Areopagitica
-John Milton
John Milton has the multifarious knowledge about literature. He is a versatile genius because firstly he is an epic poet. He is famous for his epic poem Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Secondly he is a dramatist; Samson Agonistes is a renowned drama. Thirdly a great prose writer, Areopagitica is the perfect example. But here we want to discuss Milton one of the argumentative prose Areopagitica which covers the rights of the writers for publishing books.
When the writer writing any book they are must be permitted to the Church or parliament member of England. Milton is a member of parliament. He revolt against the rule and feel the necessity of writing. He wrote Areopagitica in 1644. He took the name Greek mythology. Areopagitica is a revolutionary character, symbol as a protest. In this context, Milton says ---
“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life”
In the above quotation Milton want to means that books are not absolutely dead things. All books have a vital power and its own essence. Books are very much powerful and it contains a potency of life.
“I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon’s teeth”
In the quotations Milton shows his argument that books are lively because a good book is never die. And it is vigorously productive like other things. Some books are as dragon teeth.
“Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye”.
In the following quotations Milton wants to say that who kill a man, kill a human being created by God in his own image. But who destroy a good book, which kill a human race.
“Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life–blood of a master spirit”.
In these lines Milton asserts that they are many human being lives sinful. They become a burden upon the earth. But a good book is something which should be preserved with great care because it represents the essence of its author’s intellectual and spiritual faculties.
“Since we see a kind of homicide may be thus committed, sometimes a martyrdom, and if it extend to the whole impression, a kind of massacre.”
In the above lines Milton mentions that if good book has been banned, a man of genius has been put to death. But if a large number of good books are banned, it would amount to the large scale slaughter of men of genius.
“To the pure all things are pure, not only meats and drinks, but all kinds of knowledge whether of good or evil”.
In the quotations Milton mentions that we don’t know which is the pure, only meats and drinks no to pure. All kinds of knowledge stray to book.
“Good and evil we know in the field of this world grow up together almost inseparably and the knowledge of good is so involved and interwoven with the knowledge of evil”.
In the quotations Milton tells that good and evil in this world exist inseparably, and they grow together in the same inseparable mixture. Our knowledge of good is interwoven with our knowledge of evil.
“When man writes to the world, he summons up all his reason and deliberation to assist him; he searches, meditates, is industrious.”
In the above quotations Milton argues that a writer spends much pains on the writing of a book and that it is an insult to that author if his books are subjected to a scrutiny by the official licensers.
“We boast our light; but if we look not wisely on the sun itself, it smiles us into darkness.”
Milton attack parliament member in the quotations. They don’t look all the books wisely, for this reason many of the well books may destroy.
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
Milton urges the members of parliament not be misted by the advice of persons who want that books should be suppressed. Milton demands the liberty to acquire knowledge, the liberty to express his views freely and the liberty to defend his views fearlessly in accordance with his own conscience. Such liberty, he says is higher than any other kind of liberty.
John Milton is one of the most difficult of the English authors’. Areopagitica is a fervent defence of the freedom of the press. He thought to be an unjust attack on the freedom of writing, printers and publishers. Areopagitica is regarded as a classic by lovers of the freedom of the press.
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Write a note on Blake’s symbolism.
William Blake is a man of versatile genius, uses symbolism as a literary device express his mystic vision and pangent attack upon social irrationality, in his poem Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.
As a Romantic poet he generally uses symbolic language, which makes him separate from the Neo-Classical writers. In the opening poem of the Songs of Innocence Blake thinks himself as a shepherd boy and write The Lamb which is a most appropriate introduction to the whole series. In the very first poem he introduces two symbols. These symbols are the Child and the lamb. Both the child and the lamb are symbols of innocence or pity and joy. Joy is everywhere to be found in the lyric of these songs. In the Infant Joy he says----
Pretty joy!
Sweet joy, but two days old!
Sweet joy, I call thee
In his another poems like the The Echoing Green and The Loughing Son he presents all nature is merry, the green wood laugh with a voice of joy, the air and the green hill laugh and of course the maidens laugh------Ha, Ha, He
The child and the lamb are symbols for Christ too, and Christ represents purity or innocence, the second characteristic of this world. He says that Christ himself is a child as wall as a lamb----
“He is called by the name
For He calls himself a lamb
He is mock and He is mild
He became a little child
I a child and thou a lamb
We are called by his name”
In the A Gadle Song a mother watches benignly over her sleeping child symbolized Christ.
“Sweet babe, once like thee
They maker lay and wept for me
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When He was an infant small”
In his Nurse’s Song, The Chimney- Sweeper and Night the protective influences are angels, who pour, blessings on all sleeping creature. These angels destroy sorrows. He says ------
“Oh! He gives to us his joy
That our grief He may destroy”
In Nurse’s Song and Holy Thusday, Urizen, the false god of conventional religion and his law is a series of prohibition, appears as who refuses to give permission to children to play a little longer. The church and organized religion have an oppressive influence in human life.
“Dear Mother, dear mother, the church is cold
But the Ale–house is healthy and pleasure and worm”
In his another poem like The Tiger, The Little, Boy Lost, Landon , The Chimney Sweeper, A Divine Image of the Songs of Experience Blake presents the class-conscious, indictment of society, the sorrow, the injustices of life, violent. Blake also wonders whether he thinks that he who made the lamb made also the tiger;
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Here we can easily find that Blake presents the two natural qualities of our society by his symbolic characters. He presets tiger as a symbol of violent, injustice. At the same time he presents the lamb the symbolic character of Christ and innocence, pity. So we consider that Blake is a great poet who presents the society in different way but delightfully.
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Write a note on Chaucer’s art of characterization in The Canterbury Tales.
Geoffrey Chaucer is called the father of English poetry. Chaucer achievement was versatile. Dryden found in Chaucer’s characters ‘Gods plenty’. His greatest work The Prologue to Canterbury Tales is the piece and literary art, which is called ‘Picture Gallery’ by smith. He depicts a true picture of contemporary society.
The prologue has been described as a veritable picture gallery. It would be more true to call it a grand procession with all the life and movement, the colour and sound that we associate with a procession. All the pilgrims are so vividly drawn that they create permanent impression of our memory. Their outlines never blur. We shall easily recognize them, by some supernatural miracle we were transported to the 14th century England. The details of their physical appearance, social status and character so artistically presented that the whole man comes alive before our eyes.
Irony and satire are the main features of Chaucer’s characterization. He depicts 24 characters in this prologue. All characters are individuals as well as typical. He has described three type of character, such as professional, religious and servant characters.
Many professional characters in this prologue, they are Merchant who is hypocrisy bagger his forking beard and handsome dress. The Clerk of Oxford is an educated person; servant at law is a lawyer. The Doctor of Physics who is a doctor. The Wife of Bath who is a cloth maker. The Parson is a poor but honest cleric. The Plowman is an honest workman and faithful Christian. The Reeve is a successfully manager.
Many servant characters in this prologue, The Knight who finally identify distinguish soldier himself. The Squire is the son of knight and handsome youngman and feel with fair atheism. The Yeoman is a servant of lawyer. The Cook who is a cooker.
More important religious characters in this prologue. The Prioress is a graceful and mannerly prioress who was all sentiment and tender hear. The Monk is religious person who combine Godliness and worldliness into a profitable and comfortable living. The Friar who was limiter which restricted his bagging to a certain district. The Franklin and The Guildsman also religious characters in this prologue.
He has taken all characters from the society and all characters are individuals. He could not flourish any characters but he describes real and true characters. Chaucer describes all characters of the then society, but we see all characters are present at this age.
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales as a whole shows his skill in handling all the method of characterization. In prologue, we find the descriptive method at work. Universal, typical and individual at the same time creates develop. Chaucer was the pioneer in the art of characterization in English literature.
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What is language? Explain 5 traits of a language/ Characteristics of language.
Language is the ‘species-specific’ and ‘species- uniform’ possession of man. It is God’s special gift to mankind. Without language human civilization as we now know it, would have remained an impossibility. Language is ubiquitous. It is present every where –in our thoughts and dreams, prayers and meditations, relations and communications, and sanskars and rituals.
According to an ancient linguist of Indian, Patanjali ---
“Language is that human expression which is uttered out by speech organs.”
According to Dictionary of linguistics, 1954, Mario A. Pei and Frank Gaynor ---
“A system of communication by sound, through the organs of speech and hearing, among human beings of a certain group or community, using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meanings.”
Characteristics of language:-
a) Language is verbal, vocal: language is sound: - Language is an organization of sounds, of vocal symbols – the sounds produced from the mouth with the help of various organs of speech to convey some meaningful message. Language is a systematic verbal symbolism; it makes use of verbal elements. Language is vocal in as much as it is made up of sound which can be produced by the organs of speech.
b) Language is a means of communication: - Language is the most powerful, convenient and permanent means and form of communication. It is through language that humans express their thoughts, desires, emotions and feelings. It is through it that they store knowledge, transmit messages, knowledge and experience from one person to another, from one generation to another.
c) Language is a social phenomenon: - Language is a set of conventional communicative signals used by humans for communication in a community. It is as member of society that a human being acquires a language. We are not born with an instinct to learn a particular language such as – English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and French. We learn a language as members of society using that language. If a language is not used in any society, it dies out.
d) Language is symbolic: - The symbolism of language is a necessary consequence of the feature of arbitrariness discussed above. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols. For concepts, things, ideas, objects etc. We have sounds and words as symbols. Language uses words essentially as symbols and not as signs for the concepts represented by them.
e) Language is systematic: - Every language is a system of systems. All language have phonological and grammatical system. By systematic we also say that “The girl is very beautiful” is sentence of English but “Beautiful girl is very the” is not sentence. So it should also remember that language is meaningful.
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A knyght ther was and that a worthy man
That fro the tyme that he first bigan
To ridden out, he loved chivalric.
This quotation has been quoted from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The prologue to Canterbury Tales”. Here the poet discusses about the character of The Knight.
The Knight was a worthy or brave man. He was indeed, a great warrior. He participated in many military campaigns. He had always been honoured for his bravery. Although his military valour was this knight’s most striking quality, he possessed certain other admirable virtues also. He was not only bravery butt wise. He had love chivalry, truth, honour and curtsey from an early time n his career.
Finally Chaucer presents the Knight as a real representative of the code of behaviour.
There was also a Nonne, a Prioresse
That of hire sunylyng was full simple
--- And she was cleped madame Eglentyne
The extracts have been extracted from the poem “The prologue to Canterbury Tales” written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry. In the above quotation he discusses about the character of Prioress.
The Prioress is a woman of the religion, being a superior nun holding the charge of a priory. She was full of charity and pity. Chaucer emphasises the Prioress’s basic feminity. She was “simple and sweet in her smiling”, her greatest oath being merely “By St. Loy”. There were several 14th century romances in which the heroine’s name was Eglantine which is also this Prioress’s name.
Eventually we can say that madame Eglantine is that woman whose name is Prioress.
What ever dies, was not mixed equally
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
These lines have been taken from John Donne’s poem “The Good Morrow”. Here the poet wants to says that the deepness and immortality of their love.
The poet suggests that only those things are subject to death and decay whose constituents are not mixed proportionately. The love of the poet and his beloved are one because they are exactly similar in all respects and as such none of them can be subject to death. There souls being united in pure love will remain united for ever and dissolution not possible if the two souls are one, hence their mutuality can make love immortal. The pure love is better than the physical world. The perfect love is neither subject to time nor death. The poet is happy with the world of love. Decay and death are not true of their love is harmonious and sweet blooded. So their love is immortal.
Ultimately we can say that love is haven coming to the human being.
Ø Yet all experience ------------------ to breathe were life.
The extracts have been extracted from the poem Ulysses written by Alfred Tennyson. Here in these lines, the poet expresses that how Ulysses has traveled far and wide and seen many countries and known many people. Yet his hunger for travel and adventure is not satisfied. He would like to set sails again and have more experience.
Ulysses tells his sailors that whatever experience he had gained so far, was just like a doorway which reveled to him unexplored regions of knowledge and experience whose horizon recedes, the more he travels and the more experience he gains, knowledge is limitless and its end can never be reached. His life in Ithaca, without any adventure, is dull. Such a useless life would make him dull mentally and inactive physically. Just as a sword which is not used gets rusted, so also a man who does not have adventures and rest at home in peace and happiness becomes dull and inactive. Real life means activity and merely to breathe is not enough.
Ø Sophocles long ago --------------------------- of human misery.
These lines occur in the second stanza of Matthew Arnold’s lyric, Dover Beach. The poet hears the grating roar of pebbles as the waves of the sea retreat from the shore. There is a tremulous cadence in the advance and retreat of waves which suggests an eternal note of sadness.
Sophocles, the Greek tragedian, heard long ago this eternal note of sadness on the Aegean Sea. Hearing this note of sadness, he relates in his tragedies the sorrowful tale of human life. He knew the ebb-tide and flow-tide of human life. He knew the muddy confused life of human sorrows and calamities. In his plays Antigone and Trachiniae, he compares human calamities to a rough sea. Thus Sophocles uses the image of grating roar of waves to describe the depth of human sorrows.
Ø I gave commands; this all smiles stopped together.
This quotation has been quoted from the poem My Last Duchess written by Robert Browning. These lines refer to the killing of a Duchess by a 1600 century Italian Duke of Ferrara.
The Duke, while talking to the envoy of the portrait of his wife. The Duchess was innocent pleasant, good, nature and simple. She was not in the proud and treated all equally. Even she used to make no difference between her husbands. The Duke and other men. On the other hand, the Duke was proud of his position as well as of his nine hundred years aristocracy. The Duke did not like the Duchess behaviour. But he thought it to beyond his prestige to ask his wife to give up this habit. The Duke was crud and dictatorial by nature. So he gave commands to his people to kill her and thus all her smiles stopped at once.
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Faerie Queene / Edmund Spenser
The Faerie Queene is a romantic epic, the first sustained poetic work since Chaucer. Edmund Spenser wanted to write 12 books but after finishing 6 books he died. In this work, he uses the modern pronunciation, biblical allegory to tell his story, but the poem is much more than just a religious poem. This focuses on the political, social, and religious, in which the Faerie Queene represents Elizabeth - I. It is a perfect and significant allegorical poem.
In this opening section, Red Cross Knight is the hero and holiness in man's life. He bears the sign of the Cross on his amour. Una is the heroine, daughter of the King and symbol of Truth. They are starting their journey to destroy a Dragon and rescue Una's parents. When a storm occurs, the knight and lady, accompanied by her Dwarf, take shelter in a dark forest.
They come across the Error which is here symbolized by a Monster, Who is half-human and half-serpent. Monster attacks the knight, who does not listen to Una's warnings. The Red Cross Knight must kill the Monster to escape, cutting off her head. The Monster is died. Here we see the impurity of holiness.
After rescuing from their way they met a grey beard and pious man of his appearance named Archimago, who is hypocrisy, evil enchanter. He changes tactics, this time having his evil spirits pose as Una and a young man in a delicate position and summoning the Red Cross Knight to watch. Disgusted by his lady unfaithfulness, the knight storms out of the hermitage. Archimago comes in the disguise of the Red Cross Knight and Una accept his as Red Cross Knight.
The Red Cross Knight arrive the Queen Lucifera’s palace in the company of Duessa. There he fought a battle against the Sansjoy, the brother of Sansfoy. Ultimately Sansjoy was seriously wounded. But Sansloy tried to snatch away the chastity of Una for the second time. The Red Cross Knight accompanied by Duessa, encountered against by the name of Orgoglio, a great Satan. Actually the Red Cross Knight was defeated. Duessa appealed to the gaint to spare the life of the Red Cross Knight Saying that he will be his mistress. Now the Red Cross Knight is the prisoner and Duessa is the mistress of Orgoglio.
Una is very lucky because she came to meet Arthur. Una requested him to save the Red Cross Knight from the imprisonment. Accordingly Arthur fought with the Orgoglio and killed him. Then he bought of the Red Cross Knight from the dead dungeon and presented him to Una.
Una now took the Red Cross Knight to her father’s kingdom where the Red Cross Knight was able to defeat and kill the dragon. Actually the dragon was very ferocious and dreadful that the people and the king-queen of that country were very afraid. Una was highly grateful to the Red Cross Knight as he has saved the valuable lives of the people and of that country.
The Red Cross Knight and Una are engaged with the blessing of her parents. Then, a messenger arrives, claiming that Red Cross Knight may not marry Una because he already pledged his hand to another the evil Duessa when she was pretending to be Fidessa. Red Cross and Una quickly talk the knight out of this obligation, stating that affection and promises won under false pretenses are not valid or binding. In fact, she is so adamant about appearance equaling truth that she asks the messenger to reveal himself. Of course, it turns out to be that villain Archimago. The celebration continues, but the couple does not wed at once.
Eventually we can conclude in this way that Spenser’s The Faerie Queen is such an ornamental and allegorical epic poem in which the Red Cross Knight was the most influential and discussed the heroic figure as we find his vital role from the beginning to the end of the epic.
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Francis Bacon Selected Essays
Francis Bacon is the father of English Essay. He introduced the “essay” into English literature in the 16th century. When all the writers were very busy in writing drama, he deviated himself from the conventional stream. He has written 58 essays. Bacon’s Essays are, in his own words, “counsels, civil and moral”. Every essay contains significant epigrammatic meaning. But the philosophic thought and pragmaticism have played an important role which has created new impression in the minds of reader.
Of Marriage and Single Life essay Bacon exhibits a balance sheet of assets and liabilities of married and single life, advantages and disadvantages, emotion and sentiment are family suppressed. Bacon has given opinion like this ---
“He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.”
Bacon above the quotation wants to means that a married man hesitates to take risks because he has the responsibility of maintaining his family and hence he is disqualified for an adventurous life.
“Un-married men are best friends, best masters, best servants; but not always best subjects.”
Through the above quotation Bacon expresses that single men prove to be best friends, best masters and servants. Because having no family they can pay full attention to friends or their work. But they are not always good citizens as being roothless and without responsibility they find easy to leave the country.
“Certainly wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity.”
In the line Bacon mention, wife and children are a kind of discipline of a man and he develops his softer feeling. A single man is charitable, more hard hearted and cruel than a married man.
“Wives are young men’s mistresses; companions for middle age; and old men’s nurses.”
Above the quotation Bacon expresses that, when a man is young wife is an object of romantic passionate love; in the middle age they serve as companion and old age they are useful as nurse to look after husband.
Of Friendship essay Bacon speaks of the necessity of friendship and then about the fruits of friendship. In this context, Bacon says ---
“For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.”
The lines are almost poetic and picturesque. One can feel lonely even in the middle of a crowd because their faces are seemed the pictures in the picture-gallery. One cannot establish any human contract with them. Talking with a number of people is as meaningless as the sounds produced by striking cymbals; there is no love or sympathy involved.
“For there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more: and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less.”
In the lines Bacon optimizes that a man feels doubly happy if he conveys his joy to his friend. At the same time a man’s misery and grief are lessened if he has a friend to share it.
“A man cannot speak to his son but as a father; to his wife but as a husband; to his enemy but upon terms: where as a friend may speak as the case requires.”
There are great deals of problems which is not sharable with close relatives. But a friend is free of such personal considerations.
Of studies essay Bacon’s most popular essays one of them. In this book he discusses education, impotent of education and various type of reader. In this context, Bacon says ---
“Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.”
Bacon has expressed study of a book is useful in three aspects. Studies are a source of delight in one’s leisure time and solitude. They also have an ornamental value. It also increases one’s practical ability.
“Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them.”
Crafty men look down upon studies as unless. They remark that it has no value in human life. Simple men are awed and look with wonder at studies. It is the wise man who uses studies in practical life.
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Bacon expresses his opinion; some books are to be read in parts only. Others to be read through hastily not a great care. There are only a small number of books that provide the kind of material which should be carefully read.
“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
In this contest Bacon says that we can get some ideas about reading, writing. Reading fills the mind with new ideas and develops the personality conversation makes a man alert and quick witted and through taking down notes a man become systematic.
Of Truth essay Bacon considers two aspects of truth: objective truth or speculative truth on one hand, and on the other, subjective truth which is really truthfulness, and is operative in social life because Bacon expresses ---
“A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.”
The above line Bacon permitted to tell lie in the time of necessity. He is not a strict moralist but a liberal moralist. He thinks mixture of truth and false increases delightness.
“Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man’s mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.”
Man would achieve the supreme bliss of paradise on this earth if his motives are governed by charity which is the Christian virtue of universal love, if he submits his will to God’s and his whole life revolves around truth.
“For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.”
The law of God is the law of Truth and in telling a lie a man face to God. So a liar fears his fellow human beings but has no fear of God.
One can say that Bacon was a writer who represented the most salient features of his age, the age of the revival of learning and study of the ancients, the sprit of inquiry and individualism and nationalism.
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Consider John Donne as a love poet.
The name of John Donne, not much celebrated in his own days, has become a quite important one in English poetry in recent time. To days he is well-known as the founder of the Metaphysical School of English poetry. He is recognized now as a brilliant wit and serious intellectualist. His poetry has Varity. This poetry is read with a good deal of interest by modern lover of English poetry.
Love is an abstract relation between men and women, men and men, women and women. It may be spiritual, sensual, conditional and illicit.
John Donne’s reputation as a love poet is better than any other poet in our English literature. But it would not be easy to extract a simple definition of love from Donne’s poems, for they are presented a surprising variety of mood and attitude to the emotion and feeling. The poems are at times frankly sensual, at other times splendidly passionate, at yet other times cynical and touched with scorn and bitterness.
Passion marks much of the love poetry of Donne the opening of many a poem is dramatic in its passion. The canonization comes immediately to mind.
“For God’s sake hold your tongue and let me love”
Several of the love poems are marked by simple, pure affection. There the conception of love is neither Petrarehan nor platonic. In these poems Donne celebrates the best in conjugal love. The song Sweetest Love, I do no go are examples expressing the sweet contentment of love. The Sun Rising, The Good Morrow and The Dream are poems recording the delight of mutual love making, without outside interference.
Donne’s poems also present sensual love in all its aspects. Donne does not consider physical love or bodily love to be impure. It is as important to him as the spiritual attraction between two souls. It is only through the bodies that the souls meet, as he says in The Ecstasy.
On the whole, one can discern five major themes in Donne’s love poetry. There is the sorrow of parting, the misery of secrecy, the falser of the mistress, the fickleness of the lover and finally a contempt for love itself. Love is one sense is a holy passion and in this sense it is irrespective of whether it is withering marriage or outside it. In another dense, it is purely physical, in which case it is nothing better than lust. Love which partakes of the body and the soul is best. Perhaps the last stanza of the canonization aptly sums up Donne philosophy of love, that a complete relationship between man and woman fuses their souls into a complete a hole, and thus they become a world in themselves. In The Sun Rising too Donne expresses the same idea.
It is not easy to extract a definition of love from poems which deal with some attitudes to the emotion. However whether dealing with sensual or spiritual love or complain combination of both. Donne is always passionate. Love is sometimes seen as immortal. The poem thus expresses a surprising varity of attitude. Love threatened by change is at times seen in a cynical like at times with better disillusionment.
On the whole, one might that Donne’s poems celebrate love in both its physical well as its spiritual aspects. Love is properly fulfilled only when it emprises both body and soul.
v What is linguistics? Relationship between linguistics and other branches of knowledge.
The word “Linguistics” has been coming from Latin word “lingus” means tongue or sound and “isties” means knowledge or science. So etymologically linguistics is the scientific study of language. But it is the study not of one particular language but of human language in general.
Linguistics and Literature: The relationship between linguistics and literature is like that of the hammer and the anvil. If a linguist wants to study a language like Sanskrit, he has no other source of his data but the literature of the Sanskrit language. Literary criticism and literary scholarship, together with philosophical studies, constituted a part of linguistics of Western Europe. The linguist has taken over the concepts of metres, rhymes, rhythms, stresses and intonations from literature.
The nature of language is of vital concern to the students of literature, because language is the medium in which literature is written. A creative writer is never wholly free from linguistic and cultural considerations or limitations howsoever unconscious of these he may be literally. All linguistic levels exert an influence on his creativity and on what he creates. All these factors influence his style. Word formation can often be used as a source of particular literary effects.
Linguistics and Philosophy: The association between philosophy and linguistics has indeed been historically very long. In fact, it were the philosophers who first of all speculated on language. Plato’s dialogues have explicit reference to language and so have the Vedas and the Upanishadas of the ancient Indians. In the field of semantic, philosophy has provided tremendous insight to the linguists. The structural linguistics ignored meaning because they thought it to be a subject of philosophy.
On the major concerns of the Greek and Roman philosophers was to determine the nature of being and the categories into which it fell. Aristotle established three main categories of predication “things or Substances” “qualities” and “actions”. And the traditional concepts of parts of speech seem to have originated from there.
Linguistics and Geography: Linguistics and geography are also interrelated disciplines. The growth of a new discipline or branch called “linguistic geography” stands as a valid evidence to prove our proposition. Geographical conditions, trees, plants, birds animals, planes, mountains, rivers etc. have a bearing on language. The language of the people of a thick forest with a rich store of animals may be richer in the names of trees and animals than the language of the people living in the desert. If there is little interaction between one community and another community for example in the hilly areas, because of the obstacles created by hills and rivers, the cases of language change would be less frequent.
v What is phonetics?
Phonetics is the scientific study of the production, transmission and reception of speech sounds. It studies the medium of spoken language. Touching upon physiology and physics, phonetics is now a pure science that studies speech processes, including the anatomy, neurology and pathology of speech, as well as the articulation, description, classification, production and perception of speech sounds.
Ø What is the dramatic monologue? Discuss at least two dramatic monologue of Robert Browning.
Dramatic monologue is a kind of lyric poem in which a single speaker expresses his thought and feeling to a silent listener. My Last Duchess and A Grammarian’s Funeral are successful dramatic monologue of Robert Browning and almost all the elements of a dramatic monologue are skillfully handed in these poems.
My Last Duchess is one of the best dramatic monologue of Robert Browning. In this poem, the Duke might be Alfonso-II, the fifth Duke of Ferrara. He has three wives and his first wife died of Poison. He then negotiated a second marriage with large dowry. The widowed Duke of Ferrara shows the portrait of his former wife to the envoy of a count whose daughter he intends to marry. It is a portrait painted by Fra Pandolf. It is so skillfully painted that the Duchess seems to be alive. By making the painter a friar, Browning probably wonted to emphasise that there was no cause for the Duke’s jealousy. The character is imaginary. As the envoy examines the portrait, a questioning expression comes on his face. The Duke understands what his visitor wants to know, because on several occasions in the past, a similar questioning expression. The duchess has a sincere impassioned and yet smiling glace in her eyes and the envoy, like previous visitors, wants to know how that look came into the eyes of the Duchess when she was being painted.
The Duke then explains the cause of that look in the eyes of the Duchess and that blush of joy in her cheek because due to some compliment that the painter might have paid to her. Perhaps the painter said that it was impossible to depict the Duchess’s charm and loveliness in the portrait. The Duke goes on to say that all this was very displeasing to him and it is below his dignity. It is true that she smiled at him whenever she saw him, but she smiled at everybody in the someway. He could not tolerate this any longer. So he became gave commands. Then all smiles stopped together. In other words, she died that is the Duke ordered to kill the Duchess and she was killed.
Here in this poem the Duke expresses to the envoy his hope of getting a rich dowry from the count whose daughter he intents to marry. Finally, as they begin descending the stairs the Duke shows his guest a bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse which he says, is a superb sculpture and which was cast by Clause of Innsbruck. Here in this poem, Neptune is the god of the sea. Innsbruck is a major town in Austria Clause is an imaginary sculptor.
A Grammarian’s Funeral is the famous dramatic monologue. In this poem Browning describe a man who is a typical product of his age and environment and invests him with certain characteristic which make him appear as historical personate. After reading his poem, we feel that we know the Grammarian in all his pedantry and exclusive devotion to the details of philosophy. The Grammarian is on of the fundamental scholars. The speaker of the poem is one of the dead Grammarian’s disciples who are carrying the death body to a suitable place for burial. The spokes man of the disciples who are carrying the death body of the Grammarian says that they would like to bury their master, not in the common plain but at some great height where man’s thought grows rarer and intenser. He says that they will leave the plain in order to seek a burial place on a tall mountain. They will climb up to high peak of the mountain. It is the common place who are confined to the plains and who belong t the night. They are masters. Who attained fame and who is now death, was for the morning? The disciples will leave the crofts, the fields and villages behind them because they have to carry the death body of the Grammarian to a grave upon the mountain. The Grammarian was born with face and thro of lyric Apollo that is he had a handsome face and a musical voice like Apollo. For long time he worked hard in obscurity. He devoted the whole of his youth to his work and then he found himself suddenly old. But he did not grumble and did not say that he could work no more. He did not say that other people must now take up his work. He was too proud to seek that world’s sympathy by lamenting the loss of his youthful vigour. He made up his mind that to acquire complete knowledge of the work. He wanted to master of knowledge. He was ready to consume the feast of knowledge. The passing of time did not make him impatient. Accordingly he went back to his books and got still more absorbed in them. He was tormented by painful disease bloodier, his eyes became dimmer and dimmer he was attack by a bronchial cough his disciple us him to take a little rest.
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Ø Main theme of Tintern Abbey.
William Wordsworth is a poet of nature, reformer of our English literature, visited a Church named Tintern Abbey in the wye valley. This poem reveals how the poet appreciated nature through the senses and how finally, he discovered the divine spirit in nature and beggar to worship it for its inner meaning or significance.
Description of the scenery: After five years he has visited Tintern Abbey and hears the murmuring sound of the water of the river wye. The tall mountains give an expression of deep seclusion. The green fields seems to stretch as for as the horizon. The landscape clam and quite. The poet lies down under the sycamore tree. The plots attached to the cottage are green, right up to the cottage door. The friends on the tree are at this season unripe and green. Bushes are growing wild in the jungle. Smoke is rising from among the trees. From this smoke we guess that either some homeless wonderer are making fire in the jungle or some hermit is sitting in the jungle near their fire. The poet has troubled in the noisy towns and the cities. Revisit of Tintern Abbey gave him pleasure and peace of mind.
The poet’s philosophy: we do not understand the meaning and the purpose of the world, but the worshipper of nature understands the mystery of the nature. He understands the meaning of the world not by head but by heart. Our body sleeps for the time being. Our soul wakes and we get a grasp of the meaning of the creation.
Nature heats our troubles and sorrows. The noise and the mad fever of the town life seemed to stop the beating of his heart. Such times the morning of this scene of mountains, fields and rivers cured his troubles and brought him happiness.
In boyhood Wordsworth felt an animal pleasure in nature. Like a deer, he ran races over the mountains and on the banks of the rivers and streams. It seemed as if he was running away from nature. The fact was that he loved nature.
The poet loved the natural sceneries of Tintarn Abbey. Nature was his beloved. He felt a deep love for the rocks, mountains and the jungle. He loved only the beauty of nature. When he saw in the running water of the brook he heard the still sad music of nature. The water of the brook gave him the idea of the tears and trouble of humanity.
God dwells in the light of the setting sun, round ocean, living air, and blue sky and in the mind of man. God moves through all objects and through all things. God is all and all is God this is pantheism. The poet loved the wood, mountains fields since they are visible shape of God.
Address to his sister Dorothy: The poet’s sister, Dorothy was with him when he revisited Tintern Abbey. He called her dear friend, he tried to recollect his sweet past memories when he observed the activities of his sister Dorothy. Wordsworth thought that nature leads him from joy to joy. Nature never deceived with anyone who worships her. For a worshiper of a nature, love in all joy. He enjoys the peace of mind. All the troubles of the world cannot destroy his happiness and his optimism. Dorothy walked lone in the moonlight and visited mountains. If ever misfortunes befell her, she would remember advice namely that nature worship all worries and troubles. William Wordsworth the worshiper of nature loved Tintern Abbey both for its sake and for the fact that his sister was with him.
So, after the above discussion we can find that Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey is full of nature beauty in which the poet expresses the joy he feel on re-visiting a scene of nature. He tells his sister Dorothy that “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her”. He believed that between man and nature there is spiritual intercourse.
Ø What are the Ulysses’ arguments in favour of travel and adventure?
Ulysses is a dramatic monologue. It is dramatic because it expresses the feeling not of the poet, but of Ulysses, and it is monologue because only one person speaks throughout. The others merely listen to him. Ulysses, the hero of Trojan War, returned to his island state of Ithaca after twenty years. He has been ruling his state for some time but the life of peace, devoid of adventure, does not suit him. In the poem, he is supposed to be standing at the coast of the Sea, surrounded by the sailors, whom he exhorts to follow him in quest of more knowledge and experiences.
Ulysses gives arguments after arguments in favour of a life of travel and adventure. First, the people of the island are uncivilized, the laws are unjust, and so he will not like to rule there. His wife has grown aged, and the people do not understand his real nature. Secondly, he has grown used to a life of adventure, and the inactive life of a king does not suit him. He has visited many lands and known many people with their different habits and ways of life, but there are still many more lands to be seen and he is eager to visit them. The more he knows, the greater is his thirst for knowledge. He would like to “follow knowledge like a sinking star”. Human life is short and knowledge is infinite and therefore, no time is to be wasted. At home one becomes rusted; one shines only in use. He has only a few more years to live and he would devote them to the pursuit of as much knowledge and experience as possible.
As regards his island, he has no worry about its government. His son Telemachus is quite sensible and prudent and he would look after the welfare of his state. He would give due worship to the gods and would also take care of his old mother with love. He is interested in the ordinary, everyday duties of life, while Ulysses himself craves for travel and adventure. So his son would be quite happy to stay in the island and rule over it, while he himself would enjoy his life of adventure abroad.
Therefore, they must set sail with him that very night. In the past, they have cheerfully faced together great dangers and difficulties, and they would also do so in the future. In the past, they achieved much that was noble. No doubt, they have grown old, but noble achievement is possible even in old age. They may be physically weak, but they are still strong in determination. So they would sail “to strive, to seek, to find and to yield”.
