincts were activated by nature and who sleep through the night
with one eye open make their music. People wish to go on pilgrimages and holy wanderers wish to visit
strange lands and distant holy places in different countries. In England, they come especially from very
region to Canterbury to seek the blessings of the holy martyr Thomas Beckett who helped them when
they were sick.

Lines 13-34:- It happened one day Chaucer was staying at the Tabard inn in south
wark, ready for the holy travel to Canterbury, a group of twenty nine persons arrived there at night.
They were of different types accidently brought together. All these pilgrims were going to Canterbury.
The room and stables were quite big. By sunset I had talked to each one of them and had become a
member of their group.

Lines 35-42:- However before I take the story further it appears proper to me to
describe which I have the time and opportunity the dress, profession and nature of each of them as they
appeared to me.

Lines 43-60:- the knight was a very famous man. Knight since his early life, he loved
chivalry truth, honour generosity and courterey. He had fought bravely in the King’s service. He was
greatly respected in both Christian and heathen countries. He was present at the fall of Alexandria. In
Prussia he was given more honour than the Knights of all other nations. No Christian soldier of his rank
had fought more times in the attacks on Russia and Lithuania. He had taken part in many battles in the
Eastern Mediterranean.

Lines 61-72:- He had participated in fifteen mortal battles. He had fought three times
for the faith in the lists at Tramassene and each time killed his enemy. This famous fight had also fought

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at one time for the lord of Palathia against another heathen enemy in turkey. In spite of his fame, he was
wise and was as modest as a maid. He was a true and perfect gentle Knight.

Lines 74-78:- Speaking of his equipment he possessed fine horses but he was not gaily
dressed. He wore a thick cotton tunic which was stained by his armour. He had just come back from his
travels. He had joined us to do his pilgrimage and offer tanks to God.

Lines 79-100:- With the Knight came his sons, a young squire, the squire was a
passionate lover and a spirited apprentice Knight. He had curly hair as if I think he was about twenty.
He was wonderfully active and strong within a short time, he had fought bravely in Flanders, in Artois
and in Picardy with the hope to win the favour of his mistress. His dress was embroidered that looked
like a meadow full of resh flowers, white and red. Throughout the day he was singing. He looked fresh
like the month of May. His gown was short with long and wide sleeves. He was a good rider. He could
compose songs and set them to music. He knew how to fight and how to dance. He knew drawing and
the art of writing. He was passionately in love and slept as little as nightingale.

Lines 101-117:- The Knight had a working framer who own his land. He had no
servants. Therefore he preferred to travel the Yeoman war dressed in a green coat and hood. He carried
sharp bright pea cock feathered arrows these arrows were neatly sheathed. They were hanging handily
from his belt. He knew how to dress himself. In a soldierly fashion. His arrows never fell short of target
because they were not poorly feathered. He carried a mighty bow in his hand. His head was like a nut
his face was brown. He was expert in woodcraft. On his breast he wore a shinning silver medal of St.
Christopher. He carried a horn slung from a green belt.

Lines 118-150:- There was also a nun a prioress. Her smile was simple but charming.
Her greatest oath was only “By St loy” Her name was Madam Eglantine. She sang the divine service in a
pretty manner in a slightly nasal tone. She spoke French elegantly in the Stratford at Bow account as she
did not know the French of Paris. She never dipped her fingers too deeply in sauce when she lifted the
food to her lips. She cultivated a stately bearing so as to appear a dignified person. She was full of
sympathy and tender feelings. She was so kind hearted that she would weep even if she saw a mouse
caught in a trap particularly if it were bleeding she had kept many little dogs. She fed them on roasted
meat milk and the fine white bread. She would weep bitterly if some dag were beaten.

Lines 151-64:- Her veil had beautiful pleats. Her nose was well shaped. Her eyes were
grey as glass. Her mouth was small, but soft and red. She had a fine broad forehead. She was indeed by
no means under grown. On her arm she carried a rosary of small coral beads with large green beads
put in here and there. From this rosary, there hung a shining golden brooch with her, she had another
Nun her chaplain and three priests.

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Lines 165-188:- There was a monk one of the finest sort. He loved riding and hunting.
He was a manly man fit to be an abbot. He had many fine horses in his stable when he went out for
riding one could hear his bridle fing ling in the whistling wind as loud and clear as the bell of the
chapel of which he was the head. He tended to ignore the rule of St. Benet or St. Maur because it was old
and strict. He neglected the old rules and followed modern customs. He didn’t bother about the text that
says that hunters cannot be holy men. In his opinion such a context had no value.

Lines 189-207:- This monk therefore too ked after his well. He had grey hounds ( a
kind of hunting dog) that ran as fast as the birds. He spared no money for his hobbies of hunting and
riding I saw that his sleeves were beautified at the edges with the finest grey fur in the country. He had
a beautifully designed golden brooch with a love knot to fasten his hood beneath his chin. He was a fine
looking priest and not a pale ghost. He liked to eat a fat roasted swan. The horse he rode was as brown
as a berry.

Lines 208-220:- There was a Friar ( a religious man who vows to live in poverty) gay
and licentious. He was a beggar of cheerful nature. He had to pay for the marriages of many young
women. He was a noble pillar of his order. He was popular among and intimate with rich land owners
of his region and with wealthy towns women. This was because he had a special license from the pope
and therefore better qualified than the ordinary priests to cheer confessions of graver sins.

Lines 221-232:- He heard confessions sweetly and his absolution was pleasant when
he was sure of getting costly gifts, he would be an easy man in giving penance. Whenever a man gives
costly gifts to a poor order, it is a sure sign that he was undergone enough penance. Once a man gave
enough money the Friar was certain that the man was sincerely penitent. Many people who are truly
penitent are so hard of heart that they cannot weep therefore such people instead of tears and prayers
might give money to the poor friars.

Lines 233-251:- The Friar always kept his hood filled with knives and pins to give
beautiful girls. His voice was certainly pleased. He could sing and play the fiddle well. He was a
champion balled signer. His neck was whiten than a lily but as strong as that of price fighter. He offered
his services politely wherever there was a possibility of profit. Now here one could find such a capable
person.

Lines 252-71:- He was the fines beggar of his batch. He paid a fixed fee for the district
in which he begged. None of his fellow fraiars in his territory. Even if a widow had no shoes he had just
to begging saying a few holy words in his pleasant voice to get a six pence out of her before he left. His
income was much greater than the fee he paid for begging in the district. He would move about free like
a pappy on settling days when he was quick to arbitrary in disputes and thus offer his help for a small

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fee. On these occasions he did not appear like a poor cloistered scholar in torn out clothes but like a
doctor of divinity or the pope.

Lines 272-86:- There was a merchant with a forked beard and multi cloloured dress.
He rode seated on a high saddle. He wore a Flemish beaver hat. He boots were fastened with handsome
buckles. He expressed his opinions with great pomposity and told that he had never suffered a loss. He
felt that the high seas between Harwich and Holland should be cleared of sea robbers at all costs. He
was an expert and the exchange of currency. This worthy merchant so used his head in his business
transactions in a dignified manner that none could judge that he was in debt. He was really an excellent
fellow, but to tell the truth I do not remembered his name.

Lines 287-310:- There was an oxford scholar who had been studying logic for a long
time. His horse was thinner than a rake. I assume you that he himself was no fatter. He looked
melancholy and hollow checked. He had so far sound no job in the church. He was too unworldly to
take a secular employment. He preferred to have Aristotle’s Philosophical works bound in black calf and
red sheep skin near his bed to fine cloths or musical instruments. He was a philosopher but did not have
the philosopher’s stone to turn everything into gold. Whatever money he took from his hands. He spent
it on learning. His only care was study and he never spoke a word more than necessary. In his speech he
was formal and respectful brief and to the point and lofty in theme.

Lines 311-332:- There was a wise and cautious sergeant at law (Lawyer). He visited St.
Pauls in search of clients. He was a man of excellence wise in his speech a respectable person at least he
looked so because he spoke with great wisdom. He often had acted as judge of the Assize as authorized
by the king. He was competent to here all types of cases. He fame and learning and his high positions
had won him many robes and fees. He was expert in drafting documents for conveying property. He
was a very busy person but he looked more busy than he actually as. He knew about every judgment
case and crime. He was blessed simply in a patri coloured with a silk belt having narrow strips.

Lines 333-350:- It appeared that his companion was a Franklin. His beard was white as
a daisy. He liked a drink of shops in wine in the morning. He was pleasure loving and a follower of
Epicurus who believed that the only real happiness lies in sensual pleasures. This Franklin was as
famous for his hospitality at St. Julian its patriot saint.

Lines 351-362:- There was lot of fat partridges in his coops (cages for birds and his fish
ponds were full of fish like bream and bike. His cook would be in trouble if the sauce was not sharp or if
he were caught unprepared in anything throughout the day his hall table was kept laid and ready. He
presided over the sessions of justices of peace. He was often member of parliament for his region.

Lines 363-380:- There was also among us a Habudas her carpenter, a weaver a dyer
and a tapestry maker. All of them were dressed in uniform belonging to a rich and honourable Guild.

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Their clothes were so trim and fresh that they appeared to be new their knives were not tipped with
brass but were wrought with silver to match their purses and belts.

Lines 381-389:- They had taken a cook with them to boil chickens with marrow bones
to use sharp flavouring power and spice for taste. He could distinguish London ale by flavor. He knew
how to roast fry make soup and bake pies.

Lines 390-412:- There was a shipman belonging to far west. As far as understand he
came from Dartmouth. He rode on a farm horse. He were a woolen gown that reached his knees. He
carried a dagger under his arm hung from a Hanyard round his neck. He had lifted wine from Bor
deoux while the merchants were asleep. His knowledge of harbouns navigation and the changes of the
moon was unmatched. He was wise and strong. He knows every harbor from Goft land to the cape of
Finistere and every inlet in Britain and Spain the name of his ship was the Maudeloyne.

Lines 413-446:- There was with us a Doctor of medicine. No one could match him in
talking about medicines and surgery. He had a good knowledge of astronomy. This helped him to select
the most favourable time to give medicine to his patients. He was skilled in calculating the lucky
movement and planetary movement to make magic charms for his patients. He could trace the cause of
every disease and tell in what organ and from which humour he hot the cold the dry or the wet the
disease arose the doctor had very well studied the ancient authors like Hippocrates Golen Barnord etc.
he was moderate in his own diet.

Lines 447-478:- There was with us a worthy wife of bath. It was a pity that she was
somewhat deaf. At cloth making she surpassed even the weavers of Ypres and Ghent. In all the bearish
no woman dared move to words the alter steps in front of her if anybody did so she was extremely
angry. Her handkerchiefs were woven of find texture, her stockings were soft and new. Her face was
bold beautiful and of red complexion, she had been a respectable women throughout her life. She
married five times in church apart from other loves of which I need not speak now. She had thrice been
to Jerusalem crossed many foreign rivers had been to Rome the Boulongne the church of ST James of
compostella and to cologne. So she was quite skilled in travelling. She could ride comfortable on a
ambling horse, her head well covered with a wimple and a hat as big as a shield or a buckler.

Line 479-499:- There was also a holy minded well reputed poor parson. He was rich in
holy thought and holy work. He was also a true scholar he truly knew Christ’s Gospel and taught and
preached it with devotion. He was gentle and hard was king and patient in adversity as had been tested
many times. He disliked forcing his parishioners to pay his fee. Rather he would give his poor
parishioners what he had received from the rich or from his own pocket. He managed to live on a little
income with a stick in his hands he did not forget to visit his distant parishioners rich or poor in rain or
thunder in sickness or grief.

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Lines 500-30:- This principle he had learnt from the Gospel. To this he added the
proverb “if gold can rust what will then iron do” This is because if the priest in whom we trust is evil,
then we should not surprised at the corruption of common man. A priest should set a true example of
cleanness and teach his parishioners how to live. He did not run to London to make money by singing
masses for the wealthy dead or to become a chaplain in one of the guilds. He stayed at home and
watched over his parishioner so they were not misled by the devil. He was a shepherd not a money
minded priest. His effort was to lead the people to heaven by the example of a good life.

Lines 531-543:- There was with him his brother a plowman. He had carried many a
load of dung in early mornings. He was an honest good and true worker. He lived in peace and perfect
charity. He loved God with all his heart and mind. Next he loved his neighbour as himself. He did not
feel sad at his misfortune. He was not slack in his duty when passing through happy circumstances.

Lines 605-624:- He was never caught in arrears. He knew the dodges and tricks of
bailiffs, serfs and herdsmen and none among them dared deceive him. They feared him like the plague.
He had a lovely house standing in a meadow and shaded by green trees. He earned his master’s thanks
besides the present of a gown or a hood while young he had learnt a good trade and even now he was a
fine carpenter.

Lines 625-648:- there was a summoner with us. His face was flaming red like that of
an angel. It was all covered with pimples. His eyes were narrow. He was as sexy and lustful as a sparrow
children were afraid of him because of his black scabby eyebrows and a thin beard.

Lines 649-670:- He was a gentle rascal and as good a fellow as you might expect to
find. All the young people of his parish were completely under his thumb because he knew their secrets
they did what he said.

Lines 671-89:- A gentle pardoner rode with him. This pardoner belonged to charring
cross. He had come straight from the court at Rome. This pardoner’s hair was as yellow as wax and
hung down smoothly as a hank of flax. His hair was loosely falling behind his head down to his
shoulder like rat tail.

Lines 690-716:- He had a small voice like a goat. His chin had no beard and no
possibility of a beard. His skin was smoother than the one just shaven I took him for a gelding from
Berwick to where there was no match for him as a pardoner. In his wallet he kept a pillow case, where
he claimed was over lady’s veil.

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Lines 717-26:- Now I have told you greatly in a few words the rank the dress and
number of over party and the reason of this assembly in this fine inn at South wark. This inn was
known as the Tabara and was situated near another inn the Berll Now it’s time for me to tell how we
behaved that evening.

Lines 727-48:- But first I request you, not to condemn me as unmannerly if I speak
plainly without concealing anything and describe whatever they said using the language actually used
by them. As you all know so well he who repeats a story told by a man is bound to speak, as nearly as
possible each word that he remembers whether vulgar or improper otherwise he will be falsifying the
story or invent or find new phrases for it. Even if the original story teller is his brother he must not
avoid but use the words used by the original story teller. The language of Christ himself in the Bible is
out spoken but as you know, there is nothing unfit in it Plato says as anyone who can read may see “the
words must relate to the action.”

Lines 749-770:- Our host greatly welcomed us. Every tone was given a place and the
supper was given. He served us with the finest disher. The wine was strong and we were quite happy to
drink. Our host was fellow with striking looks. He was a fit master of ceremonies for any hall. He was
cheerful fellow.

Lines 771-85:- You are going to Canterbury Godspeed and may the blessed St Thomas
reward you. I am sure you mean to spend the time in telling stories during the journey. Indeed, there is
no pleasure in riding along as dumb as stones so just as I said I propose a game for your enjoyment.

Lines 786-811:- We of course did not delay our consent as it did not require much
thought we agreed to his proposal and asked him to give whatever commands he liked. He said My
lords. Now listen for your good please do not treat my proposal with contempt. This is in brief my
proposal each of you, to while any the time shall tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on
the way back. These should be stories of the past. Whoever tells the best story will be given free supper.

Lines 812-823:- Of course we all agreed. In fact, we swore it delightedly we requested

him to do as he proposed and be our leader, judge of our stories and general referee and arrange a
dinner at a set price. We promised to follow his advice in every respect.

Lines 824-843:- Early next morning our host rose up at dawn awakened us all and
gathered us in a group. We rode off a little faster than walking until we came to the watering place of St
Thomas. There our host stopped his horse and said “Now listen my lords Remember what you promised
me if you still hold the same views as you did last night then let us see who is to tell the first story.

Lines 844-860:- At this everybody began drawing lots and I may tell you in brief that
whether by chance or fate or accident the lot fell to the Knight. This was well comed by everybody. Now

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he had to tell his story because of our agreement to which he was a party. Now let us ride and listen to
what I say with this we started on our way and cheerfully he began his story which went like this.

Q. Discuss “Canterbury Tales” as portrait gallery?

The prologue to the Canterbury Tales has been called a veritable picture gallery by
legoues. The various cnargesten in the prologue are as observed by Arthur Toff man kike figures in a
tapestry Blake remarked about the variety of characters in the prologue “As Newton numbered the stars,
as lynxes numbered the classes of men” Chaucer has varied the heads and forms of his personages into
all nature’s variety. He has taken into his compass the various manners and humours of the whole
English nation into his age. There is such a variety of characters that Difolen remarked “Here is God’s
plenty” the thirty or so pilgrims are in fact a fair sample of society in general with the exception of the
nobility that wouldn’t join package tour and the poorest labourers who could not afford to go. Here we
have the representative of the church and laity (person’s not representing church) country men and
town’s men the professions commerce and the Milton.

Framework:- The phrase “veritable picture gallery implies that the portraits which appear to the
prologue have a designed togetherness the portraits exist as a part of unity. Such unity is partly a
function of exterior frame work of a pilgrimage to canterbray. But the unity of the prologue as Hoff
man has pointed out may be also partly a matter of internal relationships among the portraits. These
relationships among the portraits are many and various. The exterior unity achieved by the realistic
device and broadly symbolic frame work of pilgrimage is made stronger and tighter in the portraits
partly by local sequences and pairings but most impressively by various illustrations of love. The note of
love is sounded in different keys. The Knight loves chivalry the squire is a lover that cannot sleep more
than a nightingale. The prioress believes that to conquer all the Monk has a love knot on his gold pin
the clerk loves books and so on.

Realism to Characterization:- Chaucer’s zest for actual life is revealed not only in the plenty and variety
of his pilgrims but especially in their normality. Nevill cloqhill rightly points out that Chaucer did not
exaggerate or look for freaks. He delighted in the world as he found it. He had the perennial happiness
of touch which according to Dryden belongs only to a master. Chaucer’s delight in normality is
normally what chiefly differentiates him from Orkens who is a master of the eccentric. Chaucer’s world
is almost freak free. His character perfectly life size only the life of Bath seems larger.

Living characters:- Many of the characters in the prologue seem almost to leap out of the page because
the descriptions appear to tumble out just as they come into the narrator’s mind. The effect is as if we
were listening to an eye witness pouring out his news without pausing to reflect and to rearrange it in a
logical order.

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Characters as types:- It is significant that Chaucer presents in the prologue one Knight, one squire, one
yeoman one Monk, one Frat and so on . This indicates that Chaucer wished each figure to be a type and
that is what it actually is. Maurice Hussey has demonstrated how each character whether secular or
religious represents his class. The Monk represents a general decline in the devotion to religion and the
deserves of his class to live a life of comfort and luxury. The doctor represents the typical reliance on
herbal medicines and on astronomy and astrology. He also reveals the typical greed of his fellow
professionals making profits out of plague.

Character as individuals:- Dryden was one of the first to note how all pilgrims in the prologue are
distinguished from each other not only in their inclinations but in their very physiognomies and
persons. Even the grave and serious characters like the clerk the parson the plowman are distinguished
by their several sorts of gravity. The reeve the miller and the cook are distinguished from each other just
as the country. The characters are also individualized by adding distinctive personal details.

Physical appearance and character:- Chaucer has tried to link the physical appearance of a character
with his moral qualities thus the apparently naturalistic detail of the gap tooth of wife of Bath is lifted
from physiognomy manuals to serve as a symbol of her lusty vagrancy. The diseased skin of the
summoner is an indication of his inner corruption and debauchery.

Universality:- Dryden has complemented Chaucer for the universality of his characters. Blake observed
that Chaucer’s pilgrims are the characters which compose all ages and nations. As one age falls another
rises, different to mortal sight but to immortals only the same. Some of the names or titles are altered by
time but the characters themselves forever remain unaltered. Every age is a Canterbury pilgrimage.

NUN’S PRIESS TALE

NPT collocates a number of stories. Some of them are dream stories told by the cock and the priest. The
widow the protagonist of the other story of the other story (which is setting for the comic gable of the
cock, the hen and the fox) is contrasted at once with the cock and the nun by implication. The dream
stories are embedded in the fable. The fable in the widow’s story the widow’s story in the priest’s. the
cock the priest and the poet are the three story tellers of this tale. What makes the tale dramatic is that
the author does not say a single word directly. In the prologue to the tale the Knight the Host and the
priest talk and in the main body the priest the story teller and the character of the tale talk. The ironic
structure of NPT is prominent in the play of wit at the core of the story. The Fox and the cock outwit
each other by turns. Discretion and politeness characteristic of the priest, require that his criticism of
the prioress his immediate target and of women in general should be indirect or ironical. The boldness
of the ironist is the most remarkable aspect of his character as a person and an artist.

As the story taller is a priest the story is aptly a sermon. The most of the sermon is given
at the end of the story. It is dramatic rather than didactic or hortatory. There are three morals down

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respectively by the cock the fox and the priest. The cock’s experience which had verged on the tragic
had by a lucky flash of intelligence turned comic. And his moral is one should keep one’s eye open. The
fox loses the game and is served right. He sounds a wiseacre in his moral. The priest’s moral is given in
three and a half couplets. The tale is an exemplum or example illustrating the moral the ‘defence’ of
poetry had traditionally been that it is both entertainment and edification.

Reflection:- The description of the human setting of the fable is reflective or normative. The widow and
her way of life is approved. The cock’s reflection on murder and god’s justice is conventional but his
reflection on “woman” is much more characteristic and highly ironical.

Mock heroic:- NPT is primarily a fable and a fable is intrinsically mock heroic for it assumes an identity
or parallelism between animals and humans. Moreover the tale reflects the poet’s serio-comic outlook
in the use of hyperbole and disproportion.

Comedy:- comedy is the essential aspect of the form of the tale it is not mere sugarcoating for the
sermon. The pure fun and humour of the fable is the superficial comic element.

Dream:- Fiction is like dream or day dream. The use of dream in fiction is therefore doubly
insubstantial. Dreams have always exercised the human mind. In Middle English poetry the dream is
used as a poetic technique and suggests vision or imagination. The moral of the tale is a no man should
been too reecheless of dremes” and some dreams are to be dreaded. The major themes of the tale are.

1. The simple life and the plain diet. The Christian or religious altitude to poverty and wealth
poverty has moral approval. Wealth is regarded as sinful.

2. The medico scientific view of dreams contrasted with the popular superstitious view.

3. Reflection on murder or homicide.

4. Man woman relationship.

5. Free will and predetermination.

6. Reflection on flattery and the role of courtiers.

7. Destiny inescapable, fortune sudden turns.

Pertelote dismisses dreams as meaningless. She takes the scientific but imaginative stand
that they are caused by physical disorder. She prescribes laxatives and herbs as a remedy for bad
dreams. She does not tell any stories. But Chanticleer tells many stories to prove the truth of his view
that dreams are significant they provide a vision of the future prophecy vision, imagination are human

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faculties which may be described as walking dreams. Chanticleer’s first story is from “oon of the
grelteste auctour that men rede. The story is of two pilgrims who had to part company and put up for
the night in separate lodgings. One of them dreamt about the other that he was in danger of death, the
dream was repeated. But he did not take it seriously but he could not ignore the third dream. In the first
two dreams the fellow pilgrim seemed to be making an appeal for help. In the third dream the spirit of
the fellow pilgrim reports that he is slain, the second theme of the story is mordre wol out” assort of
moral drawn But the relevant moral is that dreams should not be dismissed as empty and irrelevant.

Q. Speech, dialogue reflection and narration in NPT.

Ans. On the primary level the nun’s priest’s tale is a brilliant and complex exposure of vanity self
esteem and self indulgence through the mock heroic treatment of a beast fable on the secondary level.
The Nun’s priest joins the discussions of the pilgrims on poverty (man of law, wife of bath),Women’s
advice (merchant, rhetoric and marriage. He is also presenting in the contrast between the widow and
chanticleer a veiled comment on his position vis-à-vis the prioress Finally on the level of involuntary
revelation be falls into the pedantry that he is ridiculing and uncovers for a moment in his confusion
the feelings of a misogynist dependent on a Woman. In this moment there is revealed a second conflict
the conflict between the octist building with the materials of his act a world where his feelings achieve
symbolic and universal expression and the man expressing his feelings directly”.

NPT is a dramatic Tale. The action here is more verbal than non verbal. The debate on dreams of the
play of wit between the hero (chanticleer) and the villain (Colfox) the reflections of the priest the
dramatic storey teller are all verbal action speeches dialogue and reflection are more important in this
tale than action of the other type the tale is thus remarkable for psychic and mental action it is whole
literary or linguistic than bright appear on that surface the speech of the fox addressed to the cock is
highly rhetorical and full of dramatic issue . The priest is using the tale as an exemplum. His storey is a
contemplative and didactic sermon. His reflection on the theological problem of free will and
predetermination relates. This tale to the knights tale and to Troilus and reside. And in all the three
“Chaucer’s balance in his just comprehension of tragedy and his gentle sense of humour” may be seen.
Poetry and philosophy are united dramatically. In this respect Chaucer is second only to Shakespeare
among great English poets. The priest reflection on Women is curiously class objective Chaucer’s
narrative act combines description reflection and narration in an aesthetic complex. The narrative has
all the qualities that a good narrative requires (a) the pace and movement of the storey (b) suspense and
crises (c) transmission from the serious to the gay tone and back (d) drama (e) action (f) contemplating
or reflecting on the action (g) artistic control of the material of experience. Description is poetic and
places eg. The description of chanticleer voice and appearance it is not always so poetic. It is matter of
fact in tone more frequently the use of poetic devices like the simile and rhetorical devices like
exclamations may be noticed for particular consideration. In the use of similes Chaucer is the supreme
English poet. The most important aspect of Chaucer’s style is that the tale is a verse narrative. The music

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of the heroic couplets of NPT should be appreciated. The verse of Chaucer’s poem is radically different
from the traditional alliterative influence of Chaucer verse of his age. The influence of Chaucer on the
letter English poets is immeasurable because they found the syllabic verse pattern introduced by him
more congenial than the old alliterative verse.

WASTE LAND

T.S. ELIOT

While calling T.S. Eliot’s poetry the music of ideas I A Richards makes the following comments on his
poetry. When he discusses several aspects of the waste land in particular the critical question in all
cases is whether the poem is worth the trouble it entails. For the wasteland this is considerable there is
Miss Weston’s From Ritual to Romance to read and its astral trimming to be discarded. They have
nothing to do with Mr. Eliot’s poem. There is canto XXVI of the purgatoriv to be studied the relevance of
the close of that canto to the whole of Mr. Eliot’s work must be insisted upon. It illuminates his
persistent concern with sex the problem of our generation as religion was the problem of the last then is
the central position of the Tiresias in the poem to be puzzled out the cryptic form of the note which Eliot
writes on the point is just a little tiresome. It is a way of underlining the fact that the poem is concerned
with many aspects of the one fact of sex, a hint that it perhaps neither indispensable nor entirely
successful.

When all this has been done by the reader when the materials with which the worlds
are to clothe themselves have been collected the poem still remains to be read. And it is easy to fail in
this undertaking. An altitude of intellectual suspicious must certainly abandoned but his is not difficult
to whose who still know how to give their feelings precedence to their thoughts who can accept and
unity an experience without trying to catch it in an intellectual net or to squeeze out a doctrine one
form of this attempt must be mentioned. Some misled no doubt by its origin in a mystery have
endeavored to give the poem a symbolical reading But its symbols are not mystical but emotional they
stand that is not for ineffable objects but for normal human experience the poem in fact is radically
naturalistic only its compression makes it appear to other wise And in this it probably comes nearer to
the original mystery where it perpetuates than transcendentalism does.

“If it were desired to label in three words the most characteristic feature of Mr. Eliot’s
techniques this might be done by calling his poetry a music of ideas the ideas are of all kinds abstract
and concrete general and particular and like the musicians phrases they are arranged not that they may
tell us something but that their effect in us may combine into a coherent whole of feeling and attitude
and produce a peculiar liberation of the will they are there to be responded to, not to be pondered or
worked and this is of course a method used intermittently in very much poetry, and accentuation and
isolation are only one of its normal resources . The peculiarity of Mr. Eliot’s later more puzzling work is

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his deliberate and most exclusive employment o f it. In the earlier poems this logical freedom appears
only occasionally.

Q. Discuss the title of the poem the Wasteland?

Ans:- A great poet while writing himself should write of his time. Eliot’s wasteland expresses the mood
of weariness and despair of post war Europe. Eliot gives us a horrid picture of the despair ridden
humanity thereby giving a sort of detached commentary on the disintegration of post war civilization.
His poems and poetic dramas deal with the condition of human souls which are always in a state of
anxiety and in a state on irredeemable crisis.

A spiritual approach to life:-

As for the socio political situation is concerned the age passing through a crisis. His wasteland depicts
irreconcilable conflicts of human souls which make the reader aware not only of the problems of
modern life but also of mankind as a whole. The soul of man finds itself in horror and loneliness unless
it is redeemed by faith and courage. Eliot has a spiritual approach to life which is rare in the twentieth
century dominated by science and materialism.

Human mind devoid of hope and faith:-

Eliot gives us a horrible picture of the anxiety ridden post war state of mind in his poem. The mind of
the human is compared to a wasteland and it is devoid of faith and hope. The poet surveys the desolate
scene of the world with a searching gaze Eliot in the section of “the Burial of the dead emphasizes the
inevitable dissolution. The sacred wisdom too has fallen on evil days and it is shown by the introduction
of the Tarot pack of cards, used formerly for divination now for fortune telling.

Sex in the modern world mechanical and sterile:-

The sex and which had holy associations in the past has degenerated into sexual boredom in the
modern world. It has become mechanical and sterile and breeding not life and fulfillment but disgust
and unanswerable questions. The modern lady typist in “the Fire Seemow” does not give any importance
to chastity and after the completion of the mechanical sex act for money.

A Game of chess- a neurasthenic episode:-

As Allen Tate observes “this scene gives a terrible into the modern western civilization. Eliot in the
section “A game of chess” presents a rich neurotic lady who is obsessed with sex and anxiety. The rich
neurotic lady with her dry hair spread out in fiery points” is the symbol of loveless lust so also her
husband is obsessed with sex like hamlet the condition of the poor is also pitiable lil suffers from the evil
physical effects of abortion and also of contraceptives. The people have one anxiety ridden perhaps it is

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these psychological perversions of the moderns may be the reason which induced prof. F.R leavis to call.
A game of chess a “neurasthenic episode. Fear and anxiety are the cardinal causes for impotency in the
modern world “the central conception of the wasteland says Prof. Pinto “is sexual impotence used as a
symbol for the spiritual malady of the modern world. The presence of fertility nymphs is a nightmare to
the casual lovers assembled on the banks of Thames wasteland in the minds of individuals. Actually
wasteland is located nowhere and it is present everywhere in the minds of individuals it is the spiritual
wasteland of you and I presented in a number of frustrated sexual images signifying death it is a cosmic
vision into the immense panorama of futility and anarchy that is modern civilization. The poem is full of
broken images which is also the state of modern civilization. Eliot describes an age without purpose
being haunted by fear the poem consists of a series of scenes rather like film shots fading and dissolving
into each other seen from the view point of an impersonal observer who is the quester representing the
all inclusive consciousness.

Hope for the Parched and sterile:-

It is true that skepticism in matters of belief and confusion in thought are the order of the day. This
bewilderment and confusion have a direct bearing upon art and letters. This same sense of anxiety fear
the sense of aimlessness and frustration and impotence as in Eliot is found in the poem of Hardy
Housman Hopkins They are also in search of a faith which is eluding through the world remains
parched. It is not meaningless. It has got a meaning says Prof. Pinto. According to AG George the natural
end of the emotional sequence is line

Religious affirmation of life- the only remedy

The absence of humility complete self surrender and faith in God account for the note of confusion
madness and does pair on which the poem ends. The same view is held by Dr. S Radhakrishnan who in
his book the Recovery of faith sees no escape from the nemesis of purely materialistic civilization except
in a return to the life of faith and to the fundamental religious affirmation of life.

Q. Themes and the art of the poem The Wasteland:-

T.S. Eliot projects several levels of modern experience in “The Wasteland” these are related to various
sympatric wastelands in modern times such as

a. The wasteland of religion where there are but no water.

b. The wasteland of spirit where all moral springs have dried up and

c. The wasteland of the reproduction instead of sex have become a means of physical satisfaction
rather than a source of regeneration.

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The poet communicates to the reader his own sense of anarchy and futility that he finds everywhere to
the contemporary world. He has no intention of expressing the disillusionment of an entire generation.
But the poem remains an important document of social criticism of the world to which Eliot belonged.
The wasteland is mainly concerned with the theme of barrenness in the mythical wasteland of the
twentieth century. The land having lost its fertility nothing useful can grow in it. The animals and crops
have forgotten the true significance of their reproductive function which was meant to rejuvenate the
land. The negative condition of the land is closely related to that of its lord, the Fisher King who too
through illness and maiming has lost his procreative power. There is some curse on the land and its
master and this could be removed only by a concerted effort at spiritual regeneration. At a different fact
of meaning one of the themes of the poem is also death. Death by water being only one aspect of it.
According to Cleanth Brooks the poem deals with the contrast of two kinds of life and two kinds of
death. Death in life and life in death. Life devoid of meaning is a kind of death while death is a sacrifice
is a renewal of life as it provides hope of life to Come. Through all the five section so if the wasteland
Eliot explores at some length the variations of this paradoxical theme. Along with this, he presents
through his poetic art the wonderful trinity of religion culture and sex.

The theme of the poem is a variation upon the theme of so much of Eliot’s poetry the relation between
sexual incompetence to love and spiritual death and that life is empty without an external divine help.
Hen the idea that the abuse of love has meant the denial of life is treated as a musician might handle it
although perhaps never as directly it is implied. Rather than stated but the suggested idea is introduced
counterpointed is repeated complicated transposed and developed with musicians skill and symphonic
effect. The poem is about the degeneracy of human nature, in particular with regard to the experience
of sex and the nature of love it concerns itself mainly with degraded forms of love even where by
implication it refers to finer loves. It suggests that such loves do not now occur its hope lies in that love
which is generous and the sympathetic the seduction. Theme is universalizes and becomes relevant to
the whole of England. It is developed in most parts of the titles “Game of Chess” and “Fire sermon” They
depict scenes of lust at various levels of society. The game of chess is a device to cover up affairs
between ladies and gents in the most luxurious surroundings reminiscent of Cleopatra and Dido.

Q. Myth imagery and symbolism?

Ans. Eliot uses the symbolistic technique to express a complex and decadent civilization. His symbolism
is predominantly traditional and so comparatively easy to understand. Even when he uses a private
symbol it is easy to understand its suggestive significance from the context of Eliot’s symbols are drawn
from the literature and mythologies of the past. Moreover the same symbols are frequently repeated and
this helps to classify their suggestive significance. In the wasteland dry bones signify spiritual decay and
desolation and rats the ugliness and humor of modern civilization. In the same way dry grass cactus
land rocks winds are all of spiritual sterility from what reserves the desolation of the contemporary
wasteland as well as the wastelands of the past.

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But the most significant of his symbols are drawn from ancient myths and legends and
are centered round the basic theme of birth-death rebirth. Thus spring stands for rebirth, winter for
death, rain for spiritual fertility, draught for spiritual dryness. Fishing symbolizes spiritual rebirth and
rejuvenation water is an ambivalent symbol. It symbolizes destruction as well as transformation and
purification. Fire symbolizes list and passion which are destructive. But ambivalently it also symbolizes
spiritual exhalative abut ambivalently it also symbolizes spiritual exaltation and purification.

The first lines of the wasteland “April is the cruelest month is an invention of the
popular myth that April is a time of warmth love and joy. The chrotains connect it with Easter and the
resurrection of Christ. In the fertility myths the coming of spring is associated with the growth of
potency and fertility in mankind animals and the earth the trees and plants drawing life giving sap from
the land through their roots grow leaves and flowers in their branches. The flowers eventually develop
into fruits with seeds that are a promise of the life to come in the following years. But these things are
anticipated in Eliot’s poem with fear rather than hope and thus April is cruel rather than the kind
tiresias observes with dismay the coming of April and its perverse effect on the people of the wasteland.
They fear the onset of the season of life giving rain since they are incapable of enjoying the mysterious
process of the regeneration of the earth.

The myths and symbols of fertility and sterility are central to the first part of “the
wasteland” These are noticed in the images of the Hyacinth girl Madam Sosostris, the plaoenecian sailor
and the corpse in the garden which are linked to speculations on life. Life in death, death in life, decay
and renewal winter and spring memory and desire (Past, Present). The fertility theme is projected
through the symbolism of spring rain, wet hair vegetation and flowers. At the same time, it is contrasted
with the dryness of the arid landscape. The dead trees provide no shelter the dry stones give no sound, if
water caught between two shadows of morning and evening of youth and age the mankind is haunted
by the fear of mortality and doons.

The two episodes of love in “The Burial of the Dead” are studies in contrast symbolizing
the gulf separating the ecstasy of love from the frustrations in love. The Hyacinth girl standing in rain
with flower in her arms is an image of youthful aspiration and passion that is bound to have a tragic
end that is how Eliot the contsummate poet conveys his impression of the frustrations suffered by his
contemporary generation.

The Sweeney image stresses the mental paralysis of humanity since it can neither
understand nor speak about the terrible state in which it finds itself in the modern world of twentieth
century.

TRIUMPH OF LIFE P.B. SHALLEY

Q. Discuss briefly Shelley of a romantic?

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Ans. Romanticism emerged as the romantic movement or criticism in the last quarter of 18th century in
Germany as criticism of prevailing neo classical models which emphasized. The mechanical and
impersonal style of literature. Rationalism is regarded by them as greatest value and poetry for them is
only a craft Dr. Johmoon wrote “the business of the poet is to examine not the individual but the
specious. He must neglect the minute discrimination.

The peculiar quality of Romanticism lies in this that in apparently detaching us from the real world. It
restores us to reality at a higher point. Intense emotion coupled with an intense display of imagery such
is the frame of mind which supports and feels the new literature. Intense emotions of love beauty and
patriotism are generally accompanied with an intense display of images. But when a poet medicates
upon an object or an idea his intellect provides him with philosophy or a sublime strain of poetry rather
than the glimmer of images.

Shelley’s skylark is a product of quivering imagination. The bird has been compared
with a cloud of fire. On un bodied joy a star of heaven. The arrow of that silver sphere a poet hidden in
the light of thought a high born maiden and with these images go intense emotions.

Shelley a romantic poet:-

Politically and socially the romantics in England supported republicanism liberty and equality of
individuals. Shelley 1792, 1827 was a radical and un orthodox in his views and writings. His works
contain metaphysics and radicalism clothed in beautiful lyrics and human passion and melancholy. In
his essay a defense of poetry he writes that poetry is an expression of imagination and a poem is the
very image of life expressed in its external truth. He considers imagination and reason as two classes of
mental action. Reason is a synthesis and incorporates those forms which are common to universal
nature and existence itself. Reason is the enumeration of qualities already known. The romantic writer
decried down the importance attached to reason by the neo classics or Augustans. Reason is not
regarded by the romantic poets as an infallible guide.

Imagination:- The romantics criticize the rationalistic aesthetic of eighteenth century as mechanical
regarding poetry as craftsmanship of a poet is to follow definite rules like making a clock or an engine.
Blake rejected this emphasizes on reason and praised imagination. He considers imagination as Geo
operating in the human mind. Wordsworth also stresses “the imagination also shapes and creates a
sublime consciousness of the soul in her own mighty and almost divine powers. Imagination is a
mysterious creative faculty. In a man and natural moving them towards perfection and unity and so it
transcends reason cofesidge calls the bridge that links sensation and thought as “the shaping spirit of
imagination Shelley writes Renson is to imagination as the body to the spirit, as the shadow to a
substance. Imagination is mind acting upon those thoughts so as to colour them with its own light and
developing from them other ideas. Imagination studies not differences but similitudes in things.

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Inspiration:- In Romantic criticism inspiration is a pivotal concept it is Apollo the God of poetry in
Greek mythology ‘the holy spirit’ in Christianity and collective unconsciousness in modern psychology.
Shelley considers poetry as the result of in voluntary inspiration. He writes when composition begins
inspiration is already on the decline.

Forms of poetry:- The romantic poets believe that forms of act and poetry centers on individualism
emotions and inner or self expression of the poet so form of poetry to a large extent depend on the mode
of expression of a poet. The Greek considered the gods as supreme man is only a puppet in the hands of
gods and so the outer world and fate played a great part and so they considered drama special by
tragedies as the highest form of art with romantics mans inner self his soul or spirit is the source of
poetry so they write lyrics songs expressing their innate emotions feelings or ideas. For that reason even
in lyrics, the poets follow individual forms in their poetry. Wordsworth Keats Coleridge or Shelley
express their ideas or emotions in different forms. Shelley writes

that language colour form and religion civil habits of action are all instruments and materials of poetry.
An observation of the mode of the recurrence of harmony in the language of a poetical mind together
with relation to music, produced meter of certain system of traditional forms of harmony and language
Shelley discarded even the distinction between a poet and prose. Writers as a Vulgar error. He considers
distinction between a poet and a philosopher as meaningless. He regards Plato as poet.

Imagination inspiration individualism liberty equality of men and women rationalism and
republicanism. Shelley was extremely dissatisfied with the political and social environment in England.
He was disgusted with the violence and reaction all-round.

Q. Critical summary of the poem?

Incomplete poem in triplets.

Ans. The triumph of life is Shelley’s last incomplete poem. He met his untimely death while writing this
poem. So the long poem of 545 lines comes to an abrupt end with “Then What is life” than it remains a
fragmentary poem yet regarded by critics as Shelley’s masterpiece. T.S. Eliot calls it Shelley’s finest work.
Carles Baker says “The triumph of life is filled with solemn music and charged with deep melancholy. It
is more nearly mature in the inward control and majestically dignified in its quiet outward demeanour.

A romantic and humanitarian poet who believed in liberty and love:-

Shelley is a poet with metaphysical vision a radical unorthodox person and a great lover of true liberty
who hated tyrants and religious practices as shackles of humanity. He is a romantic and humanitarian
poet who believed in liberty and love. He gives a new concept of a poet and poetry in his essay. A
defense of poetry written in 1821 before his last poem A Triumph of life. So in his poem he holds a

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different view of a poet or poetry the poem thus describes Shelley’s sorrow and despair considering the
triumph of life over the hidden innate divine vision of a perfect world of freedom, equality and love as
its basic principles. Shelley begins the poem. Unfolding his philosophy of man but his death cut short
his vision.

Poetry as “an expression of imagination:-

Shelley consider poetry as an expression of imagination” A poem is the very image of life expressed in
its eternal truth. And poets who imagine and express this indestructible order are not only the authors
of the language and of music of the dance and architecture and statuary and painting they are the
institutions of laws and the founders of the civil society the inventors of acts of life and the teachers who
see in flashes “the beautiful and the true that partial agencies of the invisible world called religion” poets
are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. Thus poets are virtuous persons having the spark or
invisible divine vision within them but moving towards perfection. They have creative faculty and with
their ideas have advanced human civilization. In whole human progress from primitive time to modern
age poets or thinkers sages and ruler have changed the world. The spirit within them and in the native
have moved the world and are still moving it towards innate perfection the intellectual beauty, of the
love liberty and equality.

The title of the poem suggests its theme:

In the triumph of life Shelley is said the title of the poem suggests its theme. The triumph of worthy life
making the spark of vision within man or a poet impelling him towards perfection getting weaker and
distorted. Shelley was deeply dissatisfied with his life or life around and considered it as an impediment
in the process of attaining perfection. In A?C. Bradley’s words, “He is haunted by the fancy that if he
could only get at the one the external idea in complete aloofness from the many from life with all its
change, decay struggle sorrow and evil. He would have reached the true object of poetry” so he writes.

Life like a dove of many colour glass

Stains the white radiance of Eternity.

Human civilization has advanced through the imagination and creative efforts of poets.
In the triumph of life Shelley is sad that though a poet has a vision within him. The human civilization
has advanced through the imagination and creative efforts of poets thinkers rulers artists etc. yet the
progress towards perfection has been blended by the charms or power of the cold blinding glare of the
triumphant life.

In the third part of the poem the triumph of life Rousseau describes great men and
women, who had the divine spark within them but in their worldly pursuits or love of nature could not

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find time to look their innate into their innate self for the true guidance of the creative imagination and
fell prey to the cold glare of the life and became a part of the captive multitudes. Shelley calls them poets
whose imagination and wisdom advanced human civilization in the progress of human from primitive
time they could have escaped slavery to life and remain free lie Socrates and Christ of they have looked
into that soul and followed the true spirit. These men and women moving aimlessly with the sad vast
procession chained by the cold light of the life are Plato. Aristotle, Alexander the great Dante, Napoleon
a product of the great French revolution and later on trampling liberty as a tyrant. The fourth section of
the poem is highly allegorical. Rousseau notice pope Gregory VII and other Popes Who have given
Christian doctrine such as orthodox shape that it distorts the original simple principle bringing a
shadow between man and God. Roseau like a true poet had the divine spark within him. But he was
corrupted by the nature. In the firth section of the poem Harold Bloom observes There is small region to
doubt that Shelley at the end saw himself as having shared in Rousseau fate Shelley believed that in a
true poet the power of imagination could redeem life but life always triumphs for luminaries like
Rousseau all great men and women in the poem. The triumph of life are poets who had the divine spark
within theme. They could regenerate life in the world but like Rousseau and Shelley like himself fell
victim to the nature and charms of worldly life and are corrupted and deformed. In lines 472-75
Shelley describes that Dante was led through the lowest depths of hell and paradise with his beloved
Beatrice.

Life could deform and corrupt everything but love Rousseau could not nurture properly
the divine spirits dictates within him and is subdued by the life. The poem is full of despair and Shelley’s
disenchantment of life. Whom he took as a lasting and loneliness. To conclude the great poem is a
fragment so it cannot be printed out precisely how Shelley had completed it. Find for that reason it
remains full of sorrow but a wonderful romantic poem of literature.

HYPERION (KEATS)

Q. Critical appreciation?

Ans. Keats Hyperion is a fragment but very significant it deals with the story of the dethronement of
titans by the Olympians Keats wanted to raise the poem to the epic grandeur of Milton’s paradise lost.
But it does not come anywhere near Milton’s poem. It has only the elevated style but two fundamental
characteristics of an epic great action and great characters are lacking.

Theme of the struggle between old order and new.

Ans. Keat interwove into is fiber his entire philosophy of life and will be loved and remembered for the
depth of its though and feelings the message Keats conveys is that older order must yield place to new
and the struggle between the Titans and the Olympians assumes an allegorical significance in the light

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of the struggle between the haves and have not’s during French revolution. Oceanus tells the fallen
titans that they must accept the supremacy of the new order.

Theme of beauty as creative force:

Ans. Oceanus tells the theme of beauty as creative force explaining to the fallen gods that their fall was
inevitable because they had started lacking in the creative force of the universe while the new
generation of gods is above us in their beauty and must reign in right thereof, tis the eternal law that
first in beauty should be first in might.

Personal element in the poem:- The third book of Hyperion touches upon Keats personal life. Apollo is
no other than Keats himself. Keeping Milton before him as his model, Keats gave it the intensity and
restraint of an epic, the discipline and structural coherence, firmness and integrity the connotative
intensity and richness of imagery. He has been able to elevate the style to a large degree though it
cannot match Milton’s maturity and perfection. His blank verse is fine but is deficient in Milton’s
imagery and dramatic passion and movement.

Q. Analyze Hyperion as an epic?

Ans. An epic is a narrative poem organic in structure dealing with great actions and great characters in
a dignified style commensurate with the loftiness of the theme. In an epic there is an attempt to idealize
its chief characters with the embellishment of its subject and action by means of episodes and
implications.

Keats Hyperion as an epic.

In view of the definition of epic we may say that it lacks great action and great characters though its
theme is lofty and style elevated. Milton’s epic paradise lost was a model before him and every
ambitious poet thought of a long narrative poem so that he is remembered by the posterity as a great
poet. Alexander and Pope Dryden also made attempt and successfully wrote long poem though
moderate in length. Keats could not complete even three books and thus failed to write full fledged epic
with twelve books as normally it is presumed to be the length of along narrative.

Life of action:

As we analyze this poem we find it deficient in action. Milton’s paradise lost is vibrating with action.
When we find Satan and his allies the fallen angles clamoring for action and show their
uncompromising spirit with their struggle against the supreme authority they are prepared to go to all
extent to avenge their defeat . Here in this poem the fallen angels including Saturn their chief leader is
in a mood of submission and there is no sign of revolt or challenge to the opposition. There is complete
dismay ad spirit of submission and surrender in their camp though momentarily they awake at the

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instance of Escalades and supported by Hyperion the God of sun. Hyperion appears at this critical
juncture who is already shaken and feels disheartened to see fallen angels as passive as ever. If we
compare the two scenes Milton’s treatment of angels is full of action and enthusiasm as they declare and
take a vow that it is better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven. They are virtually superior in strength
and action and are not prepared to accept the superiority and supremacy of God. Keats fallen gods do
not give the impression that they would adopt an aggressive altitude and would fight to the finish as it
happens in Milton’s paradise lost.

Characters do not rise to great height:

Similarly we notice that character too do not rise to great height as they remain submissive and inactive
throughout thus Hyperion not only lacks great action. It lacks great characters too, because it is only by
virtue of the action that character establishes his supremacy. Keats character being super human-big in
size and stature but do not retain greatness by virtue of great action, rather they take no action and it is
a big lacuna in this poem which dilutes its reputation as an epic. It is true that Keats character d not act
according to their status and ability.

Style:- So far style of the poem is concerned it is befittingly elevated and dignified. It can sensate the loss
which hit suffers on account of little action. No great action is planned or expected on any level. Keats’s
seems to have learnt a lot from Milton’s and make this poem equally rich in expression. He has made an
occurrence at use of Milton’s inversion. He has tried to elevate the language to Milton’s height. There is
complete restraint on the part of poet who does not indulge in any superficiality and superfluous
material. The rhythm is stately and dignified there is lucidity of outline and dignified march of doubt
but it lacks stately action.

Lyrical quality weakens the character of opic:- Besides Hyperion possesses on added beauty of its own
that is its lyrical qualify though it is contrary to the spirit of epic with war like atmosphere yet Keats
being genius of lyrical poetry introduces lyrical qualify of which further weakens its character and
reputation as an epic.

The poem is lovable:- Of course he takes up Apollo once more and Book III is entirely dedicated to the
history of his own soul thus the third book of Hyperons has a charm of its own we find whole panorama
of flowers giving sweet fragrance all around while narrating Apollo he gives him knowledge enormous
and “makes a god of me” As a matter of fact Keats’s reputation as writer of lyrical poetry especially and
odes, makes the critic think that he would be marvelous here in epic as well but they found some basic
qualities of epic poetry missing it should not be forgotten that despite his failua as an epic writer this
poem has appeal and it is a lovable poem it lacks a few ingredients of epic poetry but does not lack all of
them so we feel that Hyperion is a fragment of heroic narrative which deals with my theological theme

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and allegorical significance the sustained elevation of style goes in its favour the gigantic figure are
undoubtedly stately figure of course not acting accordingly.

Imitation and reminiscence of Mitton:- It has an elevated style and its opening is very
impressive appropriate to an epic thus Keats maintains epic like tone and grandeur by adopting Milton’s
method Mr. Pedley quotes the passage “ His place bright flushed angrily” which suggests Miltonic voice
and imagination so we find here and there the imitation and reminiscences of Milton both verbally and
an idiom frequently.

A memorable literary piece:- With all its drawbacks Hyperion is a lovable poem it presents a
thesis of life in a concrete shape. Though it deals with superhuman characters yet it retains human
character, it has its artistic beauty which makes it a memorable literary piece.

To memorable literary piece. To conclude Hypeuon is free from superfluous material and there
is no loading of every lift with ore. As in other languor poem like Endymion there are no irrelevant
episodes and phantom journeys through subterranean corridors and submarine caves. As it has been
rightly summed up by one critic. “Hyperion presents a Greek theme in the Greek manner with Miltonic
echoes nevertheless a new and original creation with merits and drawbacks all its own yet a symbolic
meaning enters to quicken and ancient myth a new life.

Q. Discuss Hyperion as a political allegory?

Ans:- Meaning of allegory:- Hyperion is an allegory means it has multiple meaning and the real
purpose of writer is quite different from what it appears to the eyes. In other words we may say that
storey can be interpreted in more than one way and the readers should not give undue importance to
the surface story so an allegory is a story which has different meaning to convey one should not go after
its surface meaning but should go deep and find out the real purpose or intention of the writer.

Allegory and political repression:- As a matter of fact it is quite obvious that during political repression
it is an extremely risky step to criticize the govt. or the powers to be writers resort to allegorical stories
the artists are sensitive lot and they cannot remain quiet when nation is facing crisis and there is no way
out they may wish to censure the govt. but cannot do for fear of retaliatory action by govt.

Romantic writers wrote for a cause of the oppressed.

All the romantic writers were enamored of liberty equality and fraternity of human being Shelley and
Byron were the fire brand leaders who openly came out to save the poor from the clutches of
unscrupulous and immoral capitalists, landlords and employers. Keats too was against the present
situation in which a poor person like him were to face humiliation and censorship and sometimes
persecution.

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View convey implicitly and not explicitly:- Thus the writers want to convey their views to the public
implicitly and not explicitly as it would have invited the wrath of the govt. so they write about Gods and
Goddess and thereby convey their actual message and meaning.

The titans and Saturn represent the ancient regime and political system before the French revolution:-
Politically the Titans represent the ancient regime and the political system before the French revolution
they stand for kingship and one man’s rule. Like a king of the ancient regime. Saturn has ruled alone
like dictator with absolute authority when he is defeated and over thrown he also sits alone and thus
maintains his identity as distinct personality thus stern an absolute monarch is sitting alone, benefit of
all powers, crest fallen and defected. He is utterly confused and reacts with despair unable to think. He
has been a ruthless ruler and was so blinded by power that he could not suspect the simmering fire of
revolt. Oceanus tells him that he was never wide awake and was blind from sheer supremacy.

Saturn is led by others and a female deily:-

So naturally he is upset. He does not know why it so happened and what he should do next. He is still
boastful and sporadically talks of his former glory and majesty. He offers no idea at the Titans
conference as way out. He is asked by other duties to join the other Titans if he could not lead them
former position of power. Ultimately he is led by others as he is completely shaken and finds no support
from any quarter. Saturn is led by a female diety indicates that formal regime with its value is over and
is taken by new revolutionary council it represents the end of patriarchal system in which old, male
duties govern and their authority goes unchallenged. Goddesses are relatively unimportant and play
secondary role.

Dethronement of satern means replacement of kingship by democracy:- Escalades is spokesman of

warring element. He stands for war and for all those who favoured patriarchal system the forces which
overthrew them were the radical who be lieved that kings indulged in their game of selfishness and
greed and they soldeom gave any consideration to the poor masses whom they ruled thus the
reactionary forces against the monarchy revolted and crushed the king and destroyed one man rule.

To conclude we say Hyperion is key figure in this political allegory. He stands for aristocracy
since he is allied to the king in all state matters, he wields power but he is worried to see the pitiable
condition of Saturn. Hyperion is motivated by self interest. He adopts the policy of aloofness from the
rest of Titans. He represents on aristocrat class which is selfish and is guided solely by self interest. He
supports the king with the vain hope that with the restoration of kingship his position will remain safe
and secure and he would be able to enjoy all privileges and luxuries unchecked Hyperion does reflect
his involvement in the new ideas and concepts which brought French revolution and the air was thick
with political turmoil and the ideal of liberty, equality and fraternity gathered moment.

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Q:- An epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot Popes self dramatization in the poem?

Ans:- Self justification and a defence:- Pope’s professed purpose in writing An epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
as he states in the advertisement to the poem was to supply to his readers true and accurate information
about his own person his morals and his family. He felt it necessary to do so because some of his literary
enemies had been maligning him for various reasons because they were Tealors of success as a poet.
However, the immediate provocation in writing this poem was a publication of a poem entitled verses
addressed to the imitator of Horace by Lord Harvey. Therefore the Epistle can be called an apologia a
self justification and a defence. Therefore it is quite understandable that pope should project a flattering
image of himself showing himself to be a faultless man, a pardgon of virtues praising himself and his
friends and justifying his attacks on opponents considering it as his duty as a poet to satirize bad poets
as well as nobles who are hostile to him. He also asserts that his poem will offered only those who are
vicious and ungenerous. Acting on the advice of his fried Dr. Arbuthnot he has refrained from naming
his enemies so that they should not become a laughing stock of the people.

Autobiographical part one of the three divisions of the poem:-

Broadly the poem can be divided into three poets attack on bad poets in general and patrons attack on
his enemies and autobiographical. In most of the lines we see lines are devoted to the praise of Dr.
Arbuthnot.

A born poet encouraged by parents to write poetry:- He tells the readers that he was a born poet. He
chose to be a poet and writing of poetry was his consolation in his life which he calls a long disease. He
published what he wrote because eminent writers and critics praised his work and wanted him to
publish. And he also states that when critics attacked him he did not hit back and kept his peace. In lines
125-27 he dramatizes himself why did he write? For what sin of his own or that of his parents he
began to write poetry? And he also calls writing an idle trade.

Lover of solitude serenity peace and poetry:- In lines 261-304 he states that he always desired for
solitude and serenity as a poet and wished to lead a simple like in the company of his friends or of his
favourite books. He was not interested in politics people refused to believe that he had no other interest
in life except writing then he clarifies that as a satirist he did not harm the innocent or honest persons.
The targets of his lash were those who disturbed the peace of their neighbors who lie libel are vain,
swear falsely or criticize badly. In these lines pope asserts that his concern was with the moral in life as
well as in his poetry.

A defence of his Satire on moral basis:- In lines 360-405 pope explains to Arbuthnot he reasons for
satirizing his enemies. Arbuthnot asks pope why he continues to write satire “ to insult the poor and

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affront the great” pope states in his defence that satire does not discriminate between the poor and the
great. He then informs his friend that for ten years he has been standard and abused and names of bitter
enemies. Some of them have even insulted his father a truly virtuous and blameless person pope
expresses the wish to lead a simple and virtuous life like that of his father and die like him peacefully.

He idealizes himself as a man and a poet:-

In the last 14 lines pope wishes that this friend Arbuthnot should enforce domestic happiness curing the
sufferings and pains of the sick and afflicted. An analysis of the autobiographical passages shows that
pope has attempted to present himself not as what he is but what he wished others to believe about him.
He idealizes himself as a man and as a poet. He tells us in this poem that he served his sick mother with
great love and care but his mother has died two years before the publication of this poem. Also he had
some good friends and he valued their friendship and tried to retain them as his friends. It is also true
that he was a born poet and began to publish quite early in his life and attained fame poetry to
sublimate his sufferings his anger and frustration. Besides that all that pope states in his
autobiographical passage is incorrect exaggerated and is due to his desire to dramatize himself. He tells
us as if he did not like writings poetry but the fact is that he enjoyed writing it worked hard on his
poems revising and extending them. His claim that he did not seek the friendship of the great of his age
is also incorrect. He sought them and cultivated them. He wrote because of his personal animosity and
not on moral grounds. The worst about Pope’s behaviors his diatribe against bad poets these poor
creatures had not doubt false notions about their talent and attempted to make a living by their pens.
Such poets and writers are more to be pitied than satirized and ridiculed. He devotes a great deal of
space in his poem to such poets who pester him and torment him at all times and at all places.

Q:- Portraits in the poem?

Ans:- Portraits of minor poets revealing Pope’s grudge and malice:- There are two kinds of portraits of
his opponents in An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Those whom pope considered minor fries are caricatured
in a line or two and thus dismissed the list of these men is given below from which it appears that pope
attacked even those poets who deserved to be ignored. This shows how vindictive pope was some minor
poets attacked pope in their poems. Pope also bore a grudge against them. In attacking Bentley Tibald
and Tate Pope showed his malice and falsifies his own statements in the poem that he accepted all
criticism without reacting to his critics. His attack on Bentley was most unfair and unjustified. Bentley
was a great classical scholar and had edited the works of Milton. Then there are the portraits somewhat
detailed of those whom he considered his worst enemies. Among them are Ambrose Philip, John Dennis
Colley Cibber etc. Pope devotes some lines to Philip in which he accuses him of stealing material for his
poems from other writers. He ignores critics line Dennis.

Most sustained libelous obscene vulgar attack on Lord Harvey:-

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Pope’s most sustained Libelous Obscene Vulgar attack is made on Lord Harvey whom he names as
Sporus. In this poem, in an earlier poem he had nicknamed him as Lord Fanny and was thus the first to
provoke Lord Harvey. He devotes 28 lines to lampooning Lord Harvey and coins choicest epithetical to
hit him some of the most telling epithets are “that thing of silk” that white curd of Ass’s milk this Bug
with gilded wings” this painted child of Dirt that stinks and stings” He describes him as a dull headed
and thick skinned man who can not understand whether the other man is talking. Seriously or
mockingly he is such an insignificant fellow that it is waste of time to satirize him. He is a weak and in
effective fellow no better than an insect with artificial wings coated with golden colour . He has the bad
habit of painting his face to look attractive while he is actually like a dirty child who stinks.

A flatterer and “personification of his own contradictions:- He is a puppet of Walpole the Prime
Minister. He has and access to Queen Caroline and Whispers in her ear words which Pope compress
with the speech of Serpent (Satan) to Eve which made him disobey Gods Command. He talks politics
invents false incidents tells lies uses puns and rhymes. He is obscene in his talk and attacking a stable
mind he goes on talking of this or that at one time he will talk about exalted things and at another time
about vulgar things. He is personification of his own contradictions and is always expressing
contradictory views.

George Bubble Codington and Earl of Halifax Satired in the portrait of Buffo.

Buffo is two characters rolled into one George Bubble Codington and the Eacl of Halifax who
symbolize in the poem false and unworthy patrons. Such patrons in the popes age had more than one
poets under their patronage they were actually false and did not sincerely extend their patronage to the
poets they seemingly patronized. In Bugo’s Library were busts of ancient poets and also a headless statue
of the Greek poets Pindar. Poets who sought Bufos patronage flattered him by admiring his artiste taste
and also praised his great mansion. However in portraying Addison pope has raised above personal
feelings of animosity and vindictiveness as evidenced in every other character sketch. But immediately
after paying his brief tributes to Addison pope arrows as charge sheet against Addison. He paints out
with regret that this man so highly gifted has developed some serious faults. He has become dictatorial
and rules like a tyrant over the Kingdom of letters. He has scores for fellow poets and considers no one
as his equal and feels fellows of a poet who seems to have achieved equal eminence. He hates those who
try to achieve eminence in the way he himself did he wants to attack openly the reputation of some
other poets but he is too timid to do. He lacks the generosity to praise poets who discuss to be praised
openly.

On Jackles observations on popes act of

Characterization:- Ian Jack’s observation. On Pope’s art of characterization leads to a better

understanding of popes satire.

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“It should be noted however that when pope revised these characters, he often eliminated the merely
particular in favour of the universal Addison becomes Atticus and what began as an attack on a
personal enemy is transformed into an eternal type of pelty jealousy of man of letters. When pope
satirizes and individual it is as if he set fire to an effigy-the effigy crackles blazes and is burnt up but in
the process it ignites a wider conflagration and in the flames we see brightly illumined the hateful
figure of following.

Q:- Imagery in the poem?

An:- The poem is a condensed autobiography on the whole cause and patterns of pope’s life and on his
motives and reasons for being a poet and a satirist it is an attempt at self justification, self education and
self definition. The poet is defending his personal integrity. The poet makes us to understand how has
been forced to change from a poet of pure description to one of satire and how he was motivated in
doing so not by malevolence but the simple desire to live in peace and honour with family and friends.
The Epistle thus presents us with a vivid close up of with many year as they affected the literary world
popes views on good lasting poetry are also indirectly revealed. The poem also describes to an extent the
process of Popes personal development his growth as a satirist. He defends his satire on the ground that
he selected his friends on pure merit was not misled by wealth power fashion.

Popes imagery in the poem is an integral part of poem and has been used to achieve an effect
which no amount of direct description could have achieved. They are never entirely decorative. Also the
heroic couplet demands compression and this compression can be attained with the help of imagery or
figures of speech because one image can do what a paragraph cannot do. At times the compression is so
intense that the image do not seem to be images at all. The poem opens with pope resisting the invasion
of his home and privacy by a horde of insectile and variously deranged bad poets. In a way pope is
surrounded and tortured by a swarm of insects or a pack of hounds which “renew” the charge and stop
the chariot. Dog Star Sirius reappears in late summer heat which is traditionally a time of satiric rage. It
is dangerous in the ascendant to sanity one thinks of mad dogs and mad men. But it was the customary
time for public recitals of poetry in Ancient Rome.

The two major animal images used by pope throughout the poem are of a dog and as ass the ass
taken literally as a symbol of stupidity and not as a vulgarized metaphor which it has become of late
pope seems to suggest that the royal courts set in motion the process of corruption in sound judgment
and good taste Midas receives his asses ears for wrongly judging that pan was a better poet than Apollo.
These ears are a mark of his folly. The second time ASS’s milk is contemptuously used in connection
with sporus. Brought up on ass’s milk lord Harvey is too insensitive and foolish to even realize that he is
being ridiculed. The reference however is both ironic and incongruous because ass’s milk was
commonly described as a tonic in all weakly constitutions as being more easily digestible than even
cow’s milk and pope himself was advised a valetudinary diet. Soon thereafter pope calls sporus a well

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bred spaniel with dares not bite whose smiles betray emptiness. Pope describes savage as a puppy who
was said to have lived in convivial familiarity with the town authors and to have secretly supplied pope
with scandalous anecdotes about them like a poppy he fetched and carried in his mouth the works of all
the muses. Even though pope himself was the beneficiary he sees the wits and witlings as disease
carrying insects. Sporus is supposed to have a cherub’s face and a reptile’s body pope stresses that he is
a true Christian to prove that he is a far superior poet and human being than those he has been
satirizing in the poem. He pays his debts

believes in a God and says his prayers Pope is the Christian son of Christian parents an obedient loving
and devoted son of an ailing mother.

MAC FLECKNOE

Dryden himself described Mac Flecknoe as varronian satire in his essay Discourse on Satire and Varro is
described as “Studious of laughter. His business was more to divert his reader than to teach him”. Thus
Dryden intending this work too as a satire Mac Flecknoe is a mock epic in which Dryden attempted to
satirize ridicule and lampoon Shadwell who had attacked him violently in his poem. The Medal of John
Bayes Bul it was a larger purpose as well namely the purpose of attacking the common run of versifiers
of his period as well as the public taste which appreciated and thus encouraged such literary men.

Flecknoe was a Catholic priest who had pretensions to being a literary man. He wrote some
plays and poetry Flecknoe is depicted to be monarch of kingdom of Dullness and father of the Prince of
Dullness and nonsense. The portrait of Shadwell the prince of dullness is a superb lampoon and
caricature Dryden selects one trait dullness and builds up the poem around his theme. The poems them
is that Flecknoe selects Shadwell as his successor to his throne of kingdom of dullness in preference to
all other of his children Dryden stung to the quick by Shadwell’s attack on him was not concerned with
his merit as a poet, his main concern was to make him the archetype of all bad in competent poets.

Shadwell then is a falling off from the ideal poet. He is depicted in terms of inadequacy as
someone lacking the essential spiritual qualities that make the poet. As a man he lacks his essential and
full attributes of man. This is very clear from Dryden’s use of the term human things for both father and
son and also for all the denizens of the realms of Nonsense absolute Shadwell like the essential poetic
qualities of invention the ability to create life like the rational creatures of the Almighty Poet. The true
poet according to Dryden by his art imitates the creative impulse of nature.

It is said that Mac Flacon is not a satire. In the light of the above observation, it can be stated
that Mac Flecknoe is not a satire. No doubt it is very amusing but its aim is not to reform its victim. Right
from the start to the end the poem sets in motion a process of annihilating the victim. Both Mac Flecnoe

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and Shadwell father and son have been depicted as supreme embodiment of dullness and nonsense. He
considers them less than human because he used the phrase ‘ human things’ for them. It should also be
noted that for Dryden both Mac Flecknoe and Shadwell are archetypes of bad poets and dramatists.
Shadwell’s dullness is reflected in his come lies and characters. A genuine poet according to Dryden is
inventive capable of creating life and has spiritual values but these two poets lack these essential
qualification, for a poet Dryden extends his attack on all poetasters of his age. His criticism of many
contemporary writers on his age is pure and simple denunciation and is to a certain extends highly
unfair Shadwell was a mediocre writer and some of his comedies were very popular in the period. And
this is what a writer of invective is he is deliberately unfair to his victim and refuses to recognize any
merit whatsoever in him. In this poem Dryden’s hatred for Shadwell MacFlecknoe and their kind is
naked. Though the modern reader does not know anything about Flecknoe and Shadwell yet. He can
immensely enjoy the lampoon, the comic and the satire that is found in abundance in this poem. The
poem also proves that Dryden was a great wit and had a deep perception of the incongruous and the
ridiculous in life and knew how to use his perception of the incongruous and ridiculous in this poem as
well as in his other satirical poems.

Paradise lost

Paradise lost his structurally and epic poem and thus reveals many of he characteristics of the
epic form. The epic in general ancient and modern may be described as dispassionate recital in dignified
rhythmic narrative of a significant theme or action fulfilled by heroic characters and supernatural
agencies under the control of a foreign destiny. The theme involves the political or religious interests of
the people it commands respect due to popular traditional. The epic awakens the sense of the mysterious
the awful and the sublime it uplifts and calms the strife of frail. In addition to this Aristotle requires that
the epic action should have unity entirely completeness and sublimity its style must be proportionate to
its great subject and or chitecture Milton’s epic pradic lost by and large has all these features of an epic
on a higher scale. In spite of Aristotle’s observation that tragedy is a higher form of poetry than epic the
English Writer has always considered the writing of a great epic as the high achievement in poetry,
Milton who was the greatest scholar of his time wanted to surpass the Italians by writing the greatest
epic of all time. The first essential feature of the epic is its fable or its theme which should be of national
significance Milton’s theme transcends the bounds of a particular race. It has a cosmic character. As
Coleridge has observed it represents the origin of evil and the conflict between god and evil.

Milton chose Fall of Man as the theme of his epic paradise lost. He found it more heroic that the
chivalrous deeds of Achillies. Man is the centre of Milton’s universe as also the centre of attention
throughout the epic. God, he even and hell are directly concerned with his fate. The beauty and bounty
of nature are of secondly importance. The battle of Satan against God the creation of the world etc are
coordinated to the central action the fall of man. It is wrong to consider the fall of Satan as a separate
them of this epic. The fall of man is contrived in hell executed upon earth and leads to punishment by

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heaven. The first three books of Paradise lost describe the fallen angels and their conspiracy to bring
about the Fall of Man. The elevated theme of this epic does not deal with merely an individual or a
nation but the whole mankind the action of this poem covers not a particular age but all the ages some
critics feel that the theme of this epic is out dated. They think that the poem may be appreciated if at all
for its style. However, if properly understood the theme of paradise lost has a much relevance today as it
had in the past Satan with his immense ambition and his destructive energy represents the World centre
rors of our time. The traditional motives leading to the fall of Satan. Adam and Eve are as pointed out by
Douglas Bush essential motives that lie at the root of the sickness of our civilization Milton in this epic
the will to power, intellectual pride and egoistic desire seeking their purpose through force which leads
to the overthrow of the soul. Milton’s relevance is in his presentation of good and evil as distinct
realities. Coleridge has raised paradise lost for this archetypal conflict between good and evil.

Many critics’ particularly romantic critics have found Satan a figure of heroic dimensions a
tragic hero prior to his fall from heaven Satan was an archangel bright and glorious. He sought to be
the ruler of heaven and to divide the empire of heaven with God. He had a restless soul. He raised the
standard of revolt against the authoring of God. Even after his disastrous defeat he emerges as a great
figure. The intensity of his pride and the strength of spirit never deserted him even in his fallen state.
The view of the romantic critics treating Satan as the hero is mistake. They ignore

the religious significance of the poem and interpret. It in purely secular terms many critics believe Satan
is heroic only in the initial period of the poem later on the degenerates and faces degradation. He loses
his former grandeur. He becomes a sneaking mean, hypocritical fellow playing tricks on innocent Even
and Adam. Some critics have put forward the claim that it is Adam who is the real hero of this epic. The
central theme of the poem is Mans disobedience. Adam disregards the divine command and brings
about untold suffering and misery to himself and his lecture generations through his act of
disobedience. No action can be considered to be more significant than his act of disobedience which
brought the fall of man. Since Adam is responsible for it the poet obviously intended Adam to fill the
role of hero Adam represents whole mankind. He is the man suffers many critics do not accept Adams
claim as hero because of his being passive. He is guided in his actions by others.

KUBLA KHAN

Q:- Coleridge as a romantic poet?

OR

Salient features of romantic poetry?

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Ans: Imagination, inspiration and organicism are all crucial to romantic poets. Equal stress is placed on
freedom, individualism, emotions, spontaneity, sincerity and authenticity. Distrust of rationality went
with this. The inner life mattered more to the romantics. There was an expressive theory of art. Lyricism
dominated the age genre-wise and formal perfection of the neo classical kind was not sought after by
most romantics. They believed to a kind of transcendentalism also and this made the supernatural a fit
subject for someone like Coleridge the poet. Liberty fraternity and equality were valued the French
revolution being an obvious influence. The diverse elements of a work of art are mingled together
according to the romantics by an informing and dominating passion or emotion. Blake words worth
Shelley and Keats express this in their different ways and Coleridge uses a very cogent analogy to
explain this. In a letter to Southey he compares the operation of emotion or feeling in a poem with the
movement of breeze through the leaves Coleridge explain how the presence of an emotion in a poem
leads to an artistic fusion while its absence spells chaos. All from of act are determined by the aesthetic
that under liens them. That aesthetic is in turn significantly related to its intellectual and socio cultural
background. The Greeks regarded gods as supreme and man as a puppet of fate and attached utmost
importance to the reality that lies outside of us. From the romantic point of view the centre of interest
was man and not the external reality and this led to a total revaluation of the existing art forms.

Coleridge is the most representative of all English romantic poets as he captures unlike any other
romantic poets, all most all the salient traits of romanticism. A teeming imagination love of the Middle
Ages supernaturalism humanitarianism love of nature and a peculiar agony undoubtedly Coleridge is
the lover of imagination. The Romantic Movement is the revolt of imagination against reason intellect
and prosaic realism. The most characteristic feature of romantic poetry is its description of the
unreal….. “the light that never was on sea or land” The extraordinary picture of Kubla Khans pleasure
done’ what make Coleridge a very representative romantic poet is that he loves the remote the strange
and the mysterious rather than the immediate the common place and the probable. As such Coleridge’s
poetry fits well Pater’s interpretation of romanticism as the addition of strangeness to beauty”. Coleridge
too often takes the reader to the feery realm of the supernatural. He makes him visit the enchanted place
of Kubla Khan and the demon infested seas of the ancient Mariner. But his treatment of the
supernatural is all his own delicate refined suggestive and psychologically convincing. Coleridge
redeemed romance from the crudity of Gothic sensationalists by linking it with reality whereas words
worth tried to supernaturalism, Coleridge endeavored quite admirable to naturalize” Supernaturalism.
His delicate psychological and article treatment also distinguishes him from other romantic poets. His
aim was always to produce “that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitute poets
faith.

Q:- Analyse Kubla Khan?

Ans:- Kubla Khan was first published in the charitable volume of 1816. It is a masterpiece of the type of
poetry which depends entirely for its success upon the pure pleasure. It gives to the reader by beauty of

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form, colour and varying rhythm Kubla Khan. Then is a mere fragment it is incomplete and this fact
should be borne in mind when we judge of it as a poem. From the philosophical stand point the poem is
no more than a psychological curiosity. Kubla Khan is a Wild dream poem and therefore its imagery is
appropriate characterized by a picturesque vagueness. The completeness of its metrical form is simply
remarkable. Stop ford Brooke rightly remarks that though a fragment “Kubla Khan” is even beyond the
other poem in melody. Indeed it stands alone for melody in English Poetry. He further adds. The poem
does not also belong to human life the poet rises in it to that subtilised imaginative world of thought,
half supernatural, half natural which

was special to Coleridge and which pervades. The Ancient Marinu in particular Kubla Khan has a
dream like quality. The poem was written in a dream when, while reading a travel book named
purchase pilgrimage the poet fell asleep in his char. He had read the following lines in the book in his
hand.

The image of this line floated in his mind when he went to sleep and it returned to him in dream when
he wake up, he still remembered the poem and started putting it in black and white . But when he had
written only 36 lines, he was interrupted by a visitor. He was detained for almost an hour when he
returned he had forgotten the rest of the lines. The poem, therefore is a production of the poet in a
dream and there is dreamy atmosphere in the whole of the poem. The poem is a fragment. Drams are
never complete. There are disconnected and there is no logic in them. There is no sequence in the series
of ideas and they have an abrupt end. The poem Kubla Khan is thus not a complete poem. It has an
abrupt end. Moreover there is no connection between the first part of the poem and the second one.
There is a big break in ideas at places. There are certain images and pictures when can only be captured
in a dream. The construction of the place, itself is so strange and wonderful that the possibility of such a
fabric can be only in a dream land. This is much of the supernatural in the poem. The supernatural
atmosphere reign supreme in the domain of sleep. Even impossible things seem to be real in a dream. In
dreams no doubt we see things which are two strange to occur in a waking stage of mind. In this poem
there is a mysterious vision to conclude with Compton Rocket remark his supreme strength lay in his
marvelous dream faculty one might add that the dream faculty lay at the root of his greatness as a poet.

DEJECTION AN ODE

Dejection an ode is the most distressingly personal poem of Coleridge. Its success comes from the fact
that Coleridge has been able to project his personal feeling into an outward image which becomes to the
type of dejection and he can look at it as one of his dreams which becomes things. Saline court has
remarked that the poem is a psychological analysis as acute as it is triage of his own mental emotional
state viewed throughout in conscious and deliberate contrast with that of his poet friend words worth.
This contrast in their fortunes was already he felt, evident in their respective poetic achievements. For,

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he believed with no less conviction that words worth that he deep power of joy, was alike the
inspiration and the true basis of all imaginative art.

In 1802 it is an extremely pathetic expression of some of the causes of Coleridge failure as a poor.
Various reasons have been assigned for Coleridge failure in poetry. Some think that it was the inevitable
outcome of his habit of taking opium, others that it was the consequence of his cogently weakness of
will and still others that it was the result of the lack in him if any sure encourage in home affections. All
these causes go, of course a long way in explaining the failure. But there is a more serious cause
revealed by the poet himself in this ode. It is his natural tendency towards abstraction. Coleridge was
endowed with two inborn gifts which were at war with each other. The gift of poetic imagination and
the gift of metaphysical speculation upto the year of 1799. It was the former gift which was in the
ascendant with the result that he succeeded in rendering all his intellectual conceptions or obstructions
in terms of concrete representation, imagination suggestion and profound emotion. His poetic
imagination was strengthened by two feelings which he regarded as essential for purposes of artistic
creation-joy and hope. But after the year 1799 these two indispensable allies of poetic creation departed
with the result that his original natural impels to obstruction confirmed by his study of German
metaphysics asserted itself completely and deprived him of his Shapine spirit of imagination so that
obstruction reseed and speculation became his should resource his only plan

“Till that which suits a part infects the whole.

And no is almost grown the habit of my soul”

Thus the poet within Coleridge was killed by the philosopher within him. There is another point that is
fuller expression of the transcendental principle. When we talk of Coleridge’s failure in poetry we
simply mean that he was not able to render his transcendentalism in terms of concrete representation
suggestive imagination and deep feeling. We have no poem from him in which his transcendentalism
finds as triumphant an expression.

GOBLIN MARKET

The poem is combination of the grotesque fairy tale and bizarre with the description of strange looking
animals who tempt the maidens with fruits that offer unknown pleasure. Though Rossetti herself
declared that there was nothing allegorical or symbolic in this fairy tale, yet different interpretation may
be derived from the poem.

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While going down the river each evening for water the sisters come across the goblin men who offer
them the fruits which are not ordinary ones but adorns sugar sweet rare bizarre and Laura’s reaction to
these goblin is quite different from each other. At the goblin’s cry Laura bowed her head to hear while
Lizzie veiled her blushes-Lizzie shut her ears and eyes only to run a way but Laura chose to linger
giving an indication of her urge to satisfy her hunger for the fruits The moment they sense her
willingness for their fruits they surrounded her. The goblins are the traffickers in corruption who allure
the maidens with the deceptive and insubstantial fruits. It is only after tasting the goblin fruit Laura
discovers that sexual gratification only breeds desire for further pleasure. But later going with her sister
to the river eager to taste more goblin fruit. She only discovers that having once eaten. She is no more
able to hear and see the goblin merchants. Thus the goblin merchants promise but do not fulfill the
desire we come to know that their power does not come from the inherent resources of their goblin
fruits but it comes from the frustration of women who have succumbed to their temptation. The goblins
derive their power from the women’s belief that the goblins have something which said that the women
are

incomplete without it. Laura and Zeenie display their weakness. But Lizzie’s heroic adventure on her
sister’s behalf dramatizes her freedom from dependency on the goblins. She is capable of maintaining
her integrity even in the face of great danger. The religious interpretation is latent in the description.
The image of tormented Christ undergoing all sufferings to redeem humanity is associated with Lizzie’s
effort to revive and redeem her weaker sister. Laura has been allowed to play the part of a redeemer
who becomes a Christ figure emerging from the assault of the goblins and returns with the antidote. Yet
we find that it was Laura’s fall which forces Lizzie to gain that courage. Both Laura and Lizzie have
acted as a redeemer and the redeemed.

PRELUDE

Indeed the Prelude is a landmark in English Literary history. Words worth thought of writing a longest
poem and worked for it throughout his life. Words Worth an ambitious poet was writing and rewriting
it changing rearranging and reviving it but could not publish it during his lifetime. As a matter of fact
he intended to write a prelude to his much longer poem. The Recluse which he could not finish so the
prelude is much longer poem. In this great poem which contains the record of the world of his
childhood days of that inner life out of which his poetry grew . He brings to light a strange world and
the deeper we live into it the stranger it becomes. His early life was marked by spirituality and
dedication to nature. He has drawn beautiful images of nature a radiant sun a moon lit cloudy sky and
his participation in games with gusto and love of nature. He would often tell us about the extra ordinary
beauty of nature and mysterious power that per meals the universe. The eternal spirit was revealed to
him through his sense and his spirit was fully aware of it from the very beginning. Its importance and
significances lies in the fact that it is a record of voyage of exploration and not a diary, not a source of
information, but a self examination.

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So the prelude is about the poet himself it is autobiographical. It is also about the nature and function of
human mind so it is psychological it contains certain moral conclusions. So it is didactic it is also about
the infinite power and human of nature. So it is spiritual and intellectual W.J. Hover Points out.” The
world of the prelude is not just the world of the mind interacting with nature. It is also the world of
university the metropolis and the Orena of power and politics. He further adds” Words Worth spend the
whole of his life time to perfect the poem which in turn absorbed all new ideas and experiences that
came to the poet and finally became a solid body of poetic work that has embodied the history of
humanity standing on the cross road of elfishness and humanism science and imagination adventure
materialism spiritualism. The poem is humanities last and most fervent attempt to discover pure joy in
life. It is equally true that he formulated his philosophy on the basis of his personal experience in the
company of nature which shaped his mind fostered its growth and enabled him to have the joy of
imaginative perception of the eternal and universal. His views and philosophy gives the impression of
words worth as a religious poet. The nature is not alone as a theme but heart of man is the ultimate
theme of the poem. William Words Worth was temperamentally a democrat who be lived in equality,
fraternity and liberty. He welcomed the democratic ideas though he felt disgusted with the French
revolution yet his love for common man never decreased. His humanism, his sympathy for the poor his
love of nature all these are found in abundance in the poem. So his moral common for the poor is very
prominent in his poetry. He was living in an age of industrialism and commercialism but he never made
compromise with the corrupt way of living.

To conclude we can say that the poem is not a self portrait. The poet makes no attempt to bring into
focus his personality his views. It was written as it were from the inside outwards. He traces the details
of mind with full care and brings in almost invisible links that help him in the development of his mind
and character. He tells the readers that he gave full attention to small things which are normally
ignored by common man or less observant mind. But these small apparently disconnected incidents are
in the eyes of words worth neither small nor disconnected so he traces the links join them together and
formulates his philosophy. Thus we notice that the poet explores follows suggestions and possibility and
has no idea where he will end up.

SAILING TO BYZANTIUM

Critics have discussed in detail the possible literary sources of this poem Harold Bloom believes that the
vision of this poem as well its repudiation of nature is more Shelleyan than Blakean.

John Untracked remarks:- “Sailing to Byzantium prepares the way for a whole group of comments on
the passionate old man as symbol for the tyranny of time”. B Rajan remarks that the poem itself
embodies Blokes proposition that eternity is in love with the production of time Stauge Moore has
remarked that the poem is unjustified in asserting that he would be out of nature” The golden bird of
Byzantium seems to have been derived from Gibbon. The poem like many odes of Keats deals with the

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theme of art life and death Yeats have express his preference for the world of art over life. Yeats was
attracted to Byzantium because it was mathematically convenient to him. This is because the high point
of Byzantine art came almost dead centre in the 2000 years circle which defined the beginning and end
of modern times. Another reason was that the brilliant integrated art of Byzantium had great appeal for
him because in early. Byzantium religious aesthetic and

practical life were one. The artist was almost impersonal almost without the conscious nor of individual
design. The subject makes represented the vision of whole people Yeats in this poem wishes to said to
such a world.

In this poem there are two main divisions which divide the poem precisely in half. The first two Stanzas
present art as in animate and the second two as animate. Accordingly in the first half of the poem the
image are stated as passive objects. They are twice called monuments. They are merely objects of
contemplation. They may be neglected or studied, visited or not visited on the other hand in the second
two Stanzas. They are treated as gods one can pray to these gods for life or death. They are capable for
motion from sphere to sphere as instructors of the soul they are like stages possessed of wisdom. In the
two major divisions there are further divisions. The first Stanza presents a rejection of passion. The
second Stanza is an acceptance of intellection. Third Stanza presents a rejection of the corruptible
embodiment as art has a soul. The fourth Stanza is an acceptance of the incorruptible. Negative and
affirmative thus alternate passion gives place to intellection and corruption to permanence.

The second Stanza shows that old age is no solution. To be old is to be in a state of misery. An aged man
is but a paltry thing a tattered coat upon to stick the old age alone is worse than youth. But of the old
age is accompanied by development of the soul then even step in the decay of the body.” Every fatter in
its mortal dress is a cause to further increase of joy. This is possible only if the soul can rejoice in
“monuments of its own significance”. The old must seek Byzantium by breaking utterly with the country
of the young. Passion must be rejected for freedom of the soul. The sensual music of the first Stanza
must yield to soul’s music. This souls is to be studied in the singing school of men’s greatest
achievements in religion and thought and especially art. The third Stanza shows that there are old men
in Byzantium too. They are the sages standing in “Gods holy fire” to whom the speaker appeals. The final
Stanza tells that at last ‘out of nature’ the old man can renounce all physical incarnation. He can
become the imperishable thing itself

the golden bird, a beautiful work of act. He will be thus beyond decay and so unlike the dying
generations of real bird of the first Stanza.

In a vision Yeats tells us that in early Byzantium may be never before or since to recorded history
religious aesthetic and practical life were one. Architecture and artificers though not perhaps poets

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spoke to the multitude and the few alike it was to such a world that Yeats wanted to soil in this poem. A
world in which the artist almost impersonal manages to reflect the vision of a whole people. This world
had a nature so integrated as to produce an art which could have the impact of a single image. The
world he leaves transfixed by the sensual music of its signing birds is represented by encaging
multitudinous bodies fish-fish fowl those “dying generation” of the world. Birds sing songs to the body,
songs which abstract all people from. He contemplation of monuments of nagging intellect which alone
can justify an old man’s existence and which cannot be produced in modern chaotic time.

LAPIS LAZULI

Lapis Lazuli is a semiprecious stone of light blue colour used in ornamental and mosaic work Lapis
Lazuli is controlled poem. It is closer to Yeats demand for “an act of faith and reason to make us re-force
in the midst of tragedy”. The difference between” tragic joy” and Gaiety transfiguring all that dread” is
the difference between the apocalyptic and the aesthetic.

As said Lapis Lazuli is a semi precious stone of a light blue colour. It is used in ornamental and mosaic
world. Yeats wrote that someone has sent him for present of a great piece carved by some Chinese
sculptor into a semblance of a mountain with temple trees path and pupil about to climb the mountain.
The poet seems to refer to certain Women like Moud Gonne who is fed up with such fine arts as
painting poetry and music because these arts are gay. They are afraid of the possibility that another
world war may break out. Actors playing the role of tragic characters like Hamlet Ophelia do not
interrupt their roles to shed tears at their own suffering howsoever they may be a tragic hero loses
everything that he has. There is complete blackout in his life. The armies that advanced on foot or
shipboard camel back horseback ass back have destroyed old civilization. The first two lines of the third
Stanza have a quality both pictorial and remote.

The poet describes the carving on the Lapis Lazuli medallion. These are the figure of two china men
behind whom is the figure of a servant carrying a musical instrument over this group a long logged
bird appears to be flying this bird. The symbol of the long life of the china man in the carving. As the
poem withdraws into the work of art the processionate effect is made to surround it. As a result history
and change become the panorama interpreted by its point of view. Nothing is left out the symbolic
absorption.

CHURCH GOING

Church going is one of those poem of Larkin that throw liquid on his agnosticism and his perfectly
rational out look towards religion and religious ceremonies. It was written in 1954 and was included in
the value. The less Deceived the 1950’s was a period of a general decline in the attendance of the
church going people. According to Stephen Region at the beginning of 1950 less than ten percent of the
population were church gars. Thus is appears to Larkin that Gods home was fast getting deserted and

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desolated. However his dilemma is not for God or the Church but what to put in Gods place. Andrew
Motion therefore remarks that larkin here is concerned not with religion but with going to church.
According to him that time is not far off when people world stop going to the Churches because they
would have lost all their faith in God and the holy rituals. Their rationality althosm, or secularism
would put all the churches to disuse. They will turn into ruined towers. Yet some inner compulsions
some desire for wisdom or spiritual consolation will provoke some people to visit some churches. Thus
the poem ends with the secularistic approach of the poet towards the church.

In this way the poet agrees and asserts that the church is a “serious” house, something that has a very
special place in man’s life. It is a place where all our compulsions meet. Here we seek wisdom from the
huge pile of graves and it is something that never can be obsoletes. The poet foresees that the growing
skepticism and agnosticism will dissuade more and more people to go to church. Yet the significances of
the church for mans spiritual and intellectual needs cannot be undermined. Church going as a ritual,
habit or tradition is irrational and the modern skeptic Englishman would find the church service as
mere hocus-pocus uninteresting, futile and useless. The poem to a very large extent presents his vision
of the poet. His tone is altogether ironical and mockish.

Next the poet speculates what would happen to the majestic churches when the people would
completely stop going there. In that situation only a few of churches could be converted into museums.
The other Churches would fall in complete disuse with the rain falling freely upon them and the sheep
coming to graze there. However, superstition might still inspire a few stray unknown women to visit
those ghostly and deserted church. They might look to them for magical cures for concur and other
deadly diseases. They might hope for seeing the spirits of their nears and dears berried in the church
yard. The last part of the poem makes the poet serious and he acknowledges that the church is a serious
house on earth. He asserts that in future the church goers would be fewer but its spiritual significances
would not be lost. Rather it would stand as a place of emotional and spiritual solace even in those times
when agnosticism and skepticism have swept off peoples belief in God.

The title of the poem Andrew Motion things is suggestive of a union of the important stages of human
life birth marriage and death which going to church represents. In other words the poem describes a
strictly secular faith and its authors speculations about what church would become when they have
fallen completely out of use. The speculations lead the poet to conclusion in which the fear of death and
the loss of religious belief are counter acted by a shakable faith in human and individual potential.

(WHITSUM WEDDINGS)

The Whitsun Weddings is from the collection. The Whitsun Weddings published in 1964 it is
distinguished for ease poise balance and in collusiveness ([Link]) George Macbeth regards it as
Larkin’s most famous poem written since 1945. It has the same blend of restrained feeling as Gray’s

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“Elegy written” in a country church yard. The poems of this collection generally conform to the altitudes
and styles associated with the movement. The speaker during his journey to London sees Wedding
parties boarding the train at different stations on Whitsun Sunday. He remains detached and rather an
involved in the happiness of Wedding parties and sees things without wallowing in sentimentalism.
There is more of local colour in this poem than in his other poems. The first two Stanzas are excellent
evocation of panorama of English rural and urban lands capes. The very movement of the train is
caught in the depiction of the scenes such as following back of the backs of the houses closing of a street
of blinding Windscreen. The rivers level of drifting breath to the farm land of Lincoln Shire. The slow
movement of the train is reflected in the slow movement of the verse. The poet’s references to a
particular time when he boarded the train to the most of the compartments lying empty. In fact every
detail given in the first two stanzas heightens the realism.

The subsequent five Stanzas portray the feelings and behavior of the people gathered on the platforms
of different stations to see off the newly wedson. The accurate delineation of the manners and the
emotions of the wedding party’s tespedes to his power observation. At first the speaker did not take
notice of the noise made by the wedding parties on the platform because he was appressed by the heat
of the sun. The poet seems to satirize the behavior of the Young girls with his reference to their grinning
pomaded and parodies of fashion, but at the same time compassion and sympathy gleam through the
lines. The girls share the happiness of the bride and their joy is deepened by the prospeel of their own
marriages. This pleasantly amusing sight sharpened his curiosity to watch closely the altitude of the
elderly people. The poet describes vividly how different sections of people who composed the wedding
parties viewed the proceedings on the platform. The fathers felt that the whole affair was at once
gorgeous and farcical. For the mothers, it was a secret like a ‘happy funeral’. The girls who held their
handbags tightly looked proceeding it as ‘a religious wounding’.

The poet witnesses the whole proceeding like a detached contemplative artist ‘single and the married
couples in the carriage yet he is caught up by them quickened into a sense of physical existence in time.

In the concluding lines poet’s involvement is discernible. The newly married couples who watched the
landscape sitting side by side were managed into a harmonious entity by the journey. He prayed for the
fulfillment and portion of the marriage in the shape of progeny. As the train reached Landon the
journey symbolizes the change taking place in the lives of couples. The slowing down the train for tells
their settling down to a happy life in London. The poem may be interpreted as dealing with the English
society as a whole by its presentation of panoramic lands capes and couples symbolizing not only the
re-juvenating changes but hopes of fulfillment in the future which is still a remote possibility.

“METAPHYSICAL POETRY”

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Donne was the founder of metaphysical school of poetry which was a revolt against the romantic
conventionalism of Elizabethan love poetry. The term Metaphysical was applied to the poetry of Donner
and his followers first by Dryden and then by Dr. Johnson, Dr. Johnson borrowed Dryden’s idea and in
his life of Cowley called Cowley a poet of the metaphysical school of Donne. The term metaphysical
denotes according to saints bury, “ the habit common to this express something after something behind
the simple obvious first sense and suggestion of a subject. As metaphysical means ‘beyond physical’ the
term is rightly applied to the poets like Donne Cowley. Herbert and Marvell as in their poetry there is
the habit of always seeking to express something after something behind.

T.S Eliot A.C Ward on the metaphysical poetry.

The main characteristics of their poetry is planty of passion combined with intellectual activity T.S. Eliot
thinks that ‘passionate thinking’ is the chief mark of metaphysical poetry. The metaphysical poetry lays
stress on the fantastic, on the intellectual on wit on learned imagery on conceits based on the
psychology of flights from the material to the spiritual plane, on obscure and philosophical allusions
and on the blending of passion and thought. According to A.C. Ward the metaphysical style is a
combination of two elements the fantastic in form and style and the incongruous in matter and manner.

(a) The metaphysical poets want to say something that has never been said before they play with
words and ideas and look up occult resemblances in things apparently unlike.
(b) They make excessive use of the figures of speech and hyperbole. Their similes and metaphors
are far-fetched and are often drawn from unfamiliar sources.
(c) Their imagery is logical and intellectual rather than sensuous or emotional.

Contribution of the Poets to literature.

(1) The metaphysical poets have given to the English language its best religious poetry.
(2) In the field of love poetry too the contribution of the metaphysical poets is considerable and
quite important from the historical point of view. Donne started a vein of highly realistic
frankly sensual and sometimes downright cynical amatory verse. He was critical of the
Elizabethan lyricists who put their mistresses real or imaginary on the pedestal of a diety and
pretended to woo them as their “servants” dying or living in accordance with their moods of
rejection or acceptance of their supplications.

Donne’s poetry is lyrical religious or amatory. His style is sometime startling in a sudden beauty of
phrase and melody of diction. Moreover there are sudden unexpected turns of language and figure of
speech, but his historical importance lies in the fact that he initiated the Metaphysical school of poetry
Herbert’s poems entitled. The Temple are peculiarly honest intimate, sincere and modest. In Cowley the
metaphysical strain had become feeble. Andrew Marvels poem bear more affinity to the Elizabeinans

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than to the metaphysical. But his poem To His Coy Mistress. Indicates his metaphysical blend of passion
and fantastic concert handed by his distinctive control and poise.

FLEA

Donne is considered the greatest love poet. But his concept of love was not platonic spiritual or
intellectual. He believed that love purely of thoughts and ideas was just nonsense. Basically a truly love
was something physical a sexual pleasure a union of the male and the female. But the uniqueness and
greatness of Donne’s love poetry is that he explains that it is physical love that matures and perfects
itself in intellectual or spiritual love. In brief union of the odies of the love and the beloved is a
precondition to the exalted spiritual love Flea is one such poem where Donner emphasizes love merges
with the spiritual or intellectual love.

The Flea is a dramatic lyric when the lover makes a strange plea to his beloved to consent for a sexual
relationship with him thus he says.

Mark but this Flea and mark in this. How little that which thou deny’s is meaning thereby that whereas
she allows the flea to suck at her body. She rejects his right of sex with her. She would notice that first it
has sucked his blood and then hers and in this way their bloods mingle in its body as they do in sexual
intercourse. The flea has enjoyed in a way a union with her without any courtship or marriage yet this
is not considered any loss of honour. There is no shames no loss of honour. Neither is it sin. The Flea
enjoys all this before any license of right.

He is unhappy that he has been denied the premarital sex with his beloved. The poem to a large extent
demonstrates Donne’s excellent use of conceit and wit. As the beloved gets ready to kill the flea the lover
asks her to stay and not to kill the poor creature. Their bloods have been united together in its body as
they are united thought marriage in church. So its body is a temple in which they have been married.
Their bloods have got mixed u into the Flea’s body. In other words the fusion of their bloods amounts to
a kind of sexual intercourse. The love poet’s argument is both strange and peculiar. He says that since
the beloved has no objection to their union onside the flea’s body, she would also have no objection to
yield to him. Therefore the lover asks the beloved not to kill the flea. It would amount to triple murder.
The flea has three lives within its body a part of the lovers a part of the beloveds and its own life. Hence
the beloved should spare it. It is really very amusing to note how deeply Donne uses religious terms for
the trivial act of killing a fleas. The beloved herself admits that the loss

of a drop of blood which the flea has sucked her in no way weak. Besides there has been no loss of
honour as well . Thus the poem powerfully demolishes the platonic altitude towards love sex or physical

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union is the first condition of love. The poem makes a fantastic demonstration of a supremely great poet
of wit and conceit.

TWICKNAM GARDEN

Twicknam Garden is a sonorous and thoughtful lyric. The poem was addressed to the counters Lucy of
Bed ford a cultured and accomplished lady of the seventeenth century. She entertained a friendly
affection for Donne the poet which could hardly be given the name of love. The poets a sad and forlorn
lover finds himself an a mood of defection. Even nature fails to soothe his tormented soul. It is a song of
sorrow pervaded by nothing except the bleakness of despair it expressed the anguish of a lover’s heart
who has fallen a prey to sorrow and who cannot drown it even in nature. For its sombri atmosphere and
intensity of grief the poem has not been surpassed by any lyric in English poetry. It is a passionate
outburst of sorrow expressing Yearings of unfulfilled love. The lady to whom it is addressed was never
in love with Donne, it is possible that Donne mis-constructed her friendly regard for him.

GOOD MORROW

The Good Morrow opens in the abrupt colloquial manner which at once startles and captures attention
and which is so characteristic of Donne. The first stanza describes the contrast between a life without
love and a life of an all absorbing passionate love. In the subsequent stanzas, it is pointed out that the
world of love is as specious and as the good as physical world.

ECSTASIE

According to medieval and mystical conception Ecstasie is a trance like state in which the soul leaves the
body comes out and holds communion with the Divine. In this the souls on the lover and the beloved
come out of the body and converse with each other. The poet’s purpose is to bring out the essentially
sensuous and spiritual physical basis of spiritual love. The poem for its background has number of
medieval beliefs and Philosopher. First the idea of the soul’s coming out of the body is derived from
plotions who believed in a moment of trance the soul comes out of the body and converses with the
divine. In the poem the souls of the lovers come out of the body and converse with each other and the
mystery of love is thus resolved.

Secondly according to the medieval psychology the soul of man was supposed to be compounded out of
three different elements (1) the animal or sensual soul closely bound to the body (2) the logical or
reasoning human soul (3) intellectual soul. Thirdly according to another belief the blood contains
certain power or spirits which together make up the soul. The poem has skillfully combined the
Renaissance and the Modern. The purpose of the poem is to show the real nature of love as having its
basis in the physical and the serious. James Reeves regards it as a great metaphysical poem in which
there is a perfect reconciliation of the spiritual and the physical.

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CANNONIZATION

The Cannonization is a poem by John Donne whose poetry is marked by sparkling wit beautiful fancies
and metaphor and deep personal tone. He is recognized as the greatest of the so called metaphysical
poets whose works were full of unconventional and for fetched images and conceits drawn from the
most unlikely sources. His poetry exhibited a dramatic power and an individuality. The theme of the
Connonization is love which is selfless and saintly affection as worthy of respect or worship Donne’s
love is both of body and soul. It is both romantic and sensual. Here he presents a love which is physical
passion and the lovers really believe in sexual indulgence. Their bodies become one but so do their souls
as in a religious mystery. The poet wants his friend who tries to discourage him from making love to
shut his mouth and allow him to love without hindrance.

The poem has all the characteristics of metaphysical poetry. It is dramatic and argumentative. Donne’s
poet is a blend of thought and feeling.

Q:- Victorian period in Literature?

Ans:- The Victorian age in English Literature takes its name from Queen Victoria of Great Britain who
ascended the throne in 1837 and was monarch until her death in 1901 prior to the Victorian age was
romanticism.

The great Victorian poets are undisputedly Tennyson Browning and Mathew Arnold and each in his
own way was influenced by the masters of the Romantic age. Early Tennyson was very powerfully
under the influence of Keats and in certain respects excelled him. The intensity born out of the
association of the Romantic poets with nature and the individual passions of men is not to be found in
the poetry of Victorian poets but Tennyson’s Wider response to a variety of emotions attached with love
War medievalism Browning’s treatment of the theme of patriotism liberation and the complex
psychology of men and Arnold’s criticism of life with its portrait of the Victorian ‘ Sick hurry and
divided aims or his vision of his generation as hanging between “one dead and the other powerless to be
born” is not to be found in the poetry of romantic revival. The Victorian poets more importantly
discovered a suitable medium for themselves Tennyson’s exquisite discovery of the music of the English
language, Browning’s discovery of the dramatic monologue and Arnold’s revesal to the classical model.
They have tried their level best to expand themes and techniques of their poems Browning was to
become more confident and liberal ideal, the scientific changes and desire to explore English language
to its depths not for the resonance and mellifluousness as Tennyson desired but for a nakedness of
speech of a highly compelling quality, became his all consuming pursuit. From the words like church

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Bible, Vivers it is clear that the religious flavour was abundantly found in the Victorian poems. We get
strong messages after going through Victorian poem. Because the themes are often of religious
significances. The themes of these poems have a great appeal for the common man and they seem
relevant to all ages. Because the way they had been universalized by the Victorian poets. She accent on
the Bible as a source of guidance in life underlined the importance of authority and an object of
worship for all Englishmen.

Sexual love becomes an important poetic subject in the Victorian period in a way that it had not been
for the Romantic poets Browing’s poetry has a more than usually strongly felt awareness of sexuality so
conclude we can say as it is also said in Victorian criticism that the growth of evolutionary and
biological science and rationalism played have with religious faith. Faith in old ideals and value was
shaken so that one can say with Tennyson that the old order was changing yielding place to the new.

Q:- Modernist poets and post modernist poets?

Ans:- The Modernism tag is used to cover the poetry of mostly 20th Century poets like Ezra pound Yeats
T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden it incorporates a variety of cultural tendencies post dating naturalism. These
poets tried to experience a subtle relationship between material and spiritual world. It was during the
First World War modernism found expression in movements such as post impressionism cubism
imagism Vorticism and later in expressionism dada and surrealism. The modernists represented an
abrupt break with all tradition. The modernists believed in the aesthetic autonomy of a work of act as it
is clear from Eliot’s views on poetry.

Post modernism has been looked at by different critics in different dimensions and ways. Irving Howe
and Harry Levi looked at post modernism disappointedly as a descend from great modernist
experiments. The modernism has been profoundly influenced by friend. According to a famous critic
Hab Hassan modernism insists on purpose while post modernism emphasizes play modernism values
chance design post modernism value chance modernism asserts tantalization post modernism asserts
deconstruction. Modernism thrusts upon genre and boundary post modernism thrust upon text and
inter text, modernism gives value to determinacy and transcendence while post modernism gives value
to indeterminacy and immense. Post modernism is now a well established term that describes not only
literature but the second half of the 20th century culture as a whole but in France these post modernism
term was replaced by neo modernism.

Modernism is English poetry reflected post war dis-illuminated the import of science and industrial
society and an elite cosmopolitanism. The literary movements like symbolism imagism classicism
surrealism socialism etc. contributed to its emergence. As far as the modernist’s poet are concerned we
have long list of poets who come under this umbrella. These poets are Dylan Thomas Larkin and Yeats
and many more.

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Different modernist and post modernist poet have defined poetry in its different decisions Dr. Johnson
terms poetry as the act of uniting pleasure with truth. Some poets say that nothing depends upon the
subject of poetry but all upon the treatment subject. Some poets have different views about poetry as
they say that the greatness of literature cannot be determined solely by literacy standards. Some say that
poetry is a state of particular facts which obscures and distorts that which should be beautiful.

LYCIDAS

The poem Lucida is all about Milton’s search for answers to the mystic questions of a worth of a life and
unpredictability of death. The poet presents here the two poets like to Shephereds who try to look deep
into the mystery of life and death. Here the poet says that the fane keeps the poet alive even after his
mortality. The poet here seems to celebrate lycidas life and fame. The poet says that some people achieve
fame and name after death and Lycidas is one ________ them. The poet says that death or mortality is
the basic and foremost reality of life and ______ after all mortal but poetry or the spiritual strength
makes him immortal. (ends) …………………….

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