John Donne's Style

John Donne's Style

John Donne was famous for his metaphysical poetry in the 17th century. His work suggests a healthy appetite for life and its pleasures, while also expressing deep emotion. He did this through the use of conceits, wit and intellect — as seen in the poems "The Sunne Rising" and "Batter My Heart".

Donne is considered a master of the metaphysical conceit, an extended metaphor that combines two vastly different ideas into a single idea, often using imagery. An example of this is his equation of lovers with saints in "The Canonization." Unlike the conceits found in other Elizabethan poetry, most notably Petrarchan conceits, which formed clichéd comparisons between more closely related objects (such as a rose and love), metaphysical conceits go to a greater depth in comparing two completely unlike objects, although sometimes in the mode of Shakespeare's radical paradoxes and imploded contraries. One of the most famous of Donne's conceits is found in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" where he compares two lovers who are separated to the two legs of a compass.

Donne's works are also witty, employing paradoxes, puns, and subtle yet remarkable analogies. His pieces are often ironic and cynical, especially regarding love and human motives. Common subjects of Donne's poems are love (especially in his early life), death (especially after his wife's death), and religion.

John Donne's poetry represented a shift from classical forms to more personal poetry. Donne is noted for his poetic metre, which was structured with changing and jagged rhythms that closely resemble casual speech (it was for this that the more classically-minded Ben Jonson commented that "Donne, for not keeping of accent, deserved hanging").

His work has received much criticism over the years, with very judgmental responses about his metaphysical form. Donne's immediate successors in poetry tended to regard his works with ambivalence, while the Neoclassical poets regarded his conceits as abuse of the metaphor. He was revived by Romantic poets such as Coleridge and Browning, though his more recent revival in the early twentieth century by poets such as T. S. Eliot tended to portray him as an anti-Romantic.

John Donne's later life

John Donne's later life

Donne was elected as Member of Parliament for the constituency of Brackley in 1602, but this was not a paid position and Donne struggled to provide for his family, relying heavily upon rich friends.

Donne became a Royal Chaplain in late 1615, Reader of Divinity at Lincoln's Inn in 1616, and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Cambridge in 1618.[6] Later in 1618 Donne became the chaplain for the Viscount Doncaster, who was on an embassy to the princes of Germany. Donne did not return to England until 1620.[6] In 1621 Donne was made Dean of St Paul's, a leading (and well-paid) position in the Church of England and one he held until his death in 1631. During his period as Dean his daughter Lucy died, aged eighteen.

In early December of 1623 that he suffered a nearly fatal illness, thought to be either typhus or a combination of a cold followed by the seven-day relapsing fever. It is thought that his final illness was stomach cancer. He died on March 31, 1631 having never published a poem in his lifetime but having left a body of work fiercely engaged with the emotional and intellectual conflicts of his age. John Donne is buried in St Paul's, where a memorial statue of him was erected (carved from a drawing of him in his shroud), with a Latin epigraph probably composed by himself.

John Donne's Later poetry

Later poetry


“ Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. ”

His numerous illnesses, financial strain, and the deaths of his friends all contributed to the development of a more somber and pious tone in his later poems. The change can be clearly seen in "An Anatomy of the World" (1611), a poem that Donne wrote in memory of Elizabeth Drury, daughter of his patron, Sir Robert Drury. This poem treats Elizabeth's demise with extreme gloominess, using it as a symbol for the Fall of Man and the destruction of the universe.

The poem 'A Nocturnal upon S. Lucy's Day', being the shortest day concerns the poet's despair at the death of a loved one. In it Donne expresses a feeling of utter negation and hopelessness, saying that "I am every dead thing...re-begot / Of absence, darkness, death". This famous work was probably written in 1627 when both Donne's friend Lucy, Countess of Bedford and his daughter Lucy Donne died. It is interesting to note that three years later in 1630 Donne wrote his will on Saint Lucy's day (December 13th), the date the poem describes as "Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight."

The increasing gloominess of Donne's tone may also be observed in the religious works that he began writing during the same period. His early belief in the value of skepticism now gave way to a firm faith in the traditional teachings of the Bible. Having converted to the Anglican Church, Donne focused his literary career on religious literature. He quickly became noted for his deeply moving sermons and religious poems. The passionate lines of these sermons would come to influence future works of English literature, such as Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, which took its title from a passage in Meditation XVII, and Thomas Merton’s No Man is an Island, which took its title from the same source.

Towards the end of his life Donne wrote works that challenged death, and the fear that it inspired in many men, on the grounds of his belief that those who die are sent to Heaven to live eternally. One example of this challenge is his Holy Sonnet X, from which come the famous lines “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.” Even as he lay dying during Lent in 1631, he rose from his sickbed and delivered the Death's Duel sermon, which was later described as his own funeral sermon. Death’s Duel portrays life as a steady descent to suffering and death, yet sees hope in salvation and immortality through an embrace of God, Christ and the Resurrection.

John Donne's Early Poetry

Early Poetry

Donne's earliest poems showed a brilliant knowledge of English society coupled with sharp criticism of its problems. His satires dealt with common Elizabethan topics, such as corruption in the legal system, mediocre poets, and pompous courtiers, yet stand out due to their intellectual sophistication and striking imagery. His images of sickness, vomit, manure, and plague assisted in the creation of a strongly satiric world populated by all the fools and knaves of England. His third satire, however, deals with the problem of true religion, a matter of great importance to Donne. Donne argued that it was better carefully to examine one's religious convictions than blindly to follow any established tradition, for none would be saved at the Final Judgment by claiming:

"A Harry, or a Martin taught [them] this."

Donne's early career was also notable for his erotic poetry, especially his elegies, in which he employed unconventional metaphors, such as a flea biting two lovers being compared to sex. In Elegy XIX, "To His Mistress Going to Bed," he poetically undressed his mistress and compared the act of fondling to the exploration of America. In Elegy XVIII he compared the gap between his lover's breasts to the Hellespont. Donne did not publish these poems, although he did allow them to circulate widely in manuscript form.

Because love-poetry was very fashionable at that time, there are different opinions about whether the passionate love poems Donne wrote are addressed to his wife Anne, but it seems likely. She spent most of her married life either pregnant or nursing, so they evidently had a strong physical relationship. On 15 August 1617 his wife died five days after giving birth to a still-born baby, their twelfth child in sixteen years of marriage. Donne mourned her deeply, including writing the 17th Holy Sonnet. He never remarried; this was quite unusual for the time, especially as he had a large family to bring up.

John Donne's Early Life

John Donne's Early Life

John Donne was born in London, England, sometime near the end of 1571 or between January and 19 June in 1572, the third of six children. His father, of Welsh descent, also called John Donne, was a warden of the Ironmongers Company in the City of London and a respected Roman Catholic who avoided unwelcome government attention, out of fear of being persecuted for his Catholicism.

John Donne Sr. died in 1576, leaving his wife, Elizabeth Heywood, the responsibility of raising their children. Elizabeth Heywood, also from a noted Catholic family, was the daughter of John Heywood, the playwright, and sister of Jasper Heywood, the translator and Jesuit. She was a great-niece of the Catholic martyr Thomas More. This tradition of martyrdom would continue among Donne’s closer relatives, many of whom were executed or exiled for religious reasons.

Despite the obvious dangers, Donne’s family arranged for his education by the Jesuits, which gave him a deep knowledge of his religion that equipped him for the ideological religious conflicts of his time.Donne was a student at Hart Hall, now Hertford College, Oxford, from the age of 11. After three years at Oxford he was admitted to the University of Cambridge, where he studied for another three years. He was unable to obtain a degree from either institution because he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy required of graduates. In 1591 he was accepted as a student at the Thavies Inn legal school, one of the Inns of Court in London. In 1592 he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, another of the Inns of Court legal schools.

During and after his education, Donne spent much of his considerable inheritance on women, literature, pastimes and travel. Although there is no record detailing precisely where he travelled, it is known that he visited the Continent and later fought with the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh against the Spanish at Cádiz (1596) and the Azores (1597) and witnessed the loss of the Spanish flagship, the San Felipe, and her crew. According to Izaak Walton, who wrote a biography of Donne in 1640:
“ ... he returned not back into England till he had stayed some years, first in Italy, and then in Spain, where he made many useful observations of those countries, their laws and manner of government, and returned perfect in their languages. ”

By the age of 25 he was well prepared for the diplomatic career he appeared to be seeking.He was appointed chief secretary to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Sir Thomas Egerton, and was established at Egerton’s London home, York House, Strand close to the Palace of Whitehall, then the most influential social centre in England. During the next four years he fell in love with Egerton's niece Anne More, a girl of 17 (some say 16 or 14), and they were secretly married in 1601 against the wishes of both Egerton and her father, George More, Lieutenant of the Tower. This ruined his career and earned him a short stay in Fleet Prison along with the priest who married them and the man who acted as a witness to the wedding.

Donne was released when the marriage was proved valid, and soon secured the release of the other two. Walton tells us that when he wrote to his wife to tell her about losing his post, he wrote after his name: John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done. It was not until 1609 that Donne was reconciled with his father-in-law and received his wife's dowry.

Before her death, Anne bore him eleven children (including still births). The nine living were named Constance, John, George, Francis, Lucy (after Donne's patroness Lucy, Countess of Bedford, her godmother), Bridget, Mary, Nicholas and Margaret. Francis and Mary died before they were ten. In a state of despair, Donne noted that the death of a child would mean one less mouth to feed, but he could not afford the burial expenses. During this time Donne wrote, but did not publish, Biathanatos, his daring defense of suicide.

Bacon's Philosophy and works

Philosophy and works

Bacon did not propose an actual philosophy, but rather a method of developing philosophy. He wrote that, although philosophy at the time used the deductive syllogism to interpret nature, the philosopher should instead proceed through inductive reasoning from fact to axiom to law. Before beginning this induction, the inquirer is to free his or her mind from certain false notions or tendencies which distort the truth. These are called "Idols"[18] (idola), and are of four kinds: "Idols of the Tribe" (idola tribus), which are common to the race; "Idols of the Den" (idola specus), which are peculiar to the individual; "Idols of the Marketplace" (idola fori), coming from the misuse of language; and "Idols of the Theatre" (idola theatri), which result from an abuse of authority. The end of induction is the discovery of forms, the ways in which natural phenomena occur, the causes from which they proceed.
Derived through use of his methods, Bacon explicates his somewhat fragmentary ethical system in the seventh and eighth books of his De augmentis scientiarum (1623). He distinguishes between duty to the community, an ethical matter, and duty to God, a religious matter. Bacon claimed that [1] any moral action is the action of the human will, which is governed by belief and spurred on by the passions; [2] good habit is what aids men in directing their will toward the good; [3] no universal rules can be made, as both situations and men's characters differ.

Regarding faith, in De augmentis, he writes that "the more discordant, therefore, and incredible, the divine mystery is, the more honour is shown to God in believing it, and the nobler is the victory of faith." He writes in "The Essays: Of Atheism" that "a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion."

Bacon contrasted the new approach of the development of science with that of the Middle Ages. He said:

"Men have sought to make a world from their own conception and to draw from their own minds all the material which they employed, but if, instead of doing so, they had consulted experience and observation, they would have the facts and not opinions to reason about, and might have ultimately arrived at the knowledge of the laws which govern the material world."

Bacon's works include his Essays, as well as the Colours of Good and Evil and the Meditationes Sacrae, all published in 1597. His famous aphorism, "knowledge is power", is found in the Meditations. He published The Proficience and Advancement of Learning in 1605. Bacon also wrote In felicem memoriam Elizabethae, a eulogy for the queen written in 1609; and various philosophical works which constitute the fragmentary and incomplete Instauratio magna (Great Renewal), the most important part of which is the Novum Organum (New Instrument, published 1620); in this work he cites three world-changing inventions:

"Printing, gunpowder and the compass: These three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries."

Great Expectations

Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens first serialised in All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It is regarded as one of his greatest and most sophisticated novels, and is one of his most enduringly popular, having been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times.

Great Expectations is written in a semi-autobiographical style and is the story of the orphan Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people.

The action of the story takes place from Christmas Eve, 1812, when the protagonist is about seven years old, to the winter of 1840.

Each installment in All the Year Round contained two chapters and was written in a way that kept readers interested from week to week, while still satisfying their curiosity at the end of each one.

A Passage To India Plot Summary

Plot Summary

A young British schoolmistress, Adela Quested, and her elderly friend, Mrs. Moore, visit the fictional city of Chandrapore, British India. On their arrival, Adela is to marry Mrs. Moore's son, Ronny Heaslop, the city magistrate.

Meanwhile, Dr. Aziz, a young Muslim Indian physician, is dining with two of his Indian friends and conversing about whether it is possible to be friends with an Englishman. During the meal, a summons arrives from Major Callendar, Aziz's unpleasant superior at the hospital. Aziz hastens to Callendar's bungalow as ordered, but is delayed by a flat tyre and difficulty in finding a tonga and the major has already left in a huff.

Disconsolate, Aziz walks down the road toward the train station. When he sees his favorite mosque, a rather ramshackle but beautiful structure, he enters on impulse. When he sees a strange Englishwoman there, he angrily yells at her not to profane this sacred place. The woman, however, turns out to be Mrs. Moore. Her respect for native customs (she took off her shoes on entering) disarms Aziz, and the two chat and part friends.

Mrs. Moore returns to the British club down the road and relates her experience at the mosque. Ronny Heaslop, her son, initially thinks she is talking about an Englishman, and becomes indignant when he learns the truth. He thinks she should have indicated by her tone that it was a "Mohammedan" who was in question. Adela, however, is intrigued.Because the newcomers had expressed a desire to see Indians, Mr. Turton, the city tax collector, invites numerous Indian gentlemen to a party at his house.

At Fielding's tea party, everyone has a good time conversing about India, and Fielding and Aziz even become great friends. Aziz buoyantly promises to take Mrs. Moore and Adela to see the Marabar Caves, a distant cave complex that everyone talks about but no one seems to actually visit. Aziz's Marabar invitation was one of those casual promises that people often make and never intend to keep. Ronny Heaslop arrives and rudely breaks up the party.

Aziz mistakenly believes that the women are really offended that he has not followed through with his promise and arranges the outing at great expense to himself. Fielding and Godbole were supposed to accompany the little expedition, but they miss the train.

Aziz and the women begin to explore the caves. In the first cave, however, Mrs. Moore is overcome with claustrophobia, for the cave is dark and Aziz's retinue has followed her in. The press of people nearly smothers her. But worse than the claustrophobia is the echo. No matter what sound one makes, the echo is always "Boum." Disturbed by the echo, Mrs. Moore declines to continue exploring. So Adela and Aziz, accompanied by a single guide, a local man, climb on up the hill to the next cluster of caves.

As Aziz helps Adela up the hill, she innocently asks him whether he has more than one wife. Disconcerted by the bluntness of the remark, he ducks into a cave to compose himself. When he comes out, he finds the guide sitting alone outside the caves. The guide says Adela has gone into one of the caves by herself. Aziz looks for her in vain. Deciding she is lost, he angrily punches the guide, who runs away. Aziz looks around again and discovers Adela's field-glasses (binoculars) lying broken on the ground. He puts them in his pocket.

Then Aziz looks down the hill and sees Adela speaking to another young Englishwoman, Miss Derek, who has arrived with Fielding in a car. Aziz runs down the hill and greets Fielding effusively, but Miss Derek and Adela have already driven off without a word of explanation. Fielding, Mrs. Moore, and Aziz return to Chandrapore on the train.Then the blow falls. At the train station, Dr. Aziz is arrested and charged with sexually assaulting Adela in a cave. She reports the alleged incident to the British authorities.

Two years later, Fielding returns to India and to Aziz. His wife is Stella, Mrs. Moore's daughter from a second marriage. Aziz, now the Rajas's chief physician, at first persists in his anger against his old friend. But in time, he comes to respect and love Fielding again. However, he does not give up his dream of a free and united India. In the novel's last sentences, he explains that he and Fielding cannot be friends, at least not until India is free of the British Raj. Even the earth and the sky seem to say, "Not yet."

A Passage To India

Major Themes

A Passage to India has four central themes: the difficulty of friendship between an Englishman and an Indian, the racism and oppression of the British who rule India, the "muddle" of Indian civilization and psychology, and the unity of all life. (See the concept of Brahman in Hinduism.)

The novel's second chapter opens with a discussion between Mahmoud Ali and Hamidullah about whether an Indian can be friends with an Englishman. They conclude that such a friendship is virtually impossible, especially in India. This foreshadows the future split between Fielding and Aziz, whose cultural and national differences keep them apart, even though they like each other. For no member of an occupied race can really be friends with a member of the master race. Despite all rationale, the former will unavoidably resent the latter, and the latter will despise the former. As Aziz says, until India is free from the British, an Indian and an Englishman cannot be true friends.

One of the most overt themes of the novel is the racist attitude of the British in India toward the native population, and the oppression of Indians that frequently results. The cruelty of Major Callendar, who boasts of torturing an injured Indian youth by putting pepper on his shattered face, is the most egregious example. But there are many others, from Mr. McBryde's supercilious views on Indians' lust for white women, to Mrs. Turton's vitriolic rantings, to Mr. Turton's arrogance, Ronny Heaslop's ignorance, and Miss Derek's scorn for her Indian employers. All the British (except Fielding) assume that Aziz is guilty before his trial, simply because he is an Indian. Yet even Fielding, who respects Indians more than any other white man, eventually comes to accept that British rule over India is the best thing for that country. As a result of British rudeness and arrogance, the Indians in the novel come to hate their foreign masters.

In Part Two of A Passage to India, E.M. Forster frequently refers to India as a "muddle." This is not necessarily because he is racist, but because his logical Western mind cannot accept the extreme diversity of Indian religion, society, wildlife, and even architecture. Westerners, Forster explains, are always trying to categorize and label things, but India defies labelling. But the Indians quietly accept this diversity, not as a muddle but as a "mystery," like the Catholic Trinity or Sacraments, things ordained by God that must be accepted but cannot be explained in terms of reason.

Additionally, Indians rely more on emotion and intuition in their judgements of people and events, whereas the British are always trying to make their opinions scientific and logical, like McBryde with his pseudo-scientific theory about dark men lusting after white women. These differences in outlook and psychology, Forster implies, are the ultimate differences between the British and the Indians. For British minds, shackled by reason and race, cannot understand the Indian psyche.

The Marabar Caves produce a pernicious echo, "Boum," to whatever noise one makes. To Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested, this echo symbolizes the Dharmic belief in the fundamental oneness of all things. But this "realization" unhinges their Western minds, shackled by logic. Mrs. Moore abandons all interest in spirituality and in human relationships, and Adela Quested becomes panicky and feverish. But was their realization true, and were their reactions excessive? For most of the novel, Forster with his Western outlook suggests that the Dharmic doctrine of oneness or "Om," (Boum is a parody) devalues us and everything we hold dear.

But in Part Three, he seems to enter the Indian psyche and reveal to his readers that all things are one, perhaps, but they are not the same. Indians revel in this unity while retaining their differences. For are we not all members of the same species, made of atoms, containing the same organs, harbouring the same basic needs and impulses? Yet our behaviour and thoughts are highly individualized. Thus, Forster suggests that we accept our unity and our differences with equanimity, as Professor Narayan Godbole does. For oneness is not sameness.

Branches of Linguistics

Branches of Linguistics

Linguistics concerns itself with describing and explaining the nature of human language. Relevant to this are the questions of what is universal to language, how language can vary, and how human beings come to know languages. All humans (setting aside extremely pathological cases) achieve competence in whatever language is spoken (or signed, in the case of signed languages) around them when growing up, with apparently little need for explicit conscious instruction. While non-humans acquire their own communication systems, they do not acquire human language in this way (although many non-human animals can learn to respond to language, or can even be trained to use it to a degree). Therefore, linguists assume, the ability to acquire and use language is an innate, biologically-based potential of modern human beings, similar to the ability to walk. There is no consensus, however, as to the extent of this innate potential, or its domain-specificity (the degree to which such innate abilities are specific to language), with some theorists claiming that there is a very large set of highly abstract and specific binary settings coded into the human brain, while others claim that the ability to learn language is a product of general human cognition. It is, however, generally agreed that there are no strong genetic differences underlying the differences between languages: an individual will acquire whatever language(s) he or she is exposed to as a child, regardless of parentage or ethnic origin.
Linguistic structures are pairings of meaning and form; such pairings are known as Saussurean signs. In this sense, form may consist of sound patterns, movements of the hands, written symbols, and so on. There are many sub-fields concerned with particular aspects of linguistic structure, ranging from those focused primarily on form to those focused primarily on meaning:
Phonetics: the study of the physical properties of speech (or signed) production and perception
Phonology: the study of sounds (or signs) as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's mind that distinguish meaning
Morphology: the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified
Syntax: the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences
Semantics: the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations (phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences
Pragmatics: the study of how utterances are used (literally, figuratively, or otherwise) in communicative acts
Discourse analysis: the analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed)
Many linguists would agree that these divisions overlap considerably, and the independent significance of each of these areas is not universally acknowledged. Regardless of any particular linguist's position, each area has core concepts that foster significant scholarly inquiry and research.
Alongside these structurally-motivated domains of study are other fields of linguistics, distinguished by the kinds of non-linguistic factors that they consider:
Applied linguistics: the study of language-related issues applied in everyday life, notably language policies, planning, and education. (Constructed language fits under Applied linguistics.)
Biolinguistics: the study of natural as well as human-taught communication systems in animals, compared to human language.
Clinical linguistics: the application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology.
Computational linguistics: the study of computational implementations of linguistic structures.
Developmental linguistics: the study of the development of linguistic ability in individuals, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.
Evolutionary linguistics: the study of the origin and subsequent development of language by the human species.
Historical linguistics or diachronic linguistics: the study of language change over time.
Language geography: the study of the geographical distribution of languages and linguistic features.
Linguistic typology: the study of the common properties of diverse unrelated languages, properties that may, given sufficient attestation, be assumed to be innate to human language capacity.
Neurolinguistics: the study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and communication.
Psycholinguistics: the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use.
Sociolinguistics: he study of variation in language and its relationship with social factors.
Stylistics: the study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context.

English Grammar Negation, Questions, Emphasis

Negation

Negations are formed with the auxiliary verb "to do" in the right tense, then the word "not", and then the infinitive of the main verb. The order of elemenst is this:
subject - to do in the right tense - not -main verb inf - object - compliments, ex: I did not see him yesterday.
When there is an auxiliary verb in the sentence, a negation is formed only by the word "not":
Subject - auxiliary - not - main verb - object - compliments, ex: I have not seen him yesterday?
When "to be" is the main verbs, negations is formed only by "not".
Auxiliary- subject - main verb - not - object - compliments, ex: I am not stupid.
The words "do, does, did, have, has, had, can, could, will, would, must, is, are, was" are often contracted with the word "not".

do not - don't does not - doesn't did not - didn't,
have not - havn't has not - hasn't had not - hadn't
cannot - can't could not couldn't would not - wouldn't
will not - wan't would not - wouldn't
must not - mustn't
is not - isn't are not - ain't (very unformal) was not - wasn't

In formal written style these contractions is usually not use, in dayly speech nearly allways. Examples: He did not come - he didn't come. He has not washed the car. He hasn't washed the car.

Questions

Questions are formed with the auxiliary verb "to do" in the right tense, then the subject, and then the infinitive of the main verb. The order of elemenst is this:
To do in the right tense - subject - main verb inf - object - compliments, ex: Did you see him yesterday?
When there is an auxiliary verb in the sentence, a question is formed only by changing the word order:
Auxiliary- subject - main verb - object - compliments, ex: Have you seen him yesterday?
When "to be" is the main verbs, the question is formed only by changing the word order:
To be in the right tense - subject - compliments, ex: Were you there yesterday?

Emphasis
You can stress that something really happened by using "to do" in the right tense, and then the infinitive of the main verb. The order of elements is this:
Subject - To do in the right tense - main verb inf - object - compliments, ex: I really did see him.

Word order

Word order

The basic word order in an affirmative clause is: subject - (auxiliary verb) - main verb - object - complements, for example:
The boy throws the ball over the fence.

Compliments can be placed first in the sentence, foe example:
To morrow I shall wash the car.

Adjectives normally precede the noun, for example:
The small boy, a red car.
Adverbs normally precede adjectives or other adverbs they characterize, for example: Brightly white, extremely fast.
Averbs usually follow verbs, but may precede, for example:
This car accelerates quickly.

Adverbs (adv)

Adverbs (adv)

i) Adverbial forms

One often make adverbs from adjectives by adding the ending -ly, ex: quickly
Some short adverbs is equal to the adjective, ex: little, fast, nice

ii) Comparison of adverbs

Adverbs are compared by using more and most, ex. An aeroplane moves more quickly than a car.

iii) Irregular adverbs

Here are some irregular adverbs: much - more - most, little - less - lest, good - better - best

iv) numeric adverbs

Numeric adverbs tell how many times something happen.
The first three of them are: once, twice, (trice). Elsewhere numeric adverbs are made by combining a cardinal with the world "times".
Examples: He asked him twice. I saw that boy eight times.

Verbs

Verbs
a) Strong and weak verbs
English verbs are divided in two classes - weak and strong. For weak verbs you make the forms by adding regular endings. In strong verbs one changes the wovel of the verb stem. Strong verbs are irregular, and must be learned separately.

b) Infinitive (inf) and the imperative - simple form
The infinitive has no ending. The word "to" is often used before the infinitive. "to" is not used when the infinitive follows the verbs "can-could, will-would, must, shall-should"
The imperative is equal to the infinitive, ex. Go home!

c) Present (prs) - simple form
If the subject is 3. person singular, you add -s, ex: The boy throws the ball out.
If the infinitive ends in s, sh or ch, you add -es (pronounced -is), ex latches, rises.
Elsewhere the regular present has no ending and is equal to the infinitive.

d) Preterite (prt) or simple past - simple form
You make the preterite of weak verbs by adding -ed (pronounced d after voiced consonants and vowel, id after t or d, and t elsewhere), ex: robed, jumped, looked, carryed
When the verb stem ends in e or d, you add -d, Ex: piled.
The preterite of strong verbs changes the vowel of the verb, ex: rise - rose, throw - threw
You use the preterite when you just tell about some action in the past that do not have a direct impact upon the present situation, ex: Last year I bought a new car.

e) Perfect participle (pfp)
The perfect participle of weak verbs are equal to the preterite.
You make the perfect participle of weak verbs by adding -ed (pronounced d after voiced consonants and vowel, id after t or d, and t elsewhere), ex: robed, jumped, looked, carryed
When the verb stem ends in e or d, you add -d, Ex: piled.
The preterite of strong verbs changes the vowel of the verb, and is not allways equal to the preterite, ex: inf rise - prt rose - pfp isen, inf throw - prt threw - pfp thrown.
The perfect participle may be used as an adjective, and denotes that an object has been subjected to an action or a change, ex: I want a roasted beef. He has a blue painted house.
It is further used in grammatical constructions as the perfect and passive.

f) The Present participle (prp) and verbal noun
The present participle has the ending -ing, ex: going, painting, meeting.
When the verb stem has one syllable and has a short vowel, the last consonant is dobbled, ex: beg - begging.
If the verb ends in e, the e is dropped, ex: make - making.
The present participle is used as an adjective, ex: running water. It is also used in grammatical constructions, ex. continous forms.
The same form in -ing is also used as a verbal noun, ex: Skiing is funny.

g) to be, to have and other important irregular /strong verbs
These verbs are used in many important grammatical constructions:
Infinitive Present Preterite Perfect participle Present participle
To be I: am
You,we,they: are
he,she,it: is I, he,she it: was
You,we,they: were been being
To have He,she,it: has
Elsewhere: have
had had having
To do He,she,it: does
Elsewhere: do
did done doing
No inf must must No prp No pfp
No inf can could No prp No pfp
No inf will would No prp No pfp
No inf shall should No prp No pfp
To go He,she,it: goes
Elsewhere: go went gone going
to keep He,she,it: keeps
Elsewhere: keep
kept kept keeping
to come He,she,it: comes
Elsewhere: come
came come comming
to get He,she,it: gets
Elsewhere: get
got got getting
to make He,she,it: makes
Elsewhere: make
made made making
to become He,she,it: becomes
Elsewhere: become
became become becomming


h) perfect (prf) - simple form
The perfect denotes an action in the past that still has an actual effect in the present, or is still going on.
The perfect is made by combining the present form of to have with the perfect participle of the main verb. ex: I have done my school work. He has worked as a teacher in two years.

i) Pluperfect (ppf) - simple form
The pluperfect is used to tell about something that was done before some other action.
The pluperfect is made by combining the preterite form of to have with the perfect participle of the main verb. ex: I had done my school work, when he came inn.

j) First. Future (ff) - simple form
When the subject is first person (I, we) the future is formed by combining the auxiliary verb form "shall" with the infinitive of the main verb, ex. I shall buy a new car tomorrow.
When the subject is 2. or 3. person (you,he,she,it,they) the future is formed by combining the auxiliary verb form "will" with the infinitive of the main verb. He will buy a new car tomorrow.
It is also possible to make future tense by combing the words "am/is/are going to" with the infinitive of the main verb, ex: I am going to wash the car soon.

k) Second Future (sf) - simple form
The second future is used when something happens before some other thing in the future.
When the subject is first person (I, we) the 2. future is formed by combining the auxiliry verb forms "shall have" with the perfect participle of the main verb, ex: I shall have learnt to drive before buying a new car.
When the subject is 2. or 3. person (you,he,she,it,they) the 2. future is formed by combining the auxiliry verb form "will have" with the perfect participle of the main verb, you will have learnt to drive before buying a new car.

l) First conditional (fc) - simple form
The frist conditional is used when something is expected to happen in the present or future, but you do not know yet if it really will happen or you doubt if it will happen.
It is formed by combining the auxiliry verb form "should" with the infinitive of the main verb, ex: I should wash my apartment today.

m) Second conditional (sc) - simple form
The second conditional is used when some thing is expected to have happend in the past, but it did not happen or you do not know yet if it have happened.
It is formed by combining the auxiliry verb forms "should have" with the perfect participle of the main verb. ex: My son should have done his lessons by now.

n) Continous forms (cf)
Continous forms are made by combining the right tense of "to be" with the present participle of the main verb, ex: My wife is painting our house this week.

o) When to use simple and continous forms
Right use of simple and continous forms are tricky, and only learnt by experience. Here are some rules that work im most instances:
Use simple form when:
Something happens one time and is done completely, ex: I washed the car yesterday.
Something is repeted or done habitually, ex: I go to town to shop each wednesday.
Use continous form when:
Someting happens one time, and you are talking only about a part of the act, not the whole, completed act ex: He is washing the car now.
You tell about something happening, but do not want to mark that this act completes and gives a result.
The continuos form is often used to tell that something is/was going on, when some other thing happen/happened, ex: When I was washing my car, a bird shit on the car front.
If you are in doubt, use the simple form.

p) The passive forms (pf)
The passive is made by combining the right tense of "to be" with the perfect participle of the main verb, ex: The car was washed yesterday. The house is being painted now.
In the continous forms the passive is made by using the right tense of "to be", then the word "being" and then the perfect participle of the main verb, ex: The car is being washed now. The house was being painted, when he came home.

Adjectives and numerals

Adjectives and numerals
1 Positive degree
This basic form of the adjectives has no ending, ex: light, big, fine

2 Comparative degree
The comparative is used in comparison of two objects about the object with the stronger degree of some property.
It is also used in comparison of several objects to show that an object has more of some property than others, but still is not the object that has the most of the property.
The comparative form of the adjectives has the ending -er, ex: light-lighter
For one-syllbic adjectives with short vowel, the last consonant of the stem is dobbled, ex: big-bigger
If the adjective ends in e, just add -r, ex: fine-finer.
For long adjective you usually make the comparative by placing "more" in front of it, ex: more handsome.
Examples: Father is taller than mother. Father is the taller one.

3 Superlative degree
The superaltive is used in comparison of more than two objects, about the object with the strongest degree of a property.
The superlative form of the adjectives has the ending -est (pronounced ist), ex: light-lightest.
For one-syllabic adjectives with short vowel, the last consonant of the stem is dobbled, ex: big-biggest.
If the adjective ends in -e, just add -st, Ex: fine-finest.
For long adjective you usually make the superlative by placing "most" in front of it, ex: most handsome.
Examples: Father is the tallest person in our family.

4 Irregular adjectives
Some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms:
bad /ill - worse - worst , good - better - best

5 Adjectives used as nouns
Adjectives can be used as nouns if you place the word "one" after it in the singular, and "ones" in the plural.
Examples: A small one. Good ones. The small one. The good ones. This shirt is too big, do you have a smaller one? He is the worst one. I have too brothers, Jack is the younger one. These sockets are to small, do you have two bigger ones?

6 Cardinal numbers
Cardinal numbers are used in counting and measuring items.
The first twenty cardinals are: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, eighteen, niteteen, twenty
The tennumbers are: 10 -ten, 20 - twenty, 30 - thirty, 40 - fourty, 50 - fifty, 60 - sixty, 70 - seventy, 80 -eighty, 90 - ninety
The big numbers are: 100 - one hundred, 1000 - one thousand, 1,000,000 - one million, 1,000,000,000 - one billion.
When composing more complex numbers, use the following pattern, but omit what you do not need in the formula:
Number of thousands - "thousand(s)" - Number of hundreds - "hundred(s)" - "and" - tennumber - onenumber
Examples: 356 - three hundreds and fifty-six, 205 - two hundreds and five, 7789 - seven thousand seven hundreds and eighty-nine, 9002 - nine thousand and two.

7 Ordinal numbers
Odinals tell about where an item is placed in some order, the first five ordinals are: first, second, third, fourth, fifth.
Other ordinals are made by the ending "-th", ex: sixth, eighty-seventh, one hundred and twentieth. This is my third car. You will be called in as the fifth one.

Adjectives and numerals

Adjectives and numerals
1 Positive degree
This basic form of the adjectives has no ending, ex: light, big, fine

2 Comparative degree
The comparative is used in comparison of two objects about the object with the stronger degree of some property.
It is also used in comparison of several objects to show that an object has more of some property than others, but still is not the object that has the most of the property.
The comparative form of the adjectives has the ending -er, ex: light-lighter
For one-syllbic adjectives with short vowel, the last consonant of the stem is dobbled, ex: big-bigger
If the adjective ends in e, just add -r, ex: fine-finer.
For long adjective you usually make the comparative by placing "more" in front of it, ex: more handsome.
Examples: Father is taller than mother. Father is the taller one.

3 Superlative degree
The superaltive is used in comparison of more than two objects, about the object with the strongest degree of a property.
The superlative form of the adjectives has the ending -est (pronounced ist), ex: light-lightest.
For one-syllabic adjectives with short vowel, the last consonant of the stem is dobbled, ex: big-biggest.
If the adjective ends in -e, just add -st, Ex: fine-finest.
For long adjective you usually make the superlative by placing "most" in front of it, ex: most handsome.
Examples: Father is the tallest person in our family.

4 Irregular adjectives
Some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms:
bad /ill - worse - worst , good - better - best

5 Adjectives used as nouns
Adjectives can be used as nouns if you place the word "one" after it in the singular, and "ones" in the plural.
Examples: A small one. Good ones. The small one. The good ones. This shirt is too big, do you have a smaller one? He is the worst one. I have too brothers, Jack is the younger one. These sockets are to small, do you have two bigger ones?

6 Cardinal numbers
Cardinal numbers are used in counting and measuring items.
The first twenty cardinals are: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, eighteen, niteteen, twenty
The tennumbers are: 10 -ten, 20 - twenty, 30 - thirty, 40 - fourty, 50 - fifty, 60 - sixty, 70 - seventy, 80 -eighty, 90 - ninety
The big numbers are: 100 - one hundred, 1000 - one thousand, 1,000,000 - one million, 1,000,000,000 - one billion.
When composing more complex numbers, use the following pattern, but omit what you do not need in the formula:
Number of thousands - "thousand(s)" - Number of hundreds - "hundred(s)" - "and" - tennumber - onenumber
Examples: 356 - three hundreds and fifty-six, 205 - two hundreds and five, 7789 - seven thousand seven hundreds and eighty-nine, 9002 - nine thousand and two.

7 Ordinal numbers
Odinals tell about where an item is placed in some order, the first five ordinals are: first, second, third, fourth, fifth.
Other ordinals are made by the ending "-th", ex: sixth, eighty-seventh, one hundred and twentieth. This is my third car. You will be called in as the fifth one.

English grammar, Nouns and Pronoun

Nouns articles and pronouns

1 Singular of nouns

The singular of nouns has no ending, ex: boy, car, girl.

2 Plural of nouns
The plural of English nouns is formed by adding an -s to the singular, ex boy - boys, car - cars.
If the singular ends in s, sh or ch, you add -es (pronounced is)

3 Genitive of nouns
The genitive is made by adding -'s (with an apostrophe first), ex: girl's, men's.
If the singular ends in s, sh or ch, you just add the -' (apostrophe). This happens with the genitive of most plural forms that allready have an s, ex: girls'.
You often express the genitive by using the preposition "of", ex: the car of the man.

4 Irregular nouns
Some nouns are irregular: child - children, goose -geese, man - men, woman - women, ox - oxen

5 Indefinite articles
The indefinite article is used when one only wants to tell what a thing is, without saying anything about the identity of the object, or to indicate that some object is spoken of for the first time.
The indefinite article is "a" before consonants and "an" before vowels, and it is placed before its noun. it is used only in the singular and mostly about countable objects, ex: a man, an ox, a car.
In plural, the word "some" may be used as an indefinite article in an affirmative clause, but often one does not use indefinite articles in the plural, ex: I see some boys down in the street.
In plural and singular, the word "any" may be used as an indefinite article if one asks about something or denies something, ex: Do you see any girl down there? No, I do not see any girl there. Are there any students in the classroom? I do not see any students yet.
The words "some" or "any" may also be used as indefinite articles about uncountable substances, ex: Give me some water. Is there any water here?

6 The definite article
The definite article indicates that the thing spoken of has been talked about allready, or is particularly known by the listener allready.
The definite article is "the", and it is placed before its noun, ex: the man, the ox. The definite article is sometimes omitted about things often talked about, ex: I have to go to work right now.
The definite article is sometimes omitted about things often talked about in a context or environment, ex: I have to go to work right now.

7 Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns have different forms when used as subject and object, and also has genitive forms. The object forms are also used after prepositions. When the subject and the object is the same, the reflexive object forms are used.
Subject Object Genitive form before nouns Genitive form when used alone Reflexive object
I me my mine myself
you you your yours yourself
he him his his himself
she her her hers herself
it it its its itself
we us our ours ourselves
you you you yours yourselves
they them them theirs theirselves

Examples: He has seen me. I see you. Here is my house. The house is mine. He is washing himself.
The reflexive object forms are often omitted. He is shaving. (means he is shaving himself)

8 Deictic and indefinite pronouns
Deictic pronouns is used to point out something and to mark identity.
Deictic pronouns - about near objects: This (singular) - these (plural), ex: This car is mine. Whose cars are these?
Deictic pronouns - about far objects: That (singular) - those (plural), ex: What is that ting over there? Those buildings over there are really big.
The most used indefinite pronoun in an affirmative clause is "some". It is most often used in plural, but may be used in singular and about uncountable substances, ex. There are some cars in the yard. Some boy is going around between the cars, and some girls are standing in front of the entrance door.
When one ask a question or denies something, the pronoun "any" is used, ex: Do you see a dog also? No, I do not see any dog.
As a negative indefinite pronouns, "no" can be used. The meaning is the same as "not any", ex: I see no dog in the garden.

9 Interrogative pronouns
Interrogative pronouns are used to make questions about identity or sort.
Interrogative pronouns - about things: what, ex: What is this? What car is yours?
Interrogative pronouns - about persons: who (subject) - whom (object) whose (genitive), ex: Who is your wife? Whose house is this?

10 Relative pronouns
Relative pronouns is used in one sentence to show that something is the same thing talked about in another sentence.
Relative pronoun - about objects: which, ex: We shall go to the building which you see over there.
Relative pronoun - about persons: who (subject) - whom (object) whose (genitive), ex: The boy who came in now, is my son. The boy whom you see here, is my son. I do not know whose house this is.
Relative pronoun - about both things and persons: that, ex: The boy that came in now, is my son. The boy that you see here, is my son.

JOHN KEATS’S SENSOUSNESS

JOHN KEATS’S SENSOUSNESS
By the sensuous poetry is meant poetry which is devoted not to an idea or a philosophical thought, but mainly to the task of giving delight to the senses. Sensuous poetry would have an appeal to our eyes by presenting beautiful and colorful word-pictures, to our ear by its metrical music and musical sounds, to our nose by arousing our sense of smell, and so on.
All poetry proceeds originally from sense-impressions, and all poets are more or less sensuous. Impressions of the senses are in fact the starting point of the poetic process for it is what the poet sees and hears that excites his emotion and imagination, and his emotional and imaginative reaction to his sense-impressions generates poetry.
Keats said, “O for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts”. Sensuousness means appeal to our senses-eye, ear, nose, taste and smell, and sense of hot and cold. Other poets give only eye picture. They are capable of giving other pictures. Keats is a painter in words. With the help of a mere few words, he presents a solid, concrete picture.
“Her hair was long, her foot was light
And her eyes were wild”.
“I saw their starved lips in the gloom
With horrid warning gaped wide”.
The music of the nightingale produces pangs of pain in poet’s heart.
“The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In the ancient days, by emperor and clown”.
The opening lines of La Belle Dame Sans Merci describe extreme cold;
“The sedge is withered from the lake
And no birds sing”.
Calvin called the line ‘And no birds sing’, as the best line in English literature. In Ode to a Nightingale, Keats describes many wines. The idea of their taste is intoxicating:
“O for a beaker full of the warm South:
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene”.
In La Belle Dame Sans Merci the idea of taste is described

She found me roots of relish sweet
Of honey wild and manna dew”.
The poet can’t see the flowers in the darkness. There is mingled perfume of many flower:
Fast fading violets covered up in leaves
And mid May’s eldest child,
The musk-rose, full of dewy, wine
The murmurous haunts of flies on summer eves.
In the Ode to Autumn, the season of autumn is described in sensuous terms in which all the senses are called forth.
Season of musts and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Keats is pre-eminently a poet of sensations, whose very thought is clothed in sensuous images. Not only were the sense perceptions of Keats quick and alert, but had the rare gift of communicating these perceptions by concrete and sensuous imagery. How vivid and enchanting is the description of wine-bubbles in the line:
With beaded bubbles winkling at the bottom.
Keats was a worshipper of beauty and pursued beauty everywhere, and it was his senses that first revealed to him the beauty of things. The beauty of the universe---from the stars of the sky to the flowers of the woods---first stuck his senses. He could make poetry only out of what he felt upon his pulses. Thus, it was his sense impression that kindled his imagination which made him realize the great principle that “Beauty is Truth and Truth is Beauty”.

John Keats As An Escapist

John Keats
As An Escapist
Firstly, all the poets of Keats’s time were influenced by the ideas and ideals of the French Revolution. The ideas of the French Revolution had awakened the youthful nature of both Wordsworth and Coleridge; they had stirred the wrath of Scott; they had worked like Yeats on Byron and brought forth new matter for Shelly. There was only one poet, Keats, of that age whom they could not affect on any way whatsoever.
Secondly, Keats longed to escape from the realities of life in a mood that seized him when he was contrasting the lot of man with that of the nightingale. Sorrows and sufferings were inevitable in life and he had fully realized that escape from the realities of life was neither possible nor desirable. Keats’s lifelong creed was:”A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.”He wanted to plunge into. ”the realm of Flora and Pan …. Sleep And Poetry. Keats was so preoccupied with beauty that he turned a deaf ear to the actualities of life around him.
Keats always tried to attain serenity of mood in the midst of all the sufferings which he was undergoing in his own life and which he saw all around him in life. For Keats the world of beauty was an escape from the dreary and painful effects of life. Keats was not a Revolutionary idealist like Shelley, nor had the Shelley’s reforming zeal. Keats was a pure poet. He had aesthetic taste in the masterpieces of the past.
Who expressed in his poetry the most worth-while part of his vision of beauty, which was also truth to him. Every great poet must follow the bent of his genius: ---he has his own vision of life, and he expressed it in his own way. Wordsworth has a spiritual vision and he expresses it in simple style; Shelley has an idealistic vision and he expresses it in musical verse; Keats had the artist’s vision of beauty, and he expresses it in picturesque style.
‘Beauty is Truth and Truth Beauty’, that is all
Ye know on earth, ad all ye need to know.
The poetry of Keats shows a process of gradual development. His earlier experiments in verse are products of youthful imagination, immature and overcharged with imagery. The youthful poet has abnormal sensibility, but lacks experience of life.
Thus he longed to escape from the realities of life. But it was a passing mood that seized him when he was contrasting the lot of man with that of nightingale. Sorrows and sufferings were inevitable in life and he fully realised that escape from the realities of life was neither possible nor desirable. In Hyperion he wrote:
None can usurp the height…
But those to whom the miseries of the world
Are misery, and will not let them rest.
Keats was trying to attain serenity of mood in the midst of all the sufferings which he was undergoing in his own life and which he saw all around him in life. This mood of serenity is expressed in the Ode to Autumn.
Keats remained untouched by the ideas of the Revolution which filled the atmosphere of Europe at the time: at least from his poetry we do not find any indication of his interest in the Revolution. Though the contemporary facts of history have not left any impression on his poetry, he deeply realized and expressed in his poetry the fundamental truths of life. Keats was a pure poet, would not allow any extraneous things like politics or morality to disturb the pure waters of poetry. And poetry is the expression of the poet’s own experience of life
In the Ode to Melancholy, he points out how sadness inevitably accompanies joy and beauty. The rose is beautiful indeed but we cannot think of the without its thorn. It is therefore impossible to escape from inevitable pain in life. Melancholy, he says,
“Dwells with beauty—beauty that must die”
Melancholy arises from transience of joy, and joy is transient by its nature. Therefore, Keats accepts life as a whole—with its joy and beauty as well as its pain and despair. The Ode on Grecian Urn is not a dream of unutterable beauty nor is the urn itself the song of an impossible bliss beyond mortality. It has a precious message to mankind, not as a thing of beauty which gives exquisite delight to the senses, but as a symbol and prophecy of a comprehension of human life to which mankind can attain. Keats was not an escapist from life, as he is sometimes supposed to be.

JOHN KEATS’S HELLENISM

“Hellenism” means one’s specific interest in Greek culture and fine arts (poetry, music, painting, sculpture, and architecture) as developed by Greek cities in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. Keats’s Hellenism ( Greekness ) is represented by:

(i ) his spontaneous response to his lobe of beauty and of truth in all possible forms;

(ii) his pagan delight in Nature and in the physical side of human life;

(iii) his manner of personifying the phenomena of Nature;

(iv) his interest in ancient Greek writers as well as in ancient Greek mythology;

(v) his feeling for form, and clearness of expression;

(vi) his concrete imagery instead of abstract ideas;

(vii) his reading of translations of Greek classics; and

(viii) his study of Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary.

Keats freely used Greek mythology in his poems like Endymion, Lamia, Hyperion, Ode to Psyche, On a Grecian Urn, The eye of St. Agnes, etc. The imaginative attitude of the Greeks felt the mythological presence of Proteus if the sea, of Dryads in the trees and of Naiads in the brooks. The instinctive Greekness of Keats’s mind is proved by the fact that in his entire poetry, he elevated only goddess Psyche and she was of Greece. Keats’s poetry blends Hellenic or Classical restraints with Romantic freedom. It is in Keats’s Odes that we find a fusion of his romantic impulse with the classic severity.

The instinctive Greekness of Keats’s mind lies in his passionate pursuit of beauty, which is the very soul of his poetry. The Greek did not burden their poetry with philosophy or spiritual massage. Their poetry was incarnation of beauty, and existed for itself. Similarly Keats was a pure poet.

Thus “there was in Keats the keenest sense and enjoyment of beauty, and this gave him a fellow feeling with the Greek masters.”

The qualities and characteristic of Keats’s Hellenism or “Greekness” may be thus summarized:

(1)his love of beauty--- his spontaneous response to in all forms.

(2)his pagan delight in Nature and in the physical side of life.

(3)his manner of personifying the phenomena of Nature.

(4)his interest in the subject-matter of the old Greek writers, and in the Greek mythology.

Robert Browning's Middle life

Middle life

In 1845, Browning met Elizabeth Barrett, who lived as a semi-invalid and virtual prisoner in her father's house in Wimpole Street. Gradually a significant romance developed between them, leading to their secret marriage and flight in 1846. From the time of their marriage, the Brownings lived in Italy, first in Pisa, and then, within a year, finding an apartment in Florence which they called Casa Guidi. Their only child, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, nicknamed "Penini" or "Pen", was born in 1849. In these years Browning was fascinated by and learned hugely from the art and atmosphere of Italy. He would, in later life, say that 'Italy was my university'. The Brownings bought a home in Asolo. Browning died on the day that the Town Council approved the purchase. His wife died in 1861.

Browning's poetry was known to the cognoscenti from fairly early on in his life, but he remained relatively obscure as a poet till his middle age. In Florence he worked on the poems that eventually comprised his two-volume Men and Women, for which he is now well known; in 1855, however, when these were published, they made little impact. It was only after his wife's death, in 1861, when he returned to England and became part of the London literary scene, that his reputation started to take off. In 1868, after five years work, he completed and published the long blank-verse poem The Ring and the Book, and finally achieved really significant recognition. Based on a convoluted murder-case from 1690s Rome, the poem is composed of twelve books, essentially comprising ten lengthy dramatic poems narrated by the various characters in the story showing their individual take on events as they transpire, bookended by an introduction and conclusion by Browning himself. Extraordinarily long even by Browning's own standards The Ring and the Book was the poet's most ambitious project and has been hailed as a tour de force of dramatic poetry.Finally brought Browning the renown he had sought and deserved for nearly forty years of work.

Rape of the Lock as an epic

Rape of the Lock as an epic

The poem satirises a petty squabble by comparing it to the epic world of the gods. It was based on an incident recounted by Pope's friend, John Caryll. Arabella Fermor and her suitor, Lord Petre, were both from aristocratic Catholic families at a period in England when Catholicism was legally proscribed. Petre, lusting after Arabella, had cut off a lock of her hair without permission, and the consequent argument had created a breach between the two families. Pope wrote the poem at the request of friends in an attempt to "comically merge the two." He utilised the character Belinda to represent Arabella and introduced an entire system of "sylphs," or guardian spirits of virgins, a parodic version of the gods and goddesses of conventional epic.

Pope’s poem mocks the traditions of classical epics: the rape of Helen of Troy becomes here the theft of a lock of hair; the gods become minute sylphs; Aeneas’ voyage up the Tiber becomes Belinda’s voyage up the Thames, and the description of Achilles’ shield becomes one of Belinda’s petticoats. He also uses the epic style of invocations, lamentations, exclamations and similes, and in some cases adds parody to imitation by following the framework of actual speeches in Homer’s Iliad. Although the poem is extremely funny at times, Pope always keeps a sense that beauty is fragile, and that the loss of a lock of hair touches Belinda deeply. As his introductory letter makes clear, women in that period were essentially supposed to be decorative rather than rational, and the loss of beauty was a serious matter.

The humour of the poem comes from the tempest in a teapot of vanity being couched within the elaborate, formal verbal structure of an epic poem. When the Baron, for example, goes to snip the lock of hair, Pope says,

The Peer now spreads the glittering Forfex wide,

T' inclose the Lock; now joins it, to divide.

Ev'n then, before the fatal Engine clos'd,

A wretched Sylph too fondly interpos'd;

Fate urged the Sheers, and cut the Sylph in twain,

(But Airy Substance soon unites again)

The meeting Points the sacred Hair dissever

From the fair Head, for ever and for ever!

Canto III


Using epic battle imagery to describe a small pair of ladies' scissors satirises the ridiculous nature of the whole situation.

Three of Uranus's moons are named after characters from "The Rape of the Lock": Belinda, Umbriel, and Ariel, the last name also (previously) appearing in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

John Donne

John Donne

John Donne was an English Jacobean poet, preacher and a major representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works are notable for their realistic and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially as compared to those of his contemporaries.

As Donne came from a Roman Catholic family he experienced some persecution until his conversion to the Anglican Church. Despite his great education and poetic talents he lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. In 1615 he became an Anglican priest and, in 1621, was appointed the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Some scholars believe that Donne's literary works reflect these trends, with love poetry and satires from his youth and religious sermons during his later years. Other scholars, such as Helen Gardner, question the validity of this dating since most of his poems were published posthumously (1633). The exception to these is his Anniversaries which were published in 1612 and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions published in 1623. His sermons are also dated, sometimes quite specifically by date and year.

Robert Browning's Youth

Youth

Browning was born in Camberwell, a suburb of London, England, on May 7, 1812, the first son of Robert and Sarah Anna Browning. His father was a man of both fine intellect and character, who worked as a well-paid clerk for the Bank of England. Robert's father amassed a library of around 6,000 books, many of them obscure and arcane. Thus, Robert was raised in a household of significant literary resources. His mother, with whom he was ardently bonded, was a devout Nonconformist as well as extremely musically talented. He had a younger sister named Sarianna, also gifted, who became her brother's companion in his later years. As a family unit they lived simply, and his father encouraged his interest in literature and the Arts.

In childhood, he was distinguished by a love of poetry and natural history. By twelve, he had written a book of poetry which he later destroyed when no publisher could be found. After attending several private schools he began to be educated by a tutor, having demonstrated a strong dislike for institutionalized education.

Browning was a fast learner and by the age of fourteen was fluent in French, Greek, Italian and Latin as well as his native English. He became a great admirer of the Romantic poets, especially Shelley. Following the precedent of Shelley, Browning became an atheist and vegetarian, both of which he later decided to stop being. At age sixteen, he attended University College London, but left after his first year. His mother’s staunch evangelical faith circumscribed the pursuit of his studying at either Oxford University or Cambridge University, then both only open to members of the Church of England. He had substantial musical ability and he composed arrangements of various songs.

Robert Browning_Late life

Late life

In the remaining years of his life he traveled extensively and frequented Manchester. Few of his later poems gained the popularity of The Ring and the Book, and they are largely unread today. However, Browning's later work has been undergoing a major critical re-evaluation in recent years, and much of it remains of interest for its poetic quality and psychological insight. After a series of long poems published in the early 1870s, of which Fifine at the Fair and Red Cotton Night-Cap Country were the best-received, Browning again turned to shorter poems. The volume Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper included a spiteful attack against Browning's critics, especially the later Poet Laureate Alfred Austin.

According to some reports Browning became romantically involved with Lady Ashburton, but did not re-marry. In 1878, he returned to Italy for the first time in the seventeen years since Elizabeth's death, and returned there on several occasions.

The Browning Society was formed for the appreciation of his works in 1881.

In 1887, Browning produced the major work of his later years, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance In Their Day. It finally presented the poet speaking in his own voice, engaging in a series of dialogues with long-forgotten figures of literary, artistic, and philosophic history. Once more, the Victorian public was baffled by this, and Browning returned to the short, concise lyric for his last volume, Asolando (1889).

He died at his son's home Ca' Rezzonico in Venice on 12 December 1889, the same day Asolando was published, and was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey; his grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson.

Robert Browning_Late life

Late life

In the remaining years of his life he traveled extensively and frequented Manchester. Few of his later poems gained the popularity of The Ring and the Book, and they are largely unread today. However, Browning's later work has been undergoing a major critical re-evaluation in recent years, and much of it remains of interest for its poetic quality and psychological insight. After a series of long poems published in the early 1870s, of which Fifine at the Fair and Red Cotton Night-Cap Country were the best-received, Browning again turned to shorter poems. The volume Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper included a spiteful attack against Browning's critics, especially the later Poet Laureate Alfred Austin.

According to some reports Browning became romantically involved with Lady Ashburton, but did not re-marry. In 1878, he returned to Italy for the first time in the seventeen years since Elizabeth's death, and returned there on several occasions.

The Browning Society was formed for the appreciation of his works in 1881.

In 1887, Browning produced the major work of his later years, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance In Their Day. It finally presented the poet speaking in his own voice, engaging in a series of dialogues with long-forgotten figures of literary, artistic, and philosophic history. Once more, the Victorian public was baffled by this, and Browning returned to the short, concise lyric for his last volume, Asolando (1889).

He died at his son's home Ca' Rezzonico in Venice on 12 December 1889, the same day Asolando was published, and was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey; his grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson.

Pride and Prejudice Background

Pride and Prejudice

Background

The novel was originally titled First Impressions by Jane Austen, and was written between October 1796 and August 1797. Austen's father wrote to London bookseller Thomas Cadell on November 1, 1797, offering it for publication, but it was rejected unseen by return of post. The unpublished manuscript remained with Austen, and it was not until 1811 that the first of her novels would be published, Sense and Sensibility.

Austen revised the manuscript for First Impressions, probably between 1811-12. She renamed the story Pride and Prejudice, an "apparent cliché" of the times. In renaming the novel, Austen probably had in mind the "sufferings and oppositions" summarized in the final chapter of Fanny Burney's Cecilia, called "Pride and Prejudice", where the phrase appears three times in block capitals. It is possible that the novel's original title was altered to avoid confusion with other works. In the years between the completion of First Impressions and its revision into Pride and Prejudice, two other works had been published under that name: a novel by Margaret Holford and a comedy by Horace Smith.

Austen sold the copyright for the novel to Thomas Egerton of Whitehall in exchange for £110 (Austen had asked for £150). This proved a costly decision. Austen had published Sense and Sensibility on a commission basis, whereby she indemnified the publisher against any losses and received any profits, less costs and the publisher's commission. Unaware that Sense and Sensibility would sell out its edition, making her £140, she passed the copyright to Egerton for a one-off payment, meaning that all the risk (and all the profits) would be his. Jan Fergus has calculated that Egerton subsequently made around £450 from just the first two editions of the book

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