The
Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1 (The log, Scene) William Shakespeare
William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), the band of Avon, is hailed as the Universal
dramatist. He wrote 154 sonnets, 39
plays and three narrative poems. He
continues to be the most widely read studied and critically analyzed writer of
all ages. His plays are translated to
all ‘living languages’ of the world. His
play ‘The Tempest’ is regarded as his swansong.
Prospero, the Duke of Milan was usurped by his brother Antonio, lives in
a Mediterranean Island with his only daughter Miranda Prospero using his
magical powers creates storms and torments the survivors of the shipwreck. Among them, Ferdinand, the Prince of Naples,
is one who falls in love with Miranda.
It is beautifully visualized in the 1st scene of the third
act of ‘The Tempest’ that is called as the log scene here.
Ferdinand
is given the work of piling up the logs by Prospero. Though he is not used to
such hard labour of removing thousands of logs, the sweet thoughts of Miranda
refresh his labour.Miranda enters then
and says as her father Prospero is at study, he will come only after three
hours.So, she asks him to take rest
while she does the work for him.But
Ferdinand refuses and their further talk makes them fall in love with each
other.Ferdinand says as she is so
perfect and peerless, at the very moment he saw her, he fell in love with
her.On hearing these words, Miranda weeps
and says that she is a fool to weep then. Though she hasn’t seen any men other
than her father, she wants only Ferdinand. The couple touches and takes each
other’s hands and pledges their love.
Prospero,
who is watching all these without their knowing it, prays Heaven to rain grace
on the two lovers and leaves. Actually, Prospero is the architect of the love
story of Ferdinand and Miranda who has already preplanned all these. Miranda is a living representation of female
virtue blessed with beauty and kindness.
Moreover Prospero believes that he can reverse all that happened twelve
years ago by their marriage. Thus the
log scene of ‘The Tempest’ becomes the scene of love and reconciliation.
Module – IV – Prose and Speech
Getting
Up on Cold Mornings – Leigh Hunt
Leigh
Hunt (1784-1859), the contemporary of Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt was a
great poet, journalist, critic and essayist. He wrote on a diverse range of
topics with epistolary style. His humourous and delightful essays were
published in ‘the Indicator, ‘The Traveller’ and ‘The Examiner’. In ‘Getting Up
on a Cold Morning’, Hunt describes one’s reluctance to get up on cold mornings
as a ‘hellish torture’, in a mock serious way.
As there were no snowy winters before the sinning, Hunt accuses the
sinning of Adam and Eve was the reason for this.
Hunt
begins his essay ‘Getting up on a Cold Mornings’ with Giulio Cordara, an Italian
writer and a Jesuit, who wrote a poem about insects, the troublesome creatures
that were created to annoy the humans after the Sinning.Everyone knows that it is pleasant to life in
bed on cold mornings and no one wants to get up early until and otherwise there
is a compulsion.Actually the sudden
transition is a hellish torture like the dragging out of the lost soul is by
harpy-footed furies from fire and thrusting them into ice.The reason behind all these is the sin of
Adam and Eve.
When
Hunt is asked to get up in a cold morning to shave by his servant, he asks him
to bring hot water and waits for the hot water to cool down. Thus he postpones his getting up. Only slaves and business men who are mad
after money would get up in the cold morning.
He remarks the poet Thomson, who used to get up at noon. He also says as there are no proofs that
early rising is good for health and longevity of life, we need not follow it.
Really, a sudden change in temperature on our getting up in a cold morning
brings shock to the body and thereby affects good health. Moreover, on talking about the longevity of
life, he says that Holborn, the longest street in London is not beautiful. So, all long things are not beautiful. In this way he concludes that a short life
with joys of late rising is better than a long life with the suffering of early
rising of cold mornings. However, at the
end of his essay he says it is up to the readers whether his suggestion is to
be accepted or to be rejected. Thus, in an amusing way he concludes his essay
‘Getting up on a Cold Morning’.
Crediting Poetry – Seamus Heaney
Seamus
Heaney (1939-2013) who won Nobel Prize in 1995 for literature is a major
modernist poet of the 20th century.
He was born in Northern Ireland in a family of farmers and cattle
sellers. He was a prolific writer and
critic and authored over twenty volumes of poetry, including ‘North’(1975) and
‘Seeing Things’(1991), where he reflected the violent political struggles
between the catholic republicans and the protestant unionists between 1968 to
1988. ‘Crediting Poetry’ is the lecture he delivered at the Swedish Academy on
his getting the Nobel Prize, where he credits poetry that helped him realize
the voice of truth and to see the rightness of the world.
Heaney
began his speech talking about his three-roomed traditional thatched farmstead in
rural Londonderry in 1940s. In their childhood days they used to hear the
sounds of the horse in the stable and the sounds of adult conversation from the
kitchen.The aerial wire that came from
the chestnut tree to the room brought the news through the voice of the news
reader of the Radio Eireann (Irish Radio).Then he loved Keats’ ode ‘To Autumn’ for its language. In his adulthood
he loved Hopkins’s poems for the intensity of exclamation and Robert Frost’s
poems for his accuracy and his down-to-earthiness.Then he began t o love the poems of Wilfred
Owen and Patrick Kavanagh. Thus he realized the poetry’s ability and
responsibility to say what happens and how they affect the society.
Heaney
also mentioned the killing of the Protestant workers who were returning home in
a mini bus in 1976 by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).Similar attacks were done to Catholics by
Protestant paramilitaries.Here, Heaney
referred to Homer who compared the tears of a wife on the battle field for the
death of her husband to the tears of Odysseus for his men.As Homer’s image brings the people to their
senses, Yeats’s poetry too reveal the contemporary savagery in his words, ‘Come
build in the empty house of the stare’.So, the poetic form is both the ship and the anchor. It helps us to
choose the rightness from the wrongness all around. Thus Heaney credits poetry
for its poetic form and poetic power.
Revolving
Days – David Malouf - Part – 2 (continued – Poetry)
David Malouf (1934) is
an acclaimed Australian poet, novelist and short story writer.His writings convey a lyrical wisdom about
human experience with in the Australian landscape. David Malouf’s ‘Revoling
Days’ revolves round a romantic affair of his early days that has left an
indelible imprint in his mind.Vivid snap
shots of those sensory moments of the past and the way he concludes the poem
prove his genuine love.
David Malouf recollects
the days when he was in love with a blue eyed girl.As he had nowhere to go, he fell in love
then.The enduring power of memory still
shows in his memory screen the different shirts he had worn to impress
her.One shirt was mint green, another
one was pink, the third named ivy-league was tan with darker stripes.That was actually his first button-down
collar shirt.When he was knotting his
tie before a mirror, he had expected her stepping into the room.Though they had promised many things, they
got separated.The poet doesn’t know
where she is now and who is staring into her blue eyes.Though he mentions about all these in this
poem, he says that he won’t appear out of the old time to discomfort her.Even he is not holding his breath for a reply.
Symbolism has
effectively been used in the colour of the shirts.Alliteration, apostrophe and enjambment
beautify the poem.An underlying
melancholy is there in the poem when the poet talks about the transitory nature
of the youthful relationships. But the poet
has succeeded to immortalize his genuine love with the help of the enduring
power of memory used in this poem.
Threshold
– Ocean Vuong
Ocean
Vuong, an eminent Vietnamese-American poet, was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1988
and his parents immigrated to the United States when he was two years old. His poetry explores the themes of cultural
identity, sexuality, family relationships and displacement. He has won Whiting Award and T.S. Eliot prize
for his poetry collection, ‘Night Sky with exit wounds (2016)’. ‘Threshold’ is
the very first poem in that anthology.
It portrays the poet’s secretly observing a man singing in the shower as
an important moment of transformation in his life.
As
the poet was looking through the keyhole of the door of the shower, he couldn’t
clearly see the singing man, most likely his father.Water was falling on his round shoulder like
snapped strings of a guitar.Then the
boy was standing on his knees as a beggar.The song from the shower filled the boy to the core like a skeleton
getting filled with flesh.Even his name
knelt down inside him asking him to be spared.Actually the boy did not know what price he had to pay for entering the
song.However, then he lost his boyhood
and became a grown up when he had his eyes kept wide open.Something awakened in him and brought about a
transformation, a sexual and psychological maturity.
He
realized that he was no more a Colt but a horse.His new understanding changed his
perspective.He lost his boyhood of
innocence and curiosity and entered the new realm of Adulthood.
The
opening line “In the body, where everything has a price’ is the theme of the
poem.Body becomes a site of identity
and vulnerability in the poem.The poet
effectively depicts the connection between the body and mind through various
images and symbols in this poem.
Module
II – Stories -
Uncle
Podger Hangs a Picture – Jerome. K. Jerome
Jerome
Klapka Jerome (1859-1927) was a famous humorist and a writer of comic
novels. His well known works are, ‘Idle
thoughts of an idle fellow’, ‘Three Men in a Boat’ and ‘Three men on the Bummel’. His ‘Uncle Podger hangs a picture’ is a comic
portrayal of Uncle Podger, who believes that he was the most suitable person
for the job of hanging a picture on the wall, whereas, he messes up everything
and at the end hangs the picture in a crooked manner.
Uncle
Podger is known for his exaggerated sense of self importance and his tendency
to make a simple task into a trouble-some work to all in the family.One day he decides to hang a picture on the
wall of his living room.He takes off
his coat and starts his work.He sends
the maid to buy some nails.The he sends
one of the boys after her to tell her what size to get. He asks Will to get him
a hammer.He tells Tom to get the
rule.He also asks Jim to go to Mr.
Boggles and get the spirit level.Then,
when he tries to get the picture from Tom, it slips and somehow the glass comes
out from the frame and cuts Uncle Podger’s finger.He shouts for his coat to get his hand
kerchief from the pocket to stop the bleeding.Actually he is sitting on the coat when all are looking for it.However, a new glass is brought and when he
tries to make a mark on the wall again he falls upon the Piano.And then, when he tries to hammer, it is
dropped on the toe of someone.Aunt
Maria is so unhappy on seeing all these.Finally about midnight somehow the picture is hung on the wall in a
crooked and insecure manner.
Just
to hang a picture on the wall, Uncle Podger gets helps from all the people in
the house including the charwoman. But he takes all the credit and says with
pride at the end, “why, some people would have had a man into do a little thing
like that!” Thus, the story ends with a
statement that reveals the character of Uncle Podger in an effective and humorous
way.
War
– Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
(1867-1936) was an eminent Italian dramatist, novelist, poet and short story
writer, who was awarded Nobel Prize in 1934.His tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the absurd plays.
‘Six characters in search of an author is one of his best modernist plays.His ‘War’ written in 1918, focuses its
attention on a group of people on a train, who either have their loved ones
fight in the war or have lost a loved one due to the war.
A night express train
from Rome stopped at the station Fabriona. There were five people in the
carriage.A bulky woman and a tiny man
looking shy and uneasy got into the carriage from Fabriona. All the five came
to know from them that their only son, a student, was about to be sent to the
war front.So, they were going to see
him off.Having heard this one passenger
said that he had two sons and three nephews at the warfront. Thus this
discussion moved towards who was sacrificing the most.If a man with two sons lost one, the other
son would be there to comfort him.He
had to live with the pain of the death of his son. But the man with only one
son could end his miserable life having had his son dead in the war.Then a fat man said that dying young and
happy spared the young men from boredom and disillusionment of life.So, they gladly fought and died for the love
of their country. Actually, they were not theirs but their country’s
children.That was why he said that he
didn’t even mourn the death of his own son.
Having heard this, all
passengers agreed with him. The inconsolable wife and husband found strength
then.All congratulated that brave
father who could so stoically speak of his child’s death. But, when the woman
asked whether his son was really dead, the stoic man took his hand –kerchief
and broke into harrowing, heart sending, un-controllable sobs. Thus, Pirandello
portrays the nature of loss and how for each individual, their own loss seems
more substantial than that of the others, along with the nature and necessity
of wars.
The
Green Leaves – Grace Ogot
Grace
Ogot (1930-2015) was a well known writer, radio announcer, cabinet minister and
a diplomat of Kenya. Her works like ‘The
Promised Land’, ‘Land without Thunder’, ‘The other woman’ and ‘The Island of
Tears’ chronicle the folklore and mythologies of Luo people and their cultural
conflicts with the colonial rule. The
Green Leaves’ taken from ‘Land without Thunder’ of Ogot, narrates how mankind
is inextricably linked to greed, crime and superstitions along with Polygamy’s
dominant role in a man’s social status.
Heavy
footsteps and voices outside make Nyagar get up from his bed.As he can’t find his wife Nyamundhe, he grabs
his spear and club and goes outside.Someone yells out that three men have stolen his cattle.As the cattle thieves have taken the wrong
turn, they miss the bridge that separates the Masala from the Mirogi
people.One escapes and the other stabs
Omoro’s shoulder blade and jumps in the fast moving water. Nyagar takes the knife
and attempts to stop the bleeding of Omoro.The villagers beat the third one until the man no longer moves.Omero says that if the thief dies in front of
them, his spirit will rest upon the village of the clan. So, he asks all to go
back to their huts after heaping some green leaves on the body.All leave from that place then.
On
his return to the hut, Nyagar takes out his medicine bag and takes some ash
from a bamboo container.He swallows
some of it and blows some in the direction of the gate to prevent the ghost of
the dead man coming to him.But as he
needs the money of the dead man, he goes and searches the pocket of the dead
man and finds nothing.When he tries to
remove a bag from the neck of the dead man, the thief who is not dead drives a
thick stick through his eyes and Nyagar dies on the spot.The thief hides the body with green leaves
and escapes.Thus, the greedy Nyagar who
has 3 wives and 12 children dies unexpectedly.
In
the next morning, the European Policemen, Olielo, the clan leader, Nyamundhe
and all the villagers are shocked to find Nyagar’s body instead of the thief,
when they brush the leaves away. The green leaves are actually the symbol of deceits
and concealment in the story.What they
conceal is also not what it seems.Nyamundhe’s song of mourning in the end too sheds light on the multiple
levels of oppression faced by African women in the structure of Patriarchy.
Homer
is one of the greatest Greek poets, who is revered from ancient times for his
two epic poems- Iliad and Odyssey. They
were transmitted through generations as oral poetry for centuries. The Trojan War between Greeks and Trojans is
believed to be taken place around 12th C. and 13th C.
B.C. Homer wrote Iliad and Odyssey in 8th
C. B.C. Iliad describes the ten year
war of Greeks with Trojans where as Odyssey deals with the return journey of
Odysseus, one of the Greek heroes. The
Odyssey consists of 12,109 lines divided into 24 books. It has a series of conversations, advice,
requests and inquires between the mythical characters, monsters and human
beings. It reveals human nature with all
its complexities in simple and subtle ways.
Thus it has stood the test of time reigning as a classic due to its
universal appeal to humanity.
Odysseus,
the King of Ithaca returns home after the Trojan War.The poet requests the divine Muse to tell him
the adventures of Odysseus and begins ‘The Odyssey’ in the middle of Odysseus’s
journey, who is held captive by a nymph, Calypso.Calypso wants to get Odysseus as her
husband.However, after 7 years of
imprisonment at Ogygia, Odysseus escapes from the Island.Once when he stayed at Thrinacia, the Island
of Helios, his men killed a herd of cattle and a flock of sheep.This made Helios become his enemy.Moreover, Polyphemus, the one-eyed son of
Poseidon held Odysseus and his men captive with the intention of swallowing
them.But Odysseus succeeded in getting
Ployphemus drunk and blinded it to escape from that place.This made him become an enemy to Poseidon.
These all prevent him to get a favourable wind to reach Ithaca to get united
with his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus.In Ithaca, as all believe that Odysseus is dead, the suitors who want to
marry Penelope trouble her a lot.
Athena,
the Greek Goddess of war comes to his rescue all the time. She tells Telemachas that his father is alive
and asks him to kill the suitors who dishonor the State. Zeus too helps Odysseus by sparing him from
the wrath at the Sea-God Poseidon. God
Hermes saves him from Circe, the daughter of Helios and God Aeolus gives him a
strong wind to sail home against the rough seas created by Poseidon. Thus, he gets helps from all Gods for his
good nature and qualities. On his way to
Ithaca, Odysseus faces so many difficulties and he does his best to save his
life as well as the lives of his men.
However, he returns home only after 20 years to get united with his wife
and son. Thus Odyssey narrates the adventures of Odysseus and his victory at
the end.
In
Kyoto’ and ‘The Old Pond – Basho
Matsuo Kinsaku (1644-1694), whose
pen name is Basho, is a well-known Japanese poet and traveller. He was a master of ‘haiku’ and ‘haibun’
poems. His poems influenced Ezra Pound
and the poets of the Beat generation greatly.
Haiku is a traditional Japanese poem of seventeen syllables arranged in
three short un-rhymingliness. It
contains kigo, a seasonal reference and is separated by Kireji (a cut) two
complementary or contrasting images. Basho’s ‘In Kyoto’ highlights the sense of
yearning for something that is lost. He
uses an auditory image of the cuckoo’s song that evokes a longing for home in
the minds of travellers who hear it.
Though the poet is already in Kyoto, the cuckoo’s call evokes a sense of
nostalgia for home. Apart from this the
bird’s song is also symbolic of the passing of pleasant season and arrival of
harsher one.
‘The old Pond’ of Basho is actually
the most celebrated haiku poem that has been translated into English. The poem ‘The Old Pond’ opens with the image
of an old ancient pond, representing the continuity of tradition. The Frog’s jumping into the pond and its
disrupting the peace of the pond indicates a break in tradition in its
metaphorical sense. It is the water that
becomes the source of the sound that disrupts the quiet. The translation of the poem is done by Robert
Hass, the American poet, translator and critic.
Thus, these two poems reveal Basho’s mastery of the haiku form and his
ability to convey complex emotions and ideas in just a few words.
I
have a Broom – Zhai Yongming
Zhai
Yongming was a prominent figure in Chinese literature during the 1980’s, a
period that brought literary renaissance and cultural reform to china. The American poets, Sylvia Plath and Emily
Dickinson influenced her a lot. Her work
shows the influence of literary breakthroughs in the Post-Mao Era. She is always against the Chinese distinction
between Yin and Yang. Yin represents the
feminine, the shadowy side of the mountains whereas Yang, that represents the
masculine the sunny side of the mountains.
She stands for women and captures the contemporary experiences of
Chinese women in her poems.
Zhai
Youngmin’s poem ‘I have a Broom’ explores the theme of identity and power. Michael M Day has translated this poem into
English. The broom is a tool to clean the filth and a tool of empowerment. A woman’s work is her identity and it helps
her claim control of her own life and defends against ridicule of others. She finds courage and draws strength from her
familial roots, especially from her mother.
The
Broom in the hands of Zhai Yongming, who narrates the poem is actually the work
that provides her a colourful life, fresh air and a path and so sweeps away the
rubbish of today and yesterday. She puts
on work cloths. She puts on new work
cloths. When she looks into the mirror she finds the mildness of her mother in
her eyes. She decides not to have
worried looks on the colours of billboards kept at the corner of the
streets. She says that she will move on
greeting the morning breeze behind her with the broom in her hand and also
clean the street ahead her.
Thus
the poem ends with a note of determination that helps her sweep the fears, gets
strength from her roots and finds a new sense of clarity and purpose towards a
bright future.
Won’t
you celebrate with me – Lucille Clifton
Lucille
Clifton (1936-2010), an African American poet, served as the State of
Maryland’s Poet Laureate from 1974 to 1985.
In addition to her numerous poetry collections, she wrote many
children’s books. Clifton’s poem “Won’t you celebrate with me” that talks about
making of a self was written on her getting inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem
“Song of myself”. In the 1960s, when
this poem was written, the struggles of the civil rights movement awakened a
new sense of self-awareness for African Americans. They actually experienced both a historical
exile from Africa, as they had their roots in Africa and a metaphorical exile
from the so-called American dream.
Clifton, through this poem celebrates her hard earned sense of identity
and her place in the world. As ‘race’
and ‘gender’ become points of difference and defiance in the poem, she defines
herself as both ‘non white’ (not ‘black’) and ‘woman’ (not character).
As
Clifton was a non white American, she had to live amidst racial discrimination
from whites and as she was a woman, she had to suffer gender discrimination
too. By saying ‘born in Babylon’ she
compares the non whites in America to the Jews who were exiled to Babylon from
Zion, referred in the book of Genesis. By
saying ‘Star shine and Clay’ there is a reference to the origin of the universe
and the creation of Adam. Though her
race and gender make others feel that she is smaller, she has made her life up
with which she is quite satisfied.
Though something wants to kill her, it fails and she has won. By
'something', she refers racism and patriarchy. Though they tried to silence
her, they couldn't, she is still very much alive and active. So, she wants to celebrate her victory. That is how the poem moves from rhetoric to
image, argument to resolution. So, this
poem can be considered as a modern sonnet.
The under statements used through the usage of ‘non-white’ and
‘something has tried to kill me and has failed’ add beauty to this poem. The apt use of the lower case ‘i’ instead of
‘I’ is another attraction. Thus this
poem of resistance and self assertion written by Clifton is undoubtedly a poem
to be celebrated in every sense.
To
see him again – Gabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) is a
Chilean poet, educator and diplomat, who was the first Latin American poet to
receive the Nobel Prize in 1945. Her
real name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga. She
coined her name from her favorite poets Gabriela D’ Annunzio and Fredric Mistral.
Celebrated Chilean author Pablo Neruda was deeply influenced by her. Her love for the downtrodden and poor as well
as personal sorrows is well reflected in her poetry. The suicide of her first lover had a
traumatic impact on her life.
Gabriela Mistral’s ‘To see him
again’ depicted the intense grief and trauma fallowing the loss of her
lover. She realizes that she can’t see
him at night packed with a few stars, in the morning and in the afternoons. Neither at the edge off a pale road that
encircles the fields nor upon the rim of a trembling fountain. Never beneath the forests’ luxuriant Poplar
trees, where she yelled at him once. Not
in the grotto that returned the echo of her words. Just to see him again she is ready to go even
to heaven’s dead water and inside the boiling hole of hell. She wants to get united with him again and
embrace him putting her hands around his neck.
Here the ‘painted knot around his bloody neck’ also has a reference to the
suicide of the lover by hanging himself.
It happened on the day when she yelled at him beneath the poplar tree
one night. Now she is ready even to die
to meet her lover. Thus Mistral has
broken heartedly conveyed her emotions of her grief and loss towards her dead
lover. Thus this poem that is translated
into English by Mariela Griffor ascends from the personal melancholic stage to
a stage of a eulogy that speaks of the universal experience of grief and loss
at the end. The effective imagery used in
this poem appeals to the senses of sight and sound. Repletion is another literary device that
portrays the intense emotions of desire and longing of the poet.
A century later – Imtiaz Dharker
Imtiaz Dharker (born in 1954) is a
renowned poet, artist and film maker.
Though she was born in Lahore, Pakistan, as her family migrated to
Glasgow, she spent her formative years in U.K. She describes herself as a "Scottish
Muslim Calvinist". She was
appointed as the chancellor of New Castle University from 2020. She has six collections of poetry to her
credit. With ‘Poetry Live’, an
organization formed by her deceased husband Simon Powell, she reads poetry to
thousands of students every year travelling across counties along with
celebrated poets. Apart from exhibiting
her paintings, she has directed near around 300 films. Gender Justice,
Identity, geographical and cultural displacements and communal conflicts are
the recurring theme in her poetry.
Imtiaz Dharker’s ‘A century later’,
written in 2014 alludes to Wilfred Owen’s a century old celebrated war poem,
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. It draws a
comparison between school going firls and soldiers in the warfront. The school ground is also compared to battle
ground. The school girls in the poem are
striving for education and to attain their egalitarian rights. They are all denied by those in power. The poem
specifically alludes the schooling of Malala Yousafzai in 2012. A girl who is from her school is the target
of the gunmen, when they shoot. So, she continues to walk. The bullet cuts a pathway in her mind. She reaches an orchard full of puppies. Now the girl has won the right to be
ordinary. Now she can wear bangles,
paint her finger nails and go to school.
So, she tells now that the bullet is stupid and so it has failed. It can’t kill a book or the knowledge and
wisdom in it. There is a swarm coming,
the school girls take their places on the front line to get their education and
rights.
Malala Yousafzai, who survived the
bullet continued her education in England and was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in
2014 for her fight for right of education to all girls. Through this poem Imtiaz Dharker urges girls
to assert their identity and be proud of their women-hood. They have to line up in the fight and win the
battle. Moreover the symbols and imagery
in the poem and the Onomatopoeic words like ‘buzzing’, ‘murmur’ and ‘humming’,
echo the rising awakening of a revolution.
Text – Card Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy (born in 1955) was
the first poet laureate of the U.K. in 2009 and a queer. Duffy’s writings offer compassionate insight
into over looked female and marginalized view points. Her works delve into both personal conflicts
and larger social issues. Duffy’s ‘Text’ is a short 8 – line poem that offers a
sad perspective on how over-reliance on technology for communicating can remove
authentic human connection from romance.
Here she talks about the over analyzing of the romantic text messages
from the partners and the limitations of the digital-only communication.
Though the poetess uses mobile
phone for texting messages, she only treats it as an injured bird. As the messages are in broken chord they are
not strong and deep. A text message misses the warmth and affection that one
can find in a face to face talk. They can only be felt in the tone, voice,
physical closeness and in the touch.
Though the small ‘xx’ represent kisses in a text message, it lacks the
real warmth of the beloved. So, the love
and affection that are sent through the ‘blurred’ text will never be
heard. Thus the poet concludes the poem
with a sobering note regarding the over reliance on technology. The 14 lines of this poem are divided into 7
couplets. The poet has used simile,
repetition, asyndeton, and epigram to make this poem a memorable one. Her comparing the phone to ‘an injured bird’ and
the repetition of the word ‘text’, attract us. Similarly, omission of
conjunction in reading of first, second, third and the paradoxical usage of
‘heard’ towards the end make the poem remember worthy.
Cherryl Glotfelty (born in 1958) is
the professor of Of literature and the environment at the University of Nevada
Reno. She is the co editor of ‘The Bioregional Imagination: Literature,
Ecology, and Place’. It was William Rueckert who used the term Eco-centrism in
1978 as a movement owes much to Rachel's silent spring. It was Cheryl Glotfelty
who came out with Eco criticism Reader along with its three phases. She also
defined eco criticism as the study of the relationship between literature and
the physical environment. In her Eco criticism reader, she talks about ‘literary
studies in an age of environment crisis’.
Though race, class and gender were
the inevitable topics of the 20th century literature, there where newspaper
reports about oil spills, lead and asbestos poisoning, toxic waste
contamination, extinction of species, growing hole in the ozone layer,
predictions of global warming, acid rain nuclear reactor disaster in Chernobyl,
droughts, floods and hurricanes. But, the other disciplines like history,
sociology, philosophy, law and religion talk about the environment since 1970.
Unfortunately, literary studies and literary criticism were not aware of the
environmental crisis or they have remained indifferent to the environmental
concerns. However, there were individual and cultural scholars and they had
shared their ecological theories and criticism isolated since the seventies. As they didn't organize into a group, eco criticism
didn't have its presence in the modern language association (MLA).
In 1985 teaching environmental
literature Materials Methods, Resources that included the outputs of 19
different scholars made the American universities include literature courses in
their environment studies curricula and some of the English departments begin
to offer minor courses in environmental literature. In 1992 a new association
for the study of Literature and Environmental (ASLE) was formed with the
intention of promoting the ideas and information to strengthen the relationship
between human beings and the natural world. Glotfelty is also of the opinion
that Elaine Showalter's model of the three development stages of feminist
criticism provides a useful scheme for describing three analogous phases in eco-criticism.
In the first stage how nature is represented in literature is discussed. In the
second stage the neglected genre of nature writing is discussed and in the
third stage the dualism that prevalent in western thought and its diving
humanity from nature is discussed. Thus, she proves the strong link between eco
feminism and eco criticism.
Eco criticism has brought an
eco-centered (earth-centered) approach to literary studies instead of
anthropocentrism. It began to ask questions like, Are the values expressed in a
work consistent with ecological wisdom? Do men write about Nature differently
than women? As everything is connected to everything else in this earth,
literature can't float above the material world anymore. As we have reached the
age of environmental limits, as our wants and needs have out stripped the
ability of the earth to provide, either we have to change our ways or we have
to face the global catastrophe.
According to Glotfelty, an
ecologically focused criticism will help us to solve the environmental
problems.It will redraw the boundaries
of literary studies; bring about important changes in the curriculum and
university policies.Aldo Leopold’s ‘A
Sand County Almanac’ and Edward Abbey’s ‘Desert Solitaire’ should be prescribed
for students.All students should have
at least one inter-disciplinary course in environmental studies.Then only they may feel, think and sometimes
say what Loren Acton, her father, said on his viewing the earth from the space
shuttle in 1985,
“……Below was a welcoming
planer…….that’s where life is; that’s where all the good stuff is”.
‘Environment’ means what surrounds
us.It may be living or non-living
things.It includes physical, chemical
and other natural forces.‘Aesthetic’
that has come from the Greek word, ‘aisthesis’ means ‘perception by
senses’.Apart from the sensory
awareness, to the mind, ‘aesthetic is the cognitive act of describing and
explaining that experience.That
experience may be positive or negative.So, aesthetic value is assigning a value to an object based on its
appearance and emotional effect.
Nadine
Gordimer (1923-2014), South African novelist, short story writer was also a
political activist.She received Nobel
Prize for literature in 1991.She was
active in anti-apartheid movement and her writings helped abolishing apartheid
in South Africa.Nadin Gordmer’s ‘The
Conservationist (1974), that won the Booker Prize was banned in South Africa
because of its critique of apartheid.The characters and events portrayed in this novel imbued with symbolic
significance.Moreover, Gordimer delineates
the life style of a particular rung of white Johannesburg society through the
protagonist of this novel.
Walter
de la Mare (1873-1956), who is best remembered for his works for children and
for his supernatural horror writings, was a great English poet, short story
writer and novelist. His ‘The Three
Mulla Mulgars’ (1910) that was later re-titled as ‘The Three Royal Monkeys’, a
fairy tale is considered as a ‘classic animal fantasy’.In it De la Mare describes the adventurous
journey of the Three Royal Monkeys to the valleys of Tishnar.Though it is a book for children, its humour,
excitement and poetic description captivates all the ages.It makes the readers think about a time when
animals and unreal characters were dominant on the earth and the role of nature
and its elements then.
Vandana Shiva (born in 1952) is a
renowned environmentalist, philosopher and green activist, who plays a major
role in the global Eco-Feminist Movement.She has authored more than twenty books and over five hundred papers in
leading scientific journals.She started
her ecological movement with Chipko movement that began in 1972.She was awarded Right Livelihood Award in
1993.Her book “Staying Alive: Women,
Ecology and Development” talks about the feminine perspective in the human
interaction with nature.
"In fact, scientists are only now beginning to understand the vast range of services-natural, social, psychological, ecological and economic - that forests perform: the water they clean and retain; the climate patterns they regulate; the medicine they contain; the food they supply; the soil they enrich; the carbon they entrap; the oxygen they emit: the species of flora and fauna they conserve; and the peoples whose very physical existence depends on them". These are the words of Wangari Mathai who won the Nobel peace prize in 2004.
Rachel Carson, an
American biologist, writer and conservationist, with her Sea trilogy explored
the whole of ocean life from the shores to depth. In the late 1950s, she turned her attentionto
conservation and came out with ‘Silent Spring’ (1962) that dealt with the
problems caused by synthetic pesticides and the ways and means to solve these problems.
Actually this book brought environmental concerns to the American public and
that led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in 1970s. Thus, ‘Silent Spring’ Sparked the global grass roots
environmental movement in 1962 by proclaiming as humans are dependent on their
living environment, the environment’s protection is inevitable.
Augustan Age saw the rise of Journalism and periodical literature. Following the periodicals ‘The Review’ of Daniel Defoe and ‘The Examiner’ of Jonathan Swift, in 1709, Richard Steele brought out his Whig paper ‘The Tatler’. Having decided to keep the Politics away Joseph Addison and Richard
Steele started ‘The Spectator’ in 1711. The Periodical had two
objects, that is reforming of the contemporary society and presenting the true
picture of the Age very faithfully. Out
of 555 essays, Addison wrote 274 essays.
'The coverly Papers' were part of 'The spectator' and they were 35 in
number. The principal instrument employed by Addison and Steele was gentle satire. They ridiculed at the eccentricities and
idiosyncrasies and never abused. Their
ridicule was gentle and ironical and their humour was tolerant and gentle.
Kazuo Ishiguro was born
in Nagasaki in 1954.As his family
shifted to Britain in 1969, he had his education in Kent and in East
Anglia.His two novels won Winifred
Holtby prize and the third one ‘The Remains of the day’ won Booker Prize in
1989 and was filmed, acted by Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson and won many
awards.Ishiguro, as a writer more
interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually
happened.Similarly ‘The Remains of the
day’ is characterized by nostalgia as Stevens the hero of the novel, looks back
to what he regards as England’s golden age.Hero recollects his memories in fragments that happened in between the First
World War and the Second World War. Apart from this ‘emotional restraint’, a
traditional trait that is said to be one of the characteristics of English has
a big role to play in this novel.
The word ‘Theyyam’
might have originated from the word ‘Daivam’(God).It also has its origin from ‘Ancestor
Worship’.There are more than 400 types
of Theyyam, namely Vettaikkorumakan, Machilot Bhagavathy, Sree Muthappan and
Kathivanoor Veeran.It is mainly
performed in Northern Malabar especially in Kasargod and Kannur districts and
in the taluks of Koyilandi and Vadakara in Kozhikod district.
Theyyam deities have
their origins from people who were in the lower castes of the Kerala’s caste
system and so they were also performed by them.Theyyam season covers seven months, starting from the tenth of ‘Thulam’
(Malayalam month) and ends in the middle of ‘Edavam’ (from October to May of
every year).Theyyam is also known as
‘Kaliyaattam’ and ‘Tira’.It is actually
considered as a channel to a ‘God’ and thus people seek blessings from Theyyam.
Theyyam is performed in front of the village shrine or kaavu.
The dancers use
‘Thandava’ and ‘Laasya’ in their performance.They wear war bonnet, breast plate, waste dress and head dress
(Mudi).They are made up of bamboo
sticks, red clothes wooden pieces and coconut leaves.The body painting and face art of Theyyam is
one of the best examples of folk painting in Kerala.The natural colours like red, orange, yellow,
black and white from sandal wood, red sandal wood, turmeric, lime, rice flour
are used for them.
The dancer comes in
front of the shrine and the ‘metamorphosis’ of a Theyyam into the particular
deity of the shrine happens then.This
performance is a combination of playing musical instruments like chenda, thudi
and kuzhal.The dancer also has a shield
and a sword in his hand.Classical
dances outshone folk dances at the course of time. Similarly, ‘kathakali’s
marketing outshone ‘Theyyam’ and it became the face mark of Kerala.‘Theyyam’ however, survives in the northern
part of Malabar even now.
