Joseph Blanco White’s “Night and Death”

                                                         Night and Death

Joseph Blanco White

Joseph Blanco White’s “Night and Death” is a sonnet dedicated to Coleridge. The title of the poem indicates a connection between night and death as both are perceived negatively by humans. Through the poem, the poet tries to give different perspective to them.  

          The poet begins the poem with an exclamation by calling the night as a mysterious one. By the word ‘first parent’ he means Adam and he says that Adam hears the word night from the divine.  He feels terrified by knowing that the night will soon replace the lovely sky of brightness. When the sun sets, its light passes beautifully as if passing through a curtain and the evening star Hesperus comes with other bright stars. The emergence of the evening star is a beautiful vision and it made the humans to feel excited. The sight which made him to feel afraid initially excited him later. It has widened man’s view about the creation of the world.

          The poet questions that who could have thought that such a beautiful night is hidden under the brightness of the sun. He continues that because of the sun light people could know about fly, leaf and insects but did not know about the uncountable stars. The poet again raises a question that why people try to avoid death in angry manner. He concludes the poem by asking if light can hide the beauty of night and stars, why life cannot hide about death. The poet compares Night and Death. Initially Adam was afraid of night but later he enjoyed the beauty of night with bright stars. Similarly people are afraid of death and they do not want to talk about it. Like night, death also might be a wonderful one. The ‘Octave’ of the poem brings the darker side of night and humans dislike about it. The ‘Sestet’ solves the problem by stating that even the darkness has its beauty with stars which is hidden by the sun. Similarly life also might be hiding the beauty of death.  He concludes the poem with positive note that no need to worry about death.

William Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils”

                                                           The Daffodils

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” is a famous poem of Romantic age. He believes that nature is superior to everything. He thinks that nature has solution to all the problem of humans. The poem is written in simple language in four stanza six line format. It is in first person narration where he remembers his encounter with thousands of Daffodils.

The speaker is walking alone like a cloud which moves over high hills and valleys according to the movement of the wind. It indicates the writer is alone and he is wandering without any purpose. Suddenly he sees thousands of yellow daffodils dancing in breeze beside the lake and under the trees. Now the poet has his attention on the flowers.

The Poet compares the view of the daffodils with the shiny stars on the Milky Way. The enormous numbers of daffodils are spreading along the margin of a bay of the lake.  He sees more than ten thousands of flowers dancing to the movement of the wind.

The waves in the lake also danced along with the flowers. But the movement of waves are not attractive.  Wordsworth says a poet will definitely feel happy in such a cheerful company. The lonely poet now finds companion of daffodils and waves. He keeps on looking at those flowers.  That thought of looking at those beautiful flowers brought him great happiness.

The poet often lies on his couch in empty or in deep thinking mood. During such times the images of daffodils flash on his mind. The images of the flowers fill his heart with happiness. This leads his heart to dance with the daffodils.   

THE BLUE BOUQUET by Octavia Paz

THE BLUE BOUQUET

Octavia Paz

Octavia Paz is a famous Mexican writer. He won Nobel Prize for literature in 1990. This story takes place in an unnamed village or town which presents how the harmonious world turns suddenly into a world of violence and terror. The narrator, whose name is not given, is staying in a hotel room wakes up from his sleep fully drenched in sweat. As the room is very hot, he decides to go out for a walk. 

He gets dressed first making sure that no bugs gets into his clothes. When he reaches downstairs, he notices one eyed hotel keeper sitting at the door.Hotel keeper warns him that he better stay in as there are no street lights. The narrator without bothered about the warning moves away from that place.

         While walking the narrator enjoys the nature: mild moonlight,colourful twinkling of stars, the vocals of crickets and with the accompaniment of sounds of leaves and insects. He thinks that the whole universe is a grand system of signals where he was only a part of that macrocosm. With nature’s presence everywhere, he feels safe and free though he is alone in that street.

                 All on a sudden, the narrator senses that he is being followed by someone. Though he tries to run,he could not. Before he tries to defend himself, he hears a voice asking him not to move otherwise he will be dead. He feels a point of knife against his back. The stranger does not want money from him whereas he demands the narrator’s blue eyes to make a blue bouquet for his beloved. The stranger appears to be a short and slight man. Though the narrator tells him that his eyes are not blue, the stranger is not moved by his request. He asks the narrator to light a match to check the colour of the eyes. After several attempts the stranger realises that the eyes are not blue. Throwing the narrator into terror, he disappears in to the darkness.

        After this horrible experience the narrator runs through the deserted street and reaches the hotel. The hotel keeper is still sitting there. Without uttering anything he goes inside.The next day he flies away from that mysterious town. This story beautifully captures the trouble that pervades in our everyday life.

Real Time by Amit Chaudhuri

Real Time

Amit Chaudhuri

Amit Chaudhuri is a well-known Indian writer in English. Most of his stories are situated in Kolkata in 1980’s. He presents the life style of upper middles class families in Kolkata. This particular short story portrays how even death of a person is seen in a light hearted manner. Even though the name of the city is not mentioned in the story it is understood from the reading it as Kolkata.

The story revolves around a memorial service for a young woman, Anjali Poddar, who committed suicide by jumping off the third-story balcony of her parents’ apartment building. The story is narrated in the third-person from the point of view of the main character, MrMitra, middle-aged, professional man who, with his wife, is attending the shraddh ceremony for Anjali. The story opens with Mr and MrsMitra in their Ambassador car on their way to the shraddh – the memorial ceremony for Anjali. His botheration about his white cotton dress and sandals on the way to buy flowers indicate his visit as a formal one. They reach the apartment building and MrMitra hands over the tuberoses without saying anything that is no words of condolence are given. Then he walks around the rooms aimlessly, his mind resting on one object or another briefly. Mrs. Mitra sits with Anjali’s mother quietly. Later men discuss about business and women discuss about dress shops and so no. Everyone’s presence indicate it as a formal visit and no one bothered much about Anjali.

The pain of loss and grief remain completely avoided and every one becomes conscious to avoid discussion regarding Anjali. MrMitra eats a sandesh, drinks a Fanta, and has a chat with an acquaintance. At the end he catches his wife’s eye to indicate that it was time to leave and felt that it had all been a waste of time. No sympathy, no condolences, no real concern about the tragic loss suffered by the Taluktars is portrayed in the story. In the case of Mr. MItra, hecomes there as a duty and he does not feel any sympathy for what the family is going through. He is keen that this duty to be over soon so that he can return home, back to the routines (going to the club, buying cookies for tea on the way home, visiting New Market, lunch of daal, rice and fish).The story satirizes the society which looks at everything in a mechanical manner.

Browning’s “Meeting at Night”

MEETING AT NIGHT

         Robert Browning

Browning’s “Meeting at Night” is brief poem about a lover’s desperate struggle to meet his beloved and his reunion with her. The entire poem has a sense of movement to it that reflects the speaker's desire to reunite with his love.

               The speaker is at sea at night, heading towards the black land in the distance. He briefly gives an image of night at sea instead of describing it. The three lines in the first stanza beginning with "And," suggest the speaker's urge to meet his beloved. The speaker is uninterested in the beauty of "the yellow half-moon large and low." Instead, his focus is on to bypass such elements so as to meet her. He moves forward until he pulls his vessel up on to the sand. He walks a mile along the beach and then crosses three fields to approaches his goal, a farm. He taps at the window, sees the lighting of a match, and then is overwhelmed by the beating of his and his lover's hearts as they reunite. Due to the excitement and fear their heart beat is louder than their voice. Here the poem ends abruptly maybe we can believe that once he has attained his happiness, he has no further need for writing.

The Unicorn in the Garden by James Thurber

The Unicorn in the Garden

James Thurber (1894-1961) is an American author. His short story “The Unicorn in the Garden” presents the story of a couple who lives two separate lives in the same house. This story is a fable and it has some fairy-tale features. The first and the last sentence are typical sentences of fairy tales. It is a fable, because the story has a moral at the end. 

The story opens with a man sitting at home eating breakfast and his wife sleeping in the upstairs. The husband sees a unicorn in the family garden eating flowers and tells his wife about it. He wants to wake up his wife, but she is angry about disturbing her.  Without getting up to look out the window, she tells him that it cannot be there in the garden because it is a mythical beast. He goes back into the garden, returns again to the bedroom, by telling that it has a golden horn in the middle of its forehead. His wife, still not getting up, warns him that he is a booby and she is going to have to put you in the mental institution.

 After the man returns to the garden, the wife calls the police and a psychiatrist with a hope that he will be arrested. She immediately sees how her husband's behaviour can be used to get rid of him. When they arrive, she tells them what her husband told, assuming that they will take him to the mental institution. The police and the psychiatrist ask her husband whether he saw a unicorn in the garden. He says no and the unicorn is a mythical beast. Thus they take the wife away instead, and the husband lived happily ever after.

 Until the last two paragraphs the readers have no indication that the husband too feels the same way. The writer does not give any indication whether the husband has planned this outcome. He leaves with a question of whether there was ever a unicorn in the garden at all. But the conclusion of the story that the husband lived happily ever after, indicated it was pre planned by the husband.

The moral of the story is "Don´t count your boobies until they are hatched!” The man in the story is very clever and the woman is an unfriendly person with bad intentions against the man. He could see how the woman will react to the story about the unicorn and got rid of her. The moral fits the woman because she counts the booby (the man) before it has emerged. Without understanding his intention she herself got into his trap. 

Mary Alcock's The Chimney-Sweeper’s Complaint

The Chimney-Sweeper’s Complaint

Mary Alcock

Mary Alcock is a British poet, who belongs to the period of Industrial revolution. In her works, she has recorded the impacts of industrial revolution, especially upon children. During the industrial revolution, which started around 1760’s in Briton had a high demand for labour. Due to it many families migrated from rural areas to the industrial towns with a hope of better life. But it required hard work of the entire family member. Thus the children of the poor parents/orphans worked hard for a little pay or no pay.

          A chimney sweeper is a one who cleans ash and dust from the chimneys in the factories. The chimneys are built with a particular height and size. A chimney sweeper is a grown up man who is large to enter into the chimney. So he sends his apprentice, a boy or a girl from the age of 6 to 12. Most of the chimney cleaners do not get money instead live with the master. They are poorly fed and lived a pitiable life.

         This poem by Mary Alcock portrays the pitiable condition of a chimney sweeper boy under the control of his master. The poem is in the first person narration. The boy is addressing to unknown listeners about his sufferable life. The boy introduces himself as a chimney sweeper’s boy and he begs the listener to pity his fate. He states that knowing his helpless condition will draw tears to the listeners. He stays far away from his home and nor fortunate to see his parents; may be his parents live in a distant place or he is an orphan. His master will remove the skin from his body by beating if he appeals to him. It indicates the cruel treatment received by the chimney sweeping boys from their masters.

A chimney sweeper

        He begs the listeners to have pity on him. Even though he looks black in colour and many are passing comment on him, he tells only the truth. This information indicated the belief of the white community that the black people lie. The boy continues to address the listeners with the physical discomfort he faces. Chillness makes him to be numbered and due to it he walks in a shaky way. The chimneys are always hot which leaves the boy’s legs to be burnt and injured by stones. Due to lack of food his body looks like a skeleton. Even with such a bad health condition, the boy was forced to work day and night. The master claims that the boy is his apprentice and he has the rights to make him work. By stating so the master sends the boy to the highest top of the chimney to sweep. The boy with his panting heart and crying eyes climbs to the chimney.

                               The boy suddenly stops his narration by saying that his master is coming. He requests the listener to remember him. He does not expect anything from the listener except to share his suffering to someone.  He concludes it by wishing to hide under the ground. It indicates that he might want to be invisible or to die. The poem tries to portray the pitiable condition of the children during the industrial revolution period, which did not have any law towards children.

Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels

C.L.N.Prakash

          The essay graphic novels by C.L.N. Prakash gives basic information about the emerging genre of writing named graphic novels. Graphic novels are sometimes seen as long comic books, yet it differs. The basic differences between Graphic and Comic novels are (i) Graphic novels are longer (ii) they cover a story from the beginning till the end (iii) uses sequential illustrations. First graphic novel published in the U.S. in 1940’s was The Three Musketeers. It was written in the traditional method of comic book.

          At present Graphic novels are read by all age group people. Frank Miller’s, a famous graphic novelist from America, novels are known its violence. His famous work Sin City was later adopted into a film.

          Japanese Graphic novel form ‘Manga’ has influenced many graphic novelists and genres like comics and cartoons. Sometimes the term Manga is confused with the term Anime, which means animated. Disney’s work influenced Manga and its style was developed during World War II. This from can be used to constitute complex political and social satire.

          Manga characters have distinctive features: They have very large eyes, small nose and lined mouth. As Manga forms of Graphic novels are inappropriate for young children, they are not rated with the U.S. graphic novels. They often attract children due to illustrations and various themes like morals, history etc., are communicated. The first Indian Graphic Novel is Saranth Banerjee’s Corridor which is commercially successful. The novel portrays Indiabn lifestyle through four confused urban youngsters Jehangir Rangoon walla, owner of second hand book store, digital dutta, who confuses between Karl Marx and H1-B visa, Brighu, an explorer, Shintu, a newly married, D.V.D. Murthy, a pen chant of Keats.

          Success of Corridor paved way for many comic novels in the Indian market. Virgin comics with Gotham Chopra published many comic novels like Sadhu, Snake woman and so on. The common theme in all these novels is they all are based on Indian culture. Graphic novels by the way of telling stories and addressing issues make the readers to come back to them. In a multimedia world, graphic novels enable the young minds to focus upon reading. It also helps the students to improve the reading skills.

          Now the writers of graphic novels in India have the challenge to create their own ideas instead of simply following the Western mythology or their super heroes. The writer concludes the essay with the hope that the graphic novels will become a leading literary genre in future.

                                      

A Speech by N.R. Narayana Murthy

A Speech by N.R. Narayana Murthy

         

          Narayana Murthy, the chief mentor of Infosys technologies, has delivered a lecture at New York University. In his motivating speech to the students, Narayana Murthy talks about his life and career in order to help the students to know how chance and encounter with influential persons shaped his life. He shares his life experiences like his career struggles, unplanned events which shaped his life.

           The first influential event took place when he was a graduate at IIT Kanpur. One day he had an opportunity to meet a famous computer scientist from U.S.  University. His discussion on the new developments in computer science motivated the speaker to opt for it. That valuable advice opened a new door in his life.

          The second event occurred when he was returning to India from Serbia. Due to some unfavorable circumstances he could not have food for a day. In the train he was having conversation with a boy and a girl about the tough life in Nis. Suddenly some policemen arrested Narayana Murthy by thinking that he criticized the Communist Government of Bulgaria. For the next 72 hours he was kept in a small room without food or water. Unexpectedly he was released by mentioning that he was from India, which is a friendly country. That long and cold journey has changed him from a Communist to a Capitalist with the founding of INFOSYS in 1981. These two unplanned events tuned out to be a turning point in his life.

          The next two events in his life which are related to INFOSYS were more planned. In 1990’s five of the seven founders of INFOSYS were taking decision upon selling the INFOSYS for the sum of $ one million. Some were in favor of selling it whereas Narayana Murthy decided to continue with it. His strong decision changed his friends mind too. After seven years its value was more than $ 3 billion.

          In 1995, a Fortune 10 corporation had called Indian software vendors. The customers made all the vendors to be in different rooms in a hotel. So that others will be ignorant about the negotiations. Their method of dealing was aggressive and it went for several rounds. When it was the crucial time to take a decision to accept or deny, Narayana Murthy rejected it. Later they have created a Risk Mitigation Council which will not allow INFOSYS to depend upon anyone client, technology, country or a key employee.

          He shares these events from which he has learned some life lessons. He says that it is easy to learn from failure because we will know where we went wrong, whereas in success, one should be more careful. Secondly power of chance is incredible in his life. How one responds to chance is important. One should not waste it. Thirdly he talks about the difference between fixed mindset and growth mindset. People with fixed mindset will avoid challenges and not achieve their full potential whereas people with growth mindset will learn from criticism and will achieve higher level. Fourthly he talks about the basic of Indian Spiritual Tradition that helps one to have belief in oneself and courage. He concludes his speech by telling that future will be shaped by several turning points. And also we are all the temporary custodians of wealth. So we should share it others.

"The Cockroach" by Kevin Halligen

The Cockroach

Kevin Halligen

'The Cockroach' by Kevin Halligen is a poem about reflection on life through watching the movement of a cockroach. The central idea of the poem is the distress and suffering felt by a person, when he is without a goal or aim.  The poem is an example of an allegory, and a sonnet. It is an allegory because it personifies a cockroach as a human being. Halligen repeatedly personifies the cockroach in many ways and he prefers to address the cockroach as 'he' rather than 'it'.

             It is written in the format of a sonnet which runs in fourteen lines. The first four lines of the sonnet show that the cockroach is certain of his movement. It has started to move fast and it is satisfied with its movement. The cockroach is content to take a safe route by avoiding the dust ball. In the same way the poet is sure of himself in the early stage of his life.

The next 4 lines convey that the cockroach’s movements show uncertainty just as the poet’s.  His uncertainty of movement is shown by its action of scratching its wings. When the cockroach stops, it looks as if he is tired of being still.  He wants to move on and not remain in the same place all the time.

In the last 6 lines the poet becomes thoughtful.  The last three lines tell us that the poet recognized himself in the cockroach in a number of ways.  First he wanted safety, much like the cockroach keeping to a safe path along the wainscot.  Later he became more willing to seek new places and new activities.  Finally just like the cockroach he was ‘uncertain where to go’.  He questions whether just like the cockroach he is being punished for something wrong in his ‘former life’.  The word ‘due payment’ tells us that the poet is suffering and agonized over uncertainty and indecision.  In the last line of the poem he confesses that he recognizes himself in the Cockroach.

                                         

Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince”

The Happy Prince

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince” begins by introducing the statue of the Happy Prince. People of the place admire at the statue of the Happy Prince and decide to live happily like the statue. A swallow crosses the place where the statue is, in order to meet his friends in Egypt to spend the winter season.

When the swallow is about to sleep, between the feet of the statue, tears of the Happy Prince fall on the swallow. It mistook it as a raindrop but when it knows it as tears of the statue, it talks to the statue. The Happy Prince says that he weeps because he cannot bear the sufferings of the poor and the needy. When he was the prince, he did not understand the pain of the people. But after death, as he stands as a statue, he could see the misery of the people.  The Happy Prince requests the swallow to help him by giving his eyes, which is precious stones, to the needy people.

When the Happy Prince gave away his sapphire eyes, he could not see any more. Then the swallow decides to stay and help out the requests made by the Happy Prince. Therefore, he asked the Swallow to fly over his city and told him what he saw there. The Swallow flew over the great city and told the Happy Prince about the condition of the rich and the poor. The poor were hungry and homeless. When the Happy Prince listened to this, he asked the Swallow to give his gold covering to the poor and the needy.

As the weather gets colder and colder, and the swallow could not resist the climate and it dies On the other hand, the Happy Prince’s loss of all of his ornaments stands as an unattractive statue.  Once, the mayor and the town councilors pass by the stature of the happy prince. They are shocked to see it without ruby, sapphires, and gold covering. It looks ugly without them. They pull it down and decide to make another statue. The heart of the happy prince does not melt in the furnace and the workers throw it on the dust heap where the dead swallow is already lying. An angel comes and takes both the heart and the dead Swallow to God as two precious things.

A Day's Wait by Ernest Hemingway

A Day's Wait

                                                  

“A Day’s Wait” short story is written by Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway belongs to America and he has received the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature.

"A Day's Wait" (1936) is a brief story that portrays a tragic outcome of miscommunication between a boy and his father. Schatz is a nine-year-old boy who becomes sick one winter night. A doctor is called, the doctor diagnosis that Schatz has flu and a high fever. The doctor leaves medicine for the boy and tells the father that the boy's temperature is 102 degrees. Schatz overhears it and that causes conflict and misunderstanding between the boy and his father.

The father reads stories to Schatz from Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates. While doing it the father observes that the boy does not follow the story; instead he stares at the book and feels detached. Schatz asks his father to leave if sitting with him bothers the father. He again and again pesters his father to leave. Thinking that the boy feels dizzy due to medication, the father leaves for a walk along with an Irish settler on the frozen creek. The dog flushes a covey of quail, and the father kills two. He returns happily from hunting and knows that his son does not allow anyone to enter into the room.

When the father enters, Schatz stops him by telling that the father may get what he was having. The father leaves the son’s comment unnoticed and takes his temperature. The boy demanded his father to reveal the temperature. When the father tells it is around 100 and nothing to worry about it, the boy replies that he does not bother. At the same time he cannot keep himself free from thinking about it. While advising the son to take it easy, the father observes that the boy is trying to withhold something. Finally Schatz asks his father that at what time is he going to die? Now the father understands what has bothered his son till then. He calls him silly and tells that people will not die with a fever of 102. The boy replies that the boys in a school in France told him that one cannot live with 44 degrees. The exasperated father quickly explains to his son about the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius thermometers. He compares them to miles and kilometers. The boy slowly relaxes, and by the next day he cries very easily at little things. This open ending leaves the readers with an assumption that the shock of the previous day’s experiences resulted in short temper.

Summary- The Justice of the Peace – Hilaire Belloc

The Justice of the Peace – Hilaire Belloc

The poem “The Justice of the Peace” is written by a French- Anglican poet Hilaire Belloc. He is a famous writer and historian. In many of his poems he satirises his society. This poem in particular talks about the economical inequalities and injustices of his society. The poem is written in the form of dramatic monologue: that is dramatic in quality and a speaker is addressing listener/listeners. Here the speaker is trying to convince someone of something by not telling the whole truth. In spite of it what the speaker does not say is revealed to the readers.

The title of the poem refers to a magistrate who hears to minor cases. Ironically in front of the magistrate the speaker justifies economical inequalities and social injustices of his society.

The speaker distinguishes between two things; which he and the addressee possess. The addressee has a shirt, a brimless hat, a shoe and half a coat. It shows that expect his outfit, the addressee does not possess anything more; Whereas the speaker, who calls himself as lord benign, has fifty hundred acres of fat land. The division of their possessions indicates the inequality they face in the society.  Having such a vast land is sited as his rights by the speaker.

When the speaker tries to justify his rights for the property, he fails to do so. It forces him to leave it as simply as his rights. He orders the addressee to be calm and good; may be not to complain about the division of the things. He comments him to obey the laws, which might be in favour of the rich. He again warns the addressee to remember his lower position and not to fight against him because he may get hurt.  Through this the speaker exposes his economical power which made him to be a hypocrite.

The speaker states that he does not feel jealous of the addressee’s possessions such as his coat, hat and shoe. Then why should the addressee feels jealous of the speaker’s property. Further he threatens that it is illogical to fight with economical power. If his fate is to live in poverty, why should he fight against it? Finally he reveals his cruel nature by indicating that he has got the upper hand. Through this he tries to mean that the addressee should accept his position without fighting; otherwise he has to face the worst result.

Even though the title of the poem “The Justice of the Peace” gives hope for justice, the whole poem depicts injustice faced by the poor. Hilaire Belloc as he wanted to resist the economical and social inequality, he satirises his society through this poem.