English Literature

When Pope called the poem �an heroicomical poem�, he intended to mean it a mock-epic. He could assume that his eighteenth century readers, educated in the classical and knowledgeable about epic, would recognise that it was a mockery. Besides, the mock-epic, which Boileau had established as a distinctive p[oetic genre with his poem Le Lutrin, was well-suited to the eighteenth century. Unlike the burlesque, which lampoons the epic, it plays off a high sense of the heroic against the diminished scale of contemporary life. In this confrontation, Pope might be expected to have a clear allegiance to the classical epc poets. His veneration of the classical antiquity is on record in the Essay on Criticism, and his low opinion of the general character of contemporary life is evident in the Moral Essays and Intimations of Horace. It is worthy of remark therefore that in The Rape of the Lock Pope presents a world dominated by trivialities in terms of an epic grandeur. The fashionable society of t...

Lear�s relationship with the Fool is no mere static pictorial contrast, but part of the tragic movement of the play: the movement downwards towards that ultimate exposure and defeat when the king is degraded to the status of the meanest of his servants. It is the presence of the Fool which reinforces the meaning of Lear�s loss of sanity. As his wits begin to leave him, Lear begins to see the truth about himself; when they are wholly gone he begins to have spasmodic flashes of insight in which during the momentary comments on the storm in revengeful personal resentment, he sees the truth about the world. It is important to remember that it is the Fool who points out at the beginning of Lear�s misfortune��Thou would�st make a good fool�. In saying so the Fool also speaks as a prophet. Here Shakespeare makes the fullest possible use of the accepted convention that it is the Fool who speaks the truth, which he knows not by ratiocination but by inspiring intuition. Hooker h...

1. �At that moment the boss noticed that a fly had fallen�it was ready for life again� After the departure of Mr. Woodifield, the boss remained morbidly engrossed in the thoughts of his dead son. He was extremely agonized to remember that his son, who was all to him, had died. At that moment, he found that a fly had fallen into his inkpot and was trying to come out of it. He was fascinated by the sight of a tiny little fly�s endeavour to come out of the pot. It seemed to the boss that the legs of the fly were crying for help. As the sides of the pot were slippery, it slid down. The boss helped the fly with his pen to come out of it and put it on a piece of paper. For a moment it seemed that it was dead. But at the next moment it waved its legs and began to clear its body with immense effort. It succeeded in drying up its legs, body and the wing, and sit on its legs. It tried to expand its wings and was now ready for a flight. The boss could realize the horror of death it had escaped. 2...

Published in 1919, Hamlet and His Problems may be considered an example of �destructive criticism� in the sense that it challenges the age-old established critical perspectives on a work of art. Eliot puts forward his contention that much of the critical has been devoted to analysing the character of Hamlet, rather than analysing the play, which should be the primary business of the critics. He cites the example of two great minds, Goethe and Coleridge, who also who were not immune to this kind of fallacy and who have substituted �their own Hamlet for Shakespeare�s�. Eliot alleges that instead of studying it as a � work of art�, they have imposed their personalities on Shakespeare�s Hamlet and �made of Hamlet a Werther� and � of Hamlet a Coleridge� respectively. Eliot, on the other hand, praises J.M. Robertson and Stoll, who, according to him, tried to shift the critical focus of Hamlet to a right direction by pointing out the genesis of Shakespeare�s play from his predecessors: � H...

--> The origin of music has always remained a mystery though it has always attracted man towards itself since the time immemorial. So myths and legends were born to justify the origination of music. Saint Cecilia was such a legendary figure of the second century, who was said to have established music as a divine art on earth. Though her connection with music is quite uncertain, there are legends of her attracting an angel down to earth by singing and she even came to be spoken of the inventor of the organ. Dryden wrote Song for Saint Cecilia�s Day for the performance with orchestra to celebrate the festival of Saint Cecilia�s Day in 1687. It is an interesting fact that the greatest English composer of the day Henry Purcel composed the music for the song. Saint Cecilia was a Christian figure, but while dealing with the theme, Dryden has drawn upon the pagan philosophical doctrine of Pythagoras to explain the power of music. The concluding chorus is, however, Christian in spirit...

To a skylark P. B. Shelley Hail to thee, blithe spirit! Bird thou never wert, That from heaven, or near it Pourest thy full heart In profuse strain of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun, O'er which clouds are brightning, Thou dost float and run; Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. The pale purple even Melts around thy flight; Like a star of heaven, In the broad daylight Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight. Keen as are the arrows Of that silver sphere, Whose intense lamp narrows In the white dawn clear, Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there. All the earth and air With thy voice is loud, As, when night is bare, From one lonely cloud The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow'd. What thou art we know not:, What is most like thee? F...