W. B . Yeats Poems

W. B. Yeats

Was an Irish poet dramatist write and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature . He was driving force behind the Irish literary revival and became a pillar of Irish literary establishment who helped to found the . Abbey theatre and his later years served two teams as a senator of the Irish free State.

The  second coming

W. B . Yeats the second coming was written at a momentous  time in 20th century Europe an ear of uncertainty and upheaval in the wake of the first' world war and in the teeth of Ireland independence struggle Yeats captured the moment brilliantly in a poem that with its prophetic Tone and foreboding language has stood the text of time . The poem was written in January 1919 in the minds of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic the only modern precedent for what we are going through in this first half of 2020 the story began early in November 1918 when John Quinn cable from new York with word that Yeats 79 years old father John butler Yeats who had lived there since 1907had come down with a serious bout of the flu which quickly developed into pneumonia . 

To add to the drama Maud Gonne made a dramatic appearance in flu ridden Dublin. Following an intercession by the redoubtable John Quinn Gonne had been released on health. Ignoring this restrictions she travelled from England at the end of November disgusted as a Red cross nurse. 

2) Reread the poem war poem by replacing the word war with pandemic. Dose it make any sense? 

On being asked for a war poem 

On being asked for a poem war poem is a poem by William Butler's Yeats written on February 6 1915 in response to a request by Henry James that Yeats compose a political poem about World war 1 Yeats changed the poems title from To a friend who has asked me to sing his manifeso to the neutral nation to a reason for keeping silent before sending it in a letter to James 

Introduction 

There is something of a contradiction to this poem in a war poetry collection it is a poem that refuses to speak about war. The poem says that it is not the place of a poet to write about politics but that the poet instead should limit his interference in the World to pleasing companion .

On being asked for a war poem

This poem war written after Yeats was asked to write a war poem. It is a meditation on whether poets can write war Poetry . It also consider an old question what is the role of the poet in society and what is he function of poetry.

The opening stalemate is forthright and conversation about times like these time of war the enjambment or running over the end of line mimics everyday speech. We have no gift to set a statement right. A statesman is a political leader . Here it is asserted that poets have no gift or ability to tell statesman how they should make decisions. This seems to say that poetry has no place in intervening in politics and the poet no role in making big Statament about wars and what causes them.

The waste Land

The waste Land by T.S Eliot 

The waste Land is a modern epic poem written by T.S Eliot . This poem is divided into the five parts which represents the sexual perversion and spiritual degradation but yet in the end it gives the message of hope for the betterment of future.

1 ) What are your views on the following image after reading . The  waste Land ? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzsches views ? Or has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mythi historical answer to the contemporary malaise ? 

According to me Friedrich  Nietzsches noble idea of ubermensch is more significant than the Idea of Eliot . And Eliot s Idea are seems regressive . In today's time if someone is suggesting you to take the help of religion or of religious activities for the moral living than it will not leads you towards the real morality. Because what we find is that those people who are involved in this kinds of things they themselves are immoral . If we see the history than we finds that they all were the Great followers of the God but yet the sexual perversion we can finds there also . So we can say that that there idea is not working . And one more thing is that there is nothing like miracle which can help us it is up to our own self how we defines the real concept of spirituality. Where as Nietzsches idea gives spirituality.

2) prior to the speech Gusta Hellstrom of the Swedish Academy made these remarks.

What are your views regarding these comment's ? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed primitile instinct lead us to happy and satisfied life or do you agree with Eliot s views that salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition ? 

Here I am not agree with the concept of Freud . Because giving free vent to the repressed primitive instinct will automatically leads towards the anarchy . For transitioning happiness we should not create disorganization in the society . where as here Eliot seems more powerful than Freud because if we lives with some discipline or with organization than life becomes more easier . 

3) write about allusions to the Indian thought in the waste land ( where how and why are the Indian thought referred ?) 

In the poem we finds so many references of the Indian thought 

= Fire sermon: the third part of the poem itself gives the idea of Buddha's semon . In which he preaches about liberation from the suffering. 

=River Ganga and Himalayas : here Eliot uses the reference of river Ganga in the context of purification. And Himalayas as a peace of mind and also for the spirituality.

Ganga was sunken and the limp leaves waited for rain , while the black clouds 

Gathered far distant over himavant 

The jungle crouched humped in silence 

Then spoke the thunder .

Eliot uses this all the Indian references because the situation of his country is became like barren land. Where as these spiritual ideas of India seems more powerful and people also lives the free life without any plunge . So we can say that to make his own land again fertile Eliot has used these ideas. 

War Poetry

 Question / Answer

1) Note down the difference of all the war poets

1) Siegfried Sassoon 

Was an English war poet and soldier . decorated for bravery on the western front he became one of the leading poets of the first World war. His poets both described the horrors of the trenches and satirished the patriotic pretensions of those who in sassons view were responsible for jingoism fuelled war . 

War  Service 

Motivated by patriosm Sassoon joined the army just as the threat of a new European was recognised and was in service with the Sussex yeomanry on 4 August 1914 the day the United Kingdom declared war on Germany he broke his arm badly in a riding accident and was put out of action before leaving England spending the spring of 1915 convalescing he was commissioned into the 3rd battalion royal Welch fusiliers as a second lieutenant on 29 may 1915

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen is widely regarded as one of Britain's greatest war poets . writing from the perspective of his intense personal experience of the front line his poems including anthem for doomed youth and Dulce et decorum est bring to life the physical and mental trauma of combat . Owens aim was to tell the truth about what he called the pity of war.

Rupert Brooke 

Was born in rugby and attended rugby school the English public school famous as the home of rugby football where his father was a house master . Given that the school was also his family home rugby played a large part in his formative years . The school has a tradition of creating poet forerunner of Brooke in the nineteenth century include mattew Arnold Arthur Hugh Clough and Lewis Carroll Brooke volunteered for active service at the outbreak of war in August 1914 and with the help of Marsh and Churchill.

Gibson's

Poetry was greatly influenced by his experiences during World war 1 having been denied entry into the army for several years due to his poor ensight . Gibson was finally allowed to become a soldier in 1917 . Two years later he was injured and left.

Ivor Gurney

Ivor Gurney was born in Gloucester the son of a tailor . Having demonstrated an early gift for music he won a position as a chorister at Gloucester cathedral and an accompanying education at the elith kings school .in 1911 Gurney won a scholarship to the royal College of music but he was unhappy I London and fell ill in the spring of 1913 suffering from depression.

2) compare any two poems with reference to the subject style of writing and patriotism.

To begin world war one was one of the most deadliest and catastrophic wars to mankind by millions of young men dying for the sake of freedom . Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke were commonly two soldier who both participated in the war. As there are numerous similarities in both participated in the war. As there are numerous similaritie in both poems and author similarly about the same issue of war. The first World war was especially a deadly one with new chemically compounded weapons and machinery that could kill any human being without hesitation. Nolebly the trauma these fellows solider had to endure was a horrible one full of death and destruction . As it was known in those times and still is the fact if a man doesn't join the armed forces during war times do to patriotism he was considered a coward .the Many propagandas of that time to defend your country .

Comparing 

Rupert Brooke 

Even before the war Rupert Brooke was already a recognised Georgian poet he enlisted in fungust 1914 and even though he only fought in one battle. The experiences he made at the front moved him to write five sonnet about the war tittle 1914 Brooke stringly handsome and charismatic appearance his patriotic verse and his early death caused by an infection in 1915 seemed to capture the emotion of many and left to his popularity after his death . The soldier became very popular after death of St Paul only a few weeks before his death.

Wilfred Owen

Even though Owen is one of the most well known war poets Today . He was mostly unknown as a poet during his lifetime. When he was sent to the somme battle field in January 1917 the war he was a very different one then the one described in Brooke poetry Owen saw hopeless stalemate fight and the horrors of war and became disillusioned of the war. He was wrote most of his poems during that time until returning to active service in September 1918 but was killed in action on the 4th November 1918 exactly one week before the armistice . His collected poems were published two years after his death and owen got recognised and. Praised as one of the greatest poets of the war with Dulce et decorum est being one of his most famous poems .

Transcendentalism - An Intellectual Movement

 1) Transcendentalists talks about individuals relation with nature . What is nature for you ? Share your views.

An Introduction to Nature

The best way to get at Emerson is to come at him all at once in the ninety five pages of his little book called nature issued anonymously in 1836 which contains the compressed totality of all that he would subsequently patiently reveal . Revelation rather than. Logic was the instrument used by Emerson to delve toword truth. It was not his intention to create a philosophy or to codify thought. He distrusted logical argument as man made and therefore indequated because they are imperfect as man is imperfect . Neither philosopher nor conventional moralist Emerson it cannot be said too often was first and last an artist who attempted to create a vision of the world and man's place in it. What is Nature which lies all about us? What is the refulgent beauty of Nature that draw man out of himself to quietness and calm or to resolution ? What are the mysteries of Nature that inspired men resolution ? What are the mysteries of Nature that inspired men resolve by conquering time or space through the discovery of such things as the telegraph or the harnessing of waterpower and steam or rocketing to the moon?

Not a philosopher  Emerson presented himself simply as a person who related what he had experienced he revealed the world as it was revealed to him as he tried to see it fresh. Hr wrote as a realist writes. He had been there he has seen . He knew . His essays then are not to be read as logical demonstration but as revelations . What truth is in them is not explicit but implicit .they are to be read that is to sayas poetry is read not so much for what they say suggest of what cannot be said.

His sentences shimmer with meanings beyond logical expression. The essay Nature for example had been described as not so much directly addressing the mind as using the indirection of nature itself upon the soul the sunrise the haze of autumn the winter starlight seem interlocutors the prevailing sense is that of an exposition in poetry a high discourse the voice of the landscape as from his own breathe it is nature communing with the seer.

The second idea in the little book concern the sufficiency of nature . Nature is the gigantic shadow of God cast on the senses. Nature is the image the analogue of God . The beneficiary the Beauty the mystery of nature are like the Beauty the beneficence and the mystery of God . It is a means by which God reveals his plan to man whatan sees in nature however is only partial truth a shadow of the final truth that is there to be reveled when man can find it . Moses and Socrates Ptolemy and Copernicus Newton and today he might Einstein and many another each has approximated truth but the truth of one is discarded for the truth of the next which will in its turn be discarded when another person pushes farther the boundaries of truth . The truth of which nature is thus the shadow has always existed in the mind of God . Man's quest is to discover and described what portion of it he can . His materials are in nature but the truth against which he may measure what he finds is in God who is within man.

(2) Transcrndentalism is an American philosophy that influenced American literature at length. Can you find any Indian regional literature or philosophy came up with such similar thought ? 

Transcrndentalism 

19th century movment of writers and philosopher in new England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation the innate goodness of humanity and the supmacy of insight over logic and experienced for the revelation of the deepest truths . German Transcrndentalism platonism and neoplatonism the Indian and Chinese scriptures and the writing of such mystics as Emanuel swrdemnorg and Jakob bohme were sources to which the new England Transcrndentalism turned in their search for a liberating philosophy.

Transcrndentalism An American philosophy.

Transcrndentalism is very formal word that describes a very simple idea . people men and women equally have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that transcends or goes beyond what they can see hear taste touch or feel. 

This knowledge comes through intuition and imagination not through logic or the sense . People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right .a Transcrndentalist is a person who accept these ideas not as religious beliefs but as a way of understanding life relationships.

The individual most closely associated with this new way of thinking were connected loosely through a group known as the transcendental club which met in the . Boston home of George Ripley . Their chief publication was a periodical called the dial edited by Margret fuller a political radical and feminist whose book women or the nineteenth century was among the most famous of its time . The club had many extraordinary thinker but accorded the leadership positions to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Emerson was a Harvard educated essayist and lecture and is recognized as our first truly American thinker . In his most famous essay the American Scholar.

The Great Gatsby

 1) How did the film capture the Jazz Age the Roaring Twenties of the America in 1920s 

The  lost Generation refers to the generation of artists writers and intellectual that came of age during the first world war 1914 - 1918 and the Roaring Twenties.

African American were highly influential in the music and literature of the 1920s 

The first world war 

The experience of the western democracies in the first world war was disheartening and disillusioning so called civilized countries had declared war on each other for uncertain reasons had fought to a stalemate in brutal trencsh  warfare condition and had then negotiated a peace settlement that neither sattled the understanding causes of tension nor truly brought peace. 

The nationalistic fervor that had motivated many Americans and Europeans to enlist in war effort dissipated in the muddy trenches of battle where the purpose and aims of the war seemed distant and unclear . Technological advances in armaments made World war . I the deadliest conflict in human history claiming millions of casualties on all sides . The very nature of the war called into question the west's perception of itself as civilized small wonder then that many in the United States and Europe began to question the values and assumptions of westen civilization.

Jazz and the Roaring Twenties 

Jazz music became wildly popular in the Roaring Twenties a decade that witnessed unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the United States. Consumer culture flourished withe ever greater number of Americans  purchasing automobile electrical appliances and other widely    available consumer products. The achievement of material affluence became a goal for many US citizens as well as an object of satire and ridicule for the writers and intellectual of the lost Generation.

Technological innovations like the telephone and radio irrevocably altered the social lives of Americans. 

3) how did the film help in understanding the symbolic significances of the valley of Ashes The Eye's of .Dr T.J Ecklebery and the green light?

The Green light

Situated at the end of Daisy's East egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby s West egg lawn the green light represent Gatsby hope and dreams for the future . Gatsby associates it with Daisy and in chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal because Gatsby s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream the green light also symbolized that more generalized ideal . In chapter 9 Nick compares the Green light to how America rising out of the ocean must have looked to early settlers of the new nation .

The valley of Ashes 

First introduced in chapter 2 the valley of Ashes between West egg and New York  City consists of a. Long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial Ashe . It results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure . The valley of Ashes also symbolises the rlight of the poor like George Wilson who live among the dirty Ashe and lose their vitality as a result. 

The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Ecklebery

The eyes of Doctor T J . Ecklebery bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of Ashes . they may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland though the novel never makes this point explicitly instead throughout the novel Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning The connection between the eyes of Doctor T J. Ecklebery and God exists only in George Wilson grief stricken mind. This lack of concrete significances contributes to the unsettling nature of the image . Thus the eyes also come to represent the essential meaningless of the World and the arbitrariness of the mental process by which people invest object with meaning . Nick explore these ideas in chapter 8 when he imagines Gatsby final thoughts as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.

5) watch the video on Nick caraway and discuss him as a narrator .

Nick is the narrator but he is not omniscient and he's also very human and flawed . In other words he's an unreliable narrator sometimes because he's not present for a certain events other times because he present the story out of order and finnally because he sometimes obscure the truth. It takes most students two reads of the novel to even catch that fact that Nick has a woman waiting for him back in the Midwest. 

Because of his unreliable narrow status the central questions many teachers try to get at with Nick is to explore his role in the story how he compares to Gatsby.

I short you often have to analyse Nick as a character not the narrator this can be tricky because you have to compare Nick's narration with his dialogues his actions and how he chooses to tell the story . You also have to realize that when you're analysing the other characters you're doing that based on information from Nick which may or may not be reliable basically nothing we hear in the novel can be completely accurate since it comes through the flawed point of view of a single person .

The best way to analyse nick himself is to choose a few passages to close read and use what you observe from close reading to build a larger argument pay close attention to moments especially Nick's encounter with Jordan that give you a glimpse at Nick's emotions and vulnerabilities we will demonstrate this in action below!

6) watch the video on psychoanalytical study of Jay Gastby and write about his character.

 

Richard's Figurative Language

 Richard's Verbal Analysis 

Ivor Armstrong Richards 

Ivor  Armstrong Richards is one of those great critics of the modern age who have exercised considerable influence on both sides of the Atlantic . T.S . Eliot and I.A. Richards are considered the stalwarts of new criticism . Even if both the pioneers they differ from each other in certain important respects. 

A study of his the practical criticism and a study of literary judgement reveals that I A Richard's seems to be a staunch advocate of a close textural and Verbal study and analysis of a work of art. His approach seems to be more pragmatic and empirical. 

The Importance of Words 

Richards concerns are mainly focused on textual and Verbal Analysis a close study of his works practical criticism and the meaning of the meaning according to him works carry four types of meaning 

• Sense
• Feeling
• Tone 
• Intentions.

Richards concerns are mainly focused on textual and Verbal Analysis. A close study of his works practical criticism and the meaning of the meaning.

Analysis of the Lyrics 

It can be surely said that this song seems to be about people who have been very mean to the lyricist because of the persona  I we get to know for the first time in the sixth  line of the song . 

Calling me out when I m wounded 

The song seems to be open up with an alarming remark and the simple word you become a harsh you which gives the feeling of strangeness and guilt . The opening seeks to harm the mean people .

The very first line suggest a simile where the words are compared with knives normally the word 'word ' provides a sense of pleasing expression but here it becomes an expression for the domineering people . 

Richards suggests four types of misunderstanding in a poem among which the second one is 

Prosaic Reading 

The prosaic Reading of the second and third lines suggests the feeling of someone has used the sword and weapons against the persona and the very image of blood comes to our mind but the image to blood and wounds is soon replaced by the phrase knocked me off my feet a sense of overwhelming so hashing and emotionally gets cleared 

Further the metaphor for emotional bullying is swords and weapons which gets its established meaning  in song in the next line . The mean person's voice is compared with nails on a chak board which delivers the shivering discomfort of the unpleasant noise .

The word are so powerful that it seems to destroy the mental happiness of someone .

The lyrics than takes turn and asks why you are so mean ? This seems to be a highly personal addressal of lyricist when the words speak - 

Some day I will be living in a big old city 

And all you 're ever  gonna be is mean 

Someday I 'll be big enough so you can't hit me 

And all you 're ever gonna be is mean 

Why you gotta be so mean ? 

Naya Hukmanama Javed Akhtar

 Naya Hukamnama

 - New ordinance

Someone has decreed that all the winds must first 

Announce their direction before blowing

The winds must first also inform 

That when they blow what would be their speed.

For  storms are no longer permitted and all these ramparts that we have built of sand.

These paper palaces that have been made.

It is important to protect them 

The storm  is their old foe as everyone knows

Someone has decreed that the waves in the river must curb their rebellion 

They must stay  within their limits their dashing and  rising and dashing yet again.

Only to rise 

It's is wrong of them to be  so wilful it is nothing but a pertent of madness an augury of rebellion 

A rebellion will not be tolerated this madness will not be of one colour 

There will be some officers who will decide How the gardens of tommoro will take shape

Certainly the flowers will all be of one colour

But how deep the colour or how light will be decided by the officers.

How is one to tell them that in no garden anywhere are all the flowers of one colour they cannot be

For many colours live together hiding in one colour

Look at the fate of those who have 

Tried to make their garden all of one colour . See how a hundred colour have seeped into a troubled they are how worried they look 

How is one to tell them when have the winds and the waves ever heeded anyone's decree they winds do not stay 

In the clenched firsts of the rules In prisons  And in handcuffs.

When these waves are stopped The river no matter how placid Become restress And this restlessness is a step  away from a food 

How is one to tell them.....

Translated from the Urdu by Rakhshanda Jail