English Literature

Mysticism is not really a coherent philosophy of life, but more a temper of mind. A mystic vision is intuitive; a mystic feels the presence of divine reality behind and within the ordinary world of sense and perception. He feels that God and the supreme soul animating all things are identical. He believes that all things in the visible world are but forms and manifestations of the one Divine life. The self-proclaimed �American Bard� Walt Whitman is undoubtedly a mystic and transcendental poet. He shocked his contemporaries by his embrace of the sensual; �Song of Myself� has been regarded as a prolonged expression of an experience that is essentially mystical. The beautiful sampling of Whitman�s poetry from �Song of Myself� offers a glimpse into the spiritual side of his most radical themes�love for country, love for others and love for self. Whitman seeks to tear down the belief the spiritual resides only in the religious and embraces the idea that nothing is more divine than humanki...

Humour is defined as that quality of action, speech or writing which excites amusement, the faculty of perceiving what is ludicrous or amusing. Humour arises from the perception of the incongruities of life, from the writer�s awareness of the discrepancy between what is and what ought to be. Henry Fielding, the father of English novel, is one of the greatest humourists in English Literature. Fielding�s humour is wide in range. It arises from the coarsest farce to the astonishing heights of the subtlest irony. Joseph Andrews which started as a parody of Richardson�s Pamela, ended as an excellent work of art in its own right. There is plenty of humour in the novel. A number of characters are definitely humorous in their conception. Parson Adams and Mrs. Slipslop�s characters are the true sources of pure comedy.  In fact, Parson Adams� character is fully exploited by Fielding. His very appearance is ridiculous. No body can believe that he is a parson. �He possesses a comical face, wi...