Studies in English Language and Literature

  “If music be the food of love, play on…” Explain/ Elucidate/ Comment The given excerpt has been taken from William Shakespeare’s five-act comedy Twelfth Night or What You Will . This expression occurs in the opening line of the play. That is to say, it has been extracted from Act 1 Scene 1 of the said comedy. These words have been uttered by Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, to Curio, one of the two male attendants of the Duke, the other one being Valentine. It is known to all that the purpose of our taking food is to keep ourselves alive. Yes, food keeps us alive by nourishing our entire physical process. It provides us with lots of energy alongside quenching our hunger. Similarly, we need some nourishment for our mental process as well. How can that be done? Broadly speaking, it can be done by taking in “the food of love”, that is, “music”. We all know that “love” and “music” are associated with each other in some way or the other. Moreover, it is distinctly discernible that love

Some explanations from Eliot’s The Waste Land with reference to context   I sat upon the shore Fishing, with the arid plain behind me Shall I at least set my lands in order? Answer : This excerpt has been taken from the last section of T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land . The excerpt reminds is of the speaker persona’s fishing experience in a nasty canal in lines 189 – 192 of the same poem. We are reminded of the Fisher King in the Grail Legends and the Arthurian Romances. The speaker is surrounded by an ‘arid plain’ or a ‘waste land’ where there is no symptom of rebirth and regeneration. The European civilisation, in the wake of World War I, became as ‘arid’ and shattered as a wasteland where there is no question of life and hope. Everything is shallow and numb. The utmost crisis led to nothingness, disillusionment etc. the speaker wonders and questions himself whether he will ever be able to “set” his “lands in order”. Here the poet has used