1.MY MISTRESS’S EYES ARE NOTHING…….
Introduction of the poet:
Shakespeare(1564-1616) is known more as a dramatist than as
a poet,but he is also one of the greatest poets in English literature.The
poetry of his verse dramas and his series of 154 sonnets make him a great
poet.Shakespeare wrote those 154 sonnets mainly during 1592-1594 when the
London theatres were closed due to the fear of spreading plague.The poems are
addressed to a friend of the upper class(sonnets 1-126),to a “dark
lady”(sonnets 127-154) or to a rival poet(like the present sonnet
no.130).shakespeare took the traditional sonnet from that many English
poets(and young men) had been writing in the form popularized by the Italian
poet,Petrarch:but he developed this overused poetic form and adapted it to the
present “English” or “Shakespearean” sonnet form.He did not give them titles
but numbered them,like Petrarch.But he did not always address to the some
imaginary,beautiful but cold and unwilling beloved.The beloved of Shakespeare
is a real and not so amazingly beautiful but rather ‘dark’ and unique
woman.Shakespeare also doesn’t limit his subject to the love of this lady:as if
confident in his true love,the speaker also deals with other subjects of
life,immortality,death,poetic fame,and so on.For instance,the present ‘sonnet
130’ is not only about love but also a satire on the artificial language of
poetry(or rather sonnets of the time).
What is sonnet?
The sonnet is a poem in fourteen lines.Sonnets were
originally love-poems addressed to an imaginary beloved by a poet.They are in
two parts:the first part introduces and develops the argument,and the second
part makes a conclusion,proposal or comment.They were originally written by
using a particular kind of diction and metaphors for appreciating and courting
a lady.Still followed and adapted for writing poems in many kinds of subjects
themes,the sonnet has been one of the most common ‘forms’ in which poets have
written their poems.The sonnet was originally a verse form developed by an
Italian poet named Patriarch in the 14th century.The English poets
imitated it and Shakespeare later adapted it heavily in its subject and
theme,its form,and in the devices of word-game,too.Now we have the English or
Shakespearean form,besides the original Italian or Petriarchan form of the
sonnet.
Explanation
of the poem:
Note:Shakespeare
did not divide his poem into stanzas;he didn’t even give them titles.But it is
convenient to consider his sonnets in two parts(the first twelve lines and a
couplet) or alternatively in four parts,by dividing the first part into
three(three quatrains and a concluding couplet).Such division is however there
in terms of rhyme-scheme,grammatical division into sentences,and logical
division of the argument or the division of ideas on different bases.
Stanza
1:The
speaker of the poem is a lover who is addressing an audience of one or more
poets.He could also be talking to
the reader as common people.He says that the eyes of his beloved are not like
the sun.In the context of a poem that deals with the speaker’s beloved,and
especially in a poem written in the sonnet from during the Elizabethan era,the
reader easily understands that the speaker is ‘refusing’ to compare his
beloved’s eyes with the common metaphor of the sun.We know that hundreds of
poets and young men in those times have written sonnets using the common
metaphors of the sun,coral,snow,rose,and the like.In that context,we feel that
the speaker of the poem is writing a new kind of poem.In the second line,he
adds that his beloved’s lips are not as red as the red coral.Again,the speaker
is refusing to use another common metaphor of the time.In the third line,he
says that her breasts are not white like the snow;and in the fourth line he
adds that her hair is not like golden wires.But instead of saying it simply,he
says it in a witty(clever argument)way.Instead of saying just that her breasts
are not white,he makes a witty point that ‘we should not say that the snow is
white if we can call her brown breasts white’!Similarly,he says that ‘if we can
describe a lady’s hair as golden wires,black wires and not yellow,grow on his
beloved’s head’!We fully realize only in the last two lines that the poet is
being ironical about the use of the common metaphors of Elizabethan love
sonnets.
Stanza
2:The
second quatrain is based on speaker’s experience.He says that he has seen roses
of several kinds:He has seen rough types of roses,red roses and white roses.But
he honestly says that he doesn’t see any rose on her cheeks.He also adds that
he has the experience of perfumes,but some perfumes are delightful in
scent.Compared to the delight of some perfumes,he says that his beloved’s
breath gives out a bad smell(reeks).If we observe the sentence structures
again,we see that the speaker is not saying one idea per line,but he says two
ideas in two pairs of lines.Again,in order to tell us his two experiences of
the rose and the perfumes,he uses two different types of structures:”I have seen
roses……but I don’t see roses in her cheeks” and “there is more delight in some
perfumes than in her breath that smells.”Now the expression have also become more critical.We
feel that the speaker is pretending not to understand the poetic and metaphoric
meanings of words in the sonnets written by the poets.In fact,no one says that
there are real roses in the cheeks of a lady;of course,that is a poetic way of
saying things.The tone of the poem is therefore one of a ‘simpleton’ who is so
straightforward and unpoetic that he will reject anything that is not literally
logical!Shakespeare has invented an appropriate persona in order to satirize
the other poets who sacrificed originality and realism in the name of writing
poems out of the readymade ‘formula’ of the sonnet.
Stanza
3:The
third stanza continues to ‘refuse to compare’ the lady with common objects of
comparison;but the stanza is based on the attitude of the speaker towards her.He
says that he does love to hear her speaking,but he says that her voice is not
so sweet as the music.Music has a far more pleasing sound.Then he ‘honestly’
tells us that he has never seen any goddess walk.He knows that his mistress
walks on the ground,unlike the goddesses who are supposed to fly and walk in
the air!This stanza also clearly suggests that the poet is refusing to use the
traditional metaphors that falsely compare the poet’s beloved with the goddess
in their style of walking(gait) and with the sound of music in their
voices.Before these lines,the poet had been giving us the impression that he
was depreciating(not appreciating) his beloved.We were somewhat made to feel that he was saying
that his beloved is ‘not’ beautiful or lovely.By the third stanza,he has come
to express ‘love’ explicitly.So we are now confused about what he is trying to
conclude.Stylistically,the variation in sentence structure,word-game and even
tone is again equally striking in this stanza also.By this stanza,his
expressions have become more explicit(open) and emphatic(strong).The last line
is long and broken,and it slows down the pace of our reading,and stopping the
easy flow of recitation.That also prepares us for the sudden twist and ironic
revelation in the last two lines of the poem.
Stanza
4:Model answer
This concluding couplet gives the whole poem a twist by
revealing an irony that is also the theme of the poem.The speaker here
swears(in the name of heaven!) that his beloved is no less ‘rare’ than anyone’s
beloved.He both manages to appreciate her and to depreciate the ‘fasle’
metaphors of other poets.
In the twelve lines preceding these lines,the poet has said
that his beloved is ‘not’ like the beautiful images used in conventional love-poems.With
these lines,he reveals that she is however not less beautiful and ‘rare’ than
any of the beloveds(of other poets) who have been fooled by false and
exaggerated metaphorical comparison.This is the criticism of the eight common
metaphors that the speaker has refused to use in the first twelve lines of the
poem:sun for her eyes,coral for her lips,snow for her breasts,golden wires for
her hair;rose for her cheeks,perfume for her breath,music for her voice,and the
gait of goddesses for her gait.Those common and outdated metaphors are here
revealed as ‘false’ which means ‘unreal’
and artificial.This is,in general,the statement of the poem’s theme of irony
and satire against the stale and hackneyed expressions and metaphors of the
Elizabethan sonnets which were too common in Shakespeare’s time.
The use of swear-word ‘by heaven’ suggests that the speaker
is rather annoyed with the ‘false metaphors’;but by the same token,he is also
appearing honest,frank and intimate with the reader.He is also humble and
tactful,as indicated by the words”I think”,which he seems to insert to make the
effect of the swear-words not rude.”She” in the second line means ‘any’ she or
the beloveds of any of the many poets who keep flattering them.The word belied
is synonymous to ‘fooled’,which means that the beloveds of other poets were
fooled by lies of false comparison.The present lover-poet is honest and
realistic,yet still emotional.
2.WHEN
ICICLES HANG BY THE WALL:
Introduction:”When
icicles hang by the wall” is taken from the concluding chapter of Shakespeare’s
Lover’s Labour’s Lost.This is the song in praise of winter season.Every season
has its own importance.The spring season has the outdoor pleasures whereas the
winter has indoors.Though the poet accepts the disadvantages of winter-its
cold,muddy road,wind,the physical discomfort etc.,his justification for winter
is positive.In the poem each stanza brings us indoor where we get maximum
pleasure.Roasted crab hissing in the bowl,warm room,etc. are the indoor
pleasures of the winter season.
Summary
and Interpretation of poem:Winter is a very cold season.The dripping
water freezes and hangs on the wall.The shepherd named Dick blows his nail to
make them warm and tom brings firewood in to warm the room.The herdsman brings
the milk in bucket which is already frozen.The blood in body is about to freeze and is very painful.The road outside
is all dirty and muddy because of rain.At night the owl sings a very happy song
To-who,To-whit.Joan(perhaps cook) turns the pot on its side which is all
greasy.The wind is blowing outside.When the preacher starts preaching,it can’t
be heard because of cough.The birds sit
to hatch their eggs on the snow.Marian’s nose is red and face looks rough.In
the kitchen the crabs are being roasted which produce hissing sound.The owl
also sings happy song in its own way.
3.STOPPING
BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING-ROBERT LEE FROST
Introduction to the poet:Robert Lee Frost(1874-1963) is a
famous modern American poet who is known for his simple poems which have deeper
level of meaning.He was influenced by the British Romantic poets in his early
days,but he later was to become the most originally ’American’ poet of his
time.He became a farmer-and-poet and wrote poems about local scenes,local
people and their life,especially of his home state of New England.His poetry
was first popularized in England,and he also lived in London for some time;but
he returned to his place and became a ‘lonely’ poet who disagreed with any
poetic movements like imagism,symbolism,or any ‘gang’ of –isms.He highlights
the values of the rural American life,and also universal human values like
sympathy,discipline,good reason and imagination.His saying that “poetry
begins in delight and ends in wisdom” has become a popular proverb.The
present poem is a typical Frost poem which describes a romantic evening scene
where the speaker wants to stay and enjoy,but he has to go ahead in his
journey.But if we read carefully,we see that this literal journey is an
allegory of the life journey also.At an even deeper level,the journey is also
hinted as a spiritual journey of the religious journeyman in which one must not
be tempted by wayside pleasures.There can be many other levels of its symbolic
meaning,even psychological meaning and meaning in terms of modernity,if we go
on.But if we generalize,the theme of the poem is a philosophy about life:time
doesn’t stop and we must go ahead for we all have our own responsibilities and
visions,desires and ambitions,whatever the mode and profession of our life.
Introduction
to the poem:
The speaker is probably a farmer returning home from far
away.He is riding his horse.It is getting rather late.He has come to a place
where there is very beautiful scenery.He stops the horse and looks
around,enjoying.There is a lake on one side and a small forest on the other side.The
snow is falling like a soft cotton(downy).The lake is almost frozen.It is now
very dark.It is quiet,and there is only the sound of the wind on the flakes of
snow.Because the traveler stops the horse in an unusual place,where
there is no house nearby,the horse shakes its head,in a manner of asking if
there is some mistake.Then the traveler becomes conscious that he has a long
way to go before he gets home to sleep.”The woods are lovely,dark and deep”,but
he has promises to keep.We do not know whether the promises were made with
someone,or they are his own commitments,but anyway he cannot stop there:he must
go.In a way,the poem is unique like its composer Robert Frost,who is one of the
most original modern American Poets.
Explanation
of the poem:
Stanza
1:The speaker comes across small
woods on his way and thinks that he seems to know whose woods they are;the
house of the owner is in the village.He also thinks that the owner of these
woods will not see him stopping there as he is stopping his horse to watch the
snowfall in the beautiful woods.This stanza is basically ‘romantic’.It creates
a beautiful setting,a romantic kind of image,The image of the snowfall in the
woods is not only a romantic picture of the beauty of nature but also a
background for the romantic feeling in the mind of the traveler as well as the
reader.It arouses a strong desire to stay on and enjoy the place.The mention of
the owner of the woods,the fact that his house is in the village,and that he
will not see the speaker enjoying his woods can also be explained in the
romantic sense.Those who really own or have beautiful things do not know its
value or enjoy it as much as people who lack it.And it is really ‘romantic’ or
pleasurable to those who don’t have it.Even if we interpret the stanza in the
allegorical sense of ‘life journey’,the first stanza is still basically
romantic,because it gives us the suggestion of some pleasurable part of our
life,like childhood or youth,where we want to stay forever,though we know we
must go ahead.
Stanza
2:The
second stanza is also as simple and apparently romantic as the first.But
here,the horse which makes a reaction like a human being seems to be more
symbolic than real.The speaker is stopping his horse and still enjoying the
beauty of the scene between the woods
and frozen lake,and in the ‘darkest evening of the year’.This stanza has deeper
meanings.The horse could be the symbol of our consciousness,and it on the basis
of this point that critics have made psychological and philosophical
interpretations of the poem.Psychologically,our unconsciousness and
subconsciousness always attract us towards pleasure and irresponsibility,but
our consciousness brings us to the right track.In the third and fourth of this
stanza also,there is a hint of the religious level of meaning of the poem.The
speaker says that it is “the darkest evening of the year”.The word ‘darkest’
hints that the poem is not only romantic,because darkness is not ideal for
romantic feelings.The darkness here must be taken as something negative.It
could be the darkness of ignorance or evil that the religious journeyman must
cross in order to reach his destination.Similarly,the ‘frozen’ lake is also
something that is not really pleasurable;it is a cold and dangerous thig that
only ‘looks’ beautiful.In the religious as well as the philosophical sense,one
must recognize and avoid the dangers of false appearances and false pleasures
in life.Even in the ordinary sense,there are many pleasurable and attractive
things in life that do not really benefit us in the long run.We must leave them
behind and go ahead.
Stanza
3:The
third stanza does not have much new information or thematic material.The horse
shakes its bell to ask whether there is some mistake,and the traveler hears
another sound of gentle wind on cotton-like flakes of the snow.The horse is the
symbol of consciousness and sense of responsibility that balances us between
dream and reality,between what we wish and what we can,and so on.The mention of
the wind as “easy” suggests that to stay there among the woods is easy.This is
related to the theme of ‘responsibility’, commitment (promises),and
righteousness.But we see in the last line of this stanza that the ‘easy’ is not
actually what it appears,because the cold and dangerous snow that has begun to
pile up is only seen “downy”,which means ‘like down’ or like soft cotton or
some other material for making pillow or mattress.The easy and comfortable
looking snow is not actually comfortable,but only deceptive.So,in every way,the
apparently beautiful place and situation is not actually so,in many ways.
Stanza
4:In
the last stanza,the speaker once again describes the woods:”The woods are
lovely,dark and deep” in an American kind of language,emphasizing the romantic
theme of pleasure.But the last three lines introduce a twist to the whole
poem:the speaker tells us that though the woods are pleasing,he must go,because
he has to keep his promises.He says that he has to go miles before he
sleeps.These last lines are the final clues about more meanings in the poems.
Symbolically,academic,journey
of personal success of some kind,and so on.Everyone wants to take rest,stop and
enjoy at a place or time that is pleasing,or even return!But that is not
possible.Stopping by actual woods may be possible,just for some time,in the
literal sense; but in every other way it is not possible or even desirable.We
can’t stop in the life-journey;we mustn’t be lured by wayside temptations in
our academic and professional journeys;and our journey of psychological
consciousness also shakes us into the same reality stopping the journey for the
shake of desire is either not possible or not permissible.
Allegory/Symbolism
in the poem:
The poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is a poem which has more
than one symbolic meanings,beneath its simple surface-meaning as a romantic
poem.In one sense,it is a poem that symbolizes the journey of life.In
another,the journey in the poem is also
the symbol of religious journey.Besides,there are also many other
possibilities of interpretations of the
poem as allegorically significant in terms of psychology and the philosophy of
life in general.
The journey in the poem can,first of all,be taken as an allegory of
life,or life journey.As in the journey
of life,the speaker,who represents any human being,is pleased by something on
the way.He stops in joy,but soon he becomes conscious that he must go
ahead.Time doesn’t stop or wait,and we cannot actually stop in the course of
life also.
The journey in the poem is,in another sense,a religious or spiritual
journey.According to most religions,and especially Christianity,the religious journeyman must
not be attracted by the pleasures of the journey but set his mind to the goal
and go persistently on.The speaker of the poem is an Everyman who is almost
tempted by wayside attractions.
Psychologically,the poem is an allegory of our mind’s working.When the
subconscious,the dreams and wishes pull us towards the socially and morally
unacceptable or the fantastic,our consciousness brings us into the right
track.Philosophically,the poem means that we have our
convictions,commitments,promises,ambitions and responsibilities that push us
ahead when we try to linger or forget our goals.As students,as
professionals,and as human beings with a meaningful way of life,we all have
“promises to keep”.
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