Studies in English Language and Literature

Henry Louis Vivian Derozio’s love for India whispered into his ears to pay a homage to the land with the aid of his poem,  To India, My Native Land .  He is the first poet of Modern India to express his fiercely intense patriotism in poetry.  To India, My Native Land is a magnificent sonnet that depicts his pure patriotism. This sonnet also delineates his utmost will to emancipate India from the British bondage. In this patriotic poem, the speaker persona recalls India's past glory before the era of British bondage. She was suffused with name and fame, only glory but no worry during those days. She was over brimmed with cultural and spiritual richness at that time. Anyway, after the British reign, such abstracts went away in the twinkling of an eye. She became bereft of all such richness. In this poem, we come across rhetorical questions. Again, the image of eagle in this poem symbolise the royalty of the land in the then times. Dust  epitomis...

In Derek Walcott’s play Dream on Monkey Mountain , we come across the character of Corporal Lestrade as well as the character of Makak. Makak is an older black man. He is the protagonist of the play. He used to live alone on the Monkey Mountain. There is a search for one’s own identity in the play. The play opens in a small West Indian jail. In the play, t he action occurs in  real as well as in imagined locations. The most real place is the jail. Again, on the other hand, Makak is a dreamer and full of human emotions to some extent. On a country road, Makak heals a sick man. This act throws ample light to his sense of humanity.  The play has been given manifold interpretations. by many critics. Some of the interpreters have compared Makak to Christ, while the others have stressed on his name meaning ‘monkey’. The play depicts African myths and customs. Corporal Lestrade was pretty oppressing. He cannot accept his lack of identity. Since he is a Mulat...

Question: Discuss Donne’s  The Anniversary  as a metaphysical love poem. / Write a critical appreciation of  The Anniversary . / Attempt a critical analysis of the poem. Answer: At the outset, let us have a clear concept of metaphysical love poem.  A metaphysical love poem is distinguished by the preponderance of the intellectual over the emotional element, and it is expected to make use of some conceits that are brilliant. In John Donne’s metaphysical poem named The Anniversary , we find that all these conditions are fructified complacently.  The poem gives an account of a couple celebrating their first year in a relationship. The fundamental conceit of the entire poem is the metaphor of royalty. Simultaneously, imagery of divinity and death permeate the poem. The vital interest lies in the manner in which Donne uses royal imagery to convey the thought of a love.  The opening lines imminently proclaim that not only Kings, but also ...

Question: The Prince by Machiavelli is a handbook of an ambitious Renaissance man. – Discuss. / Machiavelli’s The Prince is pragmatic; it is a practical and amoral handbook for the modern politicians. – Discuss. / Discuss the value of The Prince as a handbook for modern political rulers. / Point out the modernity in Machiavelli’s discourses on the eligibility of an efficient ruler or prince. Answer : Machiavelli, the Italian statesman and dramatist, is widely known as “the first realist in politics”. Niccolo Machiavelli's  The Prince is a treatise on politics and it is based upon his first-hand experience as an emissary of the Florentine Republic to the courts of Europe. In fact, Machiavelli added a dimension to one of the major philosophical and political issues of his time, especially the relationship between public deeds and private morality. His book gives us a detailed picture of the true nature of power, no matter in what age or by whom it is ex...

Examine Keats’ treatment of brightness and fulfilment in To Autumn . Ans. To Autumn  records the poet’s meditations on maturity. It encapsulates his efforts to achieve it issuing into a disciplined poetic art. The complete maturity exemplifies Keatsian virtues of sensuousness and pictorial beauty, felicity of diction, perfectness of form and splendid vividness of imagery. This impersonal  ode celebrated the season of autumn as a time of natural fulfilment and as a part of the living process of nature. The season of ripeness and abundance is a reminder of the mortality of things, a herald to the approaching desolation of winter.  In Stanza I, we come to know autumn as a ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’. The sun matures the earth, ripening the grapes, the apples, the gourds and the hazelnuts etc.  Stanza II describes the imagery of arrested motion. It echoes the upcoming winter. The reaper is the messenger of death so, ‘the last drop ...

       Discuss sensuousness and pictorial qualities in Keats’ poetry with reference to Ode to a Nightingale and To Autumn . A thorough study of Keats’ poems like Ode to a Nightingale and To Autumn   justifies how Keats lived for ‘a life of sensations’. Opening up with a keen sensation of agony,   Ode to a Nightingale soon gives place to ‘a drowsy numbness. Keats’ poetry excels in vividly sensuous images in the lines full of sensuousness and the visual picture of a drinking vessel. In the closing stanza of   Ode to Autumn , a fantastic reconstruction of the dying autumnal twilight suggests the magnificent perfection of Keats’ poetic sensibility. Ode to a Nightingale   seems to be suffused with pictures, mostly visual, but occasionally manifested with the aural, the tactile and the olfactory portraits. To Autumn   is also full of sensuous pictures. Stanza I depicts the fruits of autumn. Stanza II of the ode a...

Question: Examine Shelley’s imagery in relation to his theme in Ode to the West Wind . The term ‘imagery’ refers to a collection of images to signify the objects and qualities of sense perception, whether by literal description, by allusion or in the analogies used in its similes and metaphors.  Perhaps the most beautifully imaginative of the English Romantic poets was Shelley. He was particularly excellent in his ability to convey sensations in terms of imagery, predominantly visual. he was a poet of profound idealism and prophetic passion. Shelley invariably aspired to the infinite and the eternal. The method in many of Shelley’s poetry was to find in natural objects symbols for his emotional and imaginative patterns. In Ode to the West Wind , Shelley found, in the central and pervading image of the all-powerful West Wind, a dualistic role of destruction and preservation. At the very outset of  the poem, the West Wind is presented as an enormously powerful agency....