Today's talking would be about love in English literature.
In one of the previest post I've wrote that love is an important factor in physical and emotional relationships. Almost all books in english literature, that Ive been readen it contest love. From that point of view I can certainly say, that relationships and love have a big influence for writers. Some of them were famous, some of them are not.
I've read, till now, almost all famus writers in English literature, but from now one, I'm going to read some unfamous writers, cause Im very interested how they perceived love.
Maybe they percived from a different point of wiev and because of thath they are not so famous.
That will be very interested to know.
Till than, goodbye.
sobota, 22. avgust 2009
nedelja, 16. avgust 2009
Usefull tips for students
On this page: http://www.internationalgraduate.net/articles/english-literature.htm you can find some usefull tips for your English literature studying.
Those tips are reall worth to read it!
Have a nice day!
Those tips are reall worth to read it!
Have a nice day!
New week and new book
My dear visitors,
It's monday and I'm starting to read one of the best book from English literature. Short analaysis you could read in next week. 'Till then ... enjoy with English literature :)
It's monday and I'm starting to read one of the best book from English literature. Short analaysis you could read in next week. 'Till then ... enjoy with English literature :)
četrtek, 13. avgust 2009
Analysis of the poem “Talking in Bed” by Philip Larkin
Love is an important factor in physical and emotional relationships. The word love can refer to a variety of different states and attitudes - this diversity of meaning, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love difficult to define, even compared to other emotional states. All of us have been in love at least once and has tasted all the good things that love brings along with bitter ones and disappointment.
Many of Philip Larkin’s poems also focus on the concept of love, as the poem “Talking in Bed”, written in 1964, which is a story about a failing relationship between two people isolated from each other and who find it difficult to communicate. The first thing I noticed about this poem was the title “Talking in Bed”, suggesting that the closeness of being together in the bed (a place of intimacy) should make it easy to talk “Talking in bed ought to be easiest” (line 1). However, this couple seems to have trouble communicating “Lying together there goes far back” (line 2), as they do not say a word to each other. Only what remains is an emblem “An emblem of two people being honest” (line 3) – which signifies cruel present reality. This suggests the title and the whole poem is ironic. The word lying “Lying together there goes back so far” (line 2) is ambiguous as it could mean both “sleeping/lying in bed together” or “telling lies over a period of time”. Larkin obviously does not believe that love could last forever and can be a disappointment.
The sense of broken communication and isolation is well displayed through the structure and form of the poem. The poem consists of twelve lines, predominantly in the iambic pentameter, divided into three tercets, rhyming ABA CAC DCD, and a final tercet rhyming EEE, what portray the absence of continuity and the broken-up nature of the couple's discourse.
The second stanza opens with the line - containing alliteration - “Yet more and more time passes silently” (line 4) – which gives us a sense of human stagnation in contrast with nature “Outside, the wind’s incomplete unrest / Builds and disperses clouds about the sky” (line 5,6). It could be that the couple in this poem has been in a relationship for a long time or possibly be married; but in contrary - while their time’s passing in silence – the wind is active all the time. Larkin uses nature to describe what is happening outside - while the outside world continues as normal – the inside world remains in its isolation. Moreover, Larkin shows contempt and dislike for modern life by touching the problematic values of human communication. Nowadays, communicating with a person is something many people could possibly relate to, as it is a problem often seen in every day life.
As in second stanza Larkin also uses imagery of the nature and environment at the beginning of third stanza “And dark towns heap up on the horizon” (line 7), but this time the focus is not on natural objects but rather on man-made aspects of the environment. As seen in line 7 the environment, suggested by dark towns, does not bring satisfactory fulfilments in human expectations. Human involvement is even more obvious in the last two lines of third stanza “None of this cares for us. Nothing shows why / At this unique distance from isolation” (line 8,9). Larkin emphasises the desperation of situation between these two people gathered in one place where they could truly be themselves, but they are at a loss.
In fourth stanza “It becomes still more difficult to find / Words at once true and kind” (line 10,11) as well as in the third stanza “…Nothing shows why / At this unique distance from isolation” (line 9) there is enjambment – the breaking of a syntactic unit by the end of a line, which stresses alienation, failure and isolation.
As Larkin suggests, “It becomes more difficult to find / Words once true and kind” (line 10,11), it could be difficult for these two people to express verbally how they feel or it could be also possible that they spoke about the relationship, which has hurt them emotionally and they created the isolation, although words kind and true both relate with human language in positive manner. The double negative not + un “Or not untrue and not unkind” (line 12) leaves the reader ambiguous feeling of unfulfilled desire. Very similar situation is in line 9 “At this unique distance from isolation”, suggesting that someone can be distanced from isolation and ironically very close at the same time.
Larkin’s poem “Talking in bed” enables us to relate to possible common experiences in our own lives and provoke us to think about both – the gap between expectations and reality – and irony of love in modern world. However, an irony, one of the dominant features in this poem, gives us the opportunity to create our own perception of love. I think Larkin believed that love is a positive thing, but we all know that reality makes nothing simple and often confront us with painful disappointment.
Works cited and consulted
Larkin, Philip. “Talking in Bed”. 20th Century English Poetry (ed. V. Kennedy). 2007. University of Maribor. Faculty of Arts.
Duczeminski, Mattlock. Associated content. 17 November 2006. An Explication of “Talking in Bed”. 8 January 2009.
<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/83591/an_explication_of_talking_in_bed.html?cat=10 >
“Intimate relationship”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intimate_relationship >
“Love”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love >
“Philip Larkin”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Larkin >
Many of Philip Larkin’s poems also focus on the concept of love, as the poem “Talking in Bed”, written in 1964, which is a story about a failing relationship between two people isolated from each other and who find it difficult to communicate. The first thing I noticed about this poem was the title “Talking in Bed”, suggesting that the closeness of being together in the bed (a place of intimacy) should make it easy to talk “Talking in bed ought to be easiest” (line 1). However, this couple seems to have trouble communicating “Lying together there goes far back” (line 2), as they do not say a word to each other. Only what remains is an emblem “An emblem of two people being honest” (line 3) – which signifies cruel present reality. This suggests the title and the whole poem is ironic. The word lying “Lying together there goes back so far” (line 2) is ambiguous as it could mean both “sleeping/lying in bed together” or “telling lies over a period of time”. Larkin obviously does not believe that love could last forever and can be a disappointment.
The sense of broken communication and isolation is well displayed through the structure and form of the poem. The poem consists of twelve lines, predominantly in the iambic pentameter, divided into three tercets, rhyming ABA CAC DCD, and a final tercet rhyming EEE, what portray the absence of continuity and the broken-up nature of the couple's discourse.
The second stanza opens with the line - containing alliteration - “Yet more and more time passes silently” (line 4) – which gives us a sense of human stagnation in contrast with nature “Outside, the wind’s incomplete unrest / Builds and disperses clouds about the sky” (line 5,6). It could be that the couple in this poem has been in a relationship for a long time or possibly be married; but in contrary - while their time’s passing in silence – the wind is active all the time. Larkin uses nature to describe what is happening outside - while the outside world continues as normal – the inside world remains in its isolation. Moreover, Larkin shows contempt and dislike for modern life by touching the problematic values of human communication. Nowadays, communicating with a person is something many people could possibly relate to, as it is a problem often seen in every day life.
As in second stanza Larkin also uses imagery of the nature and environment at the beginning of third stanza “And dark towns heap up on the horizon” (line 7), but this time the focus is not on natural objects but rather on man-made aspects of the environment. As seen in line 7 the environment, suggested by dark towns, does not bring satisfactory fulfilments in human expectations. Human involvement is even more obvious in the last two lines of third stanza “None of this cares for us. Nothing shows why / At this unique distance from isolation” (line 8,9). Larkin emphasises the desperation of situation between these two people gathered in one place where they could truly be themselves, but they are at a loss.
In fourth stanza “It becomes still more difficult to find / Words at once true and kind” (line 10,11) as well as in the third stanza “…Nothing shows why / At this unique distance from isolation” (line 9) there is enjambment – the breaking of a syntactic unit by the end of a line, which stresses alienation, failure and isolation.
As Larkin suggests, “It becomes more difficult to find / Words once true and kind” (line 10,11), it could be difficult for these two people to express verbally how they feel or it could be also possible that they spoke about the relationship, which has hurt them emotionally and they created the isolation, although words kind and true both relate with human language in positive manner. The double negative not + un “Or not untrue and not unkind” (line 12) leaves the reader ambiguous feeling of unfulfilled desire. Very similar situation is in line 9 “At this unique distance from isolation”, suggesting that someone can be distanced from isolation and ironically very close at the same time.
Larkin’s poem “Talking in bed” enables us to relate to possible common experiences in our own lives and provoke us to think about both – the gap between expectations and reality – and irony of love in modern world. However, an irony, one of the dominant features in this poem, gives us the opportunity to create our own perception of love. I think Larkin believed that love is a positive thing, but we all know that reality makes nothing simple and often confront us with painful disappointment.
Works cited and consulted
Larkin, Philip. “Talking in Bed”. 20th Century English Poetry (ed. V. Kennedy). 2007. University of Maribor. Faculty of Arts.
Duczeminski, Mattlock. Associated content. 17 November 2006. An Explication of “Talking in Bed”. 8 January 2009.
<http://www.associatedcontent.
“Intimate relationship”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
“Love”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
“Philip Larkin”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Analysis of the poem "When I Was One-and-Twenty" by A. E. Housman
Housman’s remarkable love poem, “When I Was One-and-Twenty”, is simple and elegant, as are many of his poems in the collection titled “A Shropshire Lad”. He writes of youth typically not heeding wise advice - there are two possible reasons for his failure to act. The first is that he did not recognize the wisdom of the wise man until he turned older “two-and-twenty” (line 15); the other possibility is that the poem’s speaker did realize that it was a good advice at the time but was helpless to do anything about it because he was too young. Both of these ways of looking at the phrase “a wise man” (line 2) illustrate the same thing about knowledge — that it can only be absorbed when one is ready for it.
The poem consists of two rimed stanzas of eight lines each. The rime scheme is ABCBCDAD in the first stanza and ABCBADAD in the second stanza. The end rhymes in the poem are considered perfect or full rhymes, such as in “say” (line 2) and “away” (line 4). The poem also contains some near rhymes within individual lines of the poem; for example, “crowns” and “pounds” in line 3, and “not” and “heart” in line 4. The poem also has certain rhythm – each of even-numbered lines contains six syllables and each of the odd-numbered lines contains seven syllables – giving the poem a musicality. All of the even-numbered lines of this poem contain three segment - which is called iambic trimester – and all of the odd-numbered lines of this poem contain one extra unaccented syllable in the final segment, creating what is called feminine ending.
As I said the poem begins with the speaker recounting the advice given to him from an older man. Housman’s use of “one-and-twenty” (line 1) instead of twenty-one contributes to the lyrical style of the poem as well as the assonance “Give crowns and pounds and guineas” (line 3), and alliteration “But keep your fancy free” (line 6). Advice given to a youth is a notice in the form of a warning, which makes the poem’s imagery and emotions more immediate. A wise person can be thought to be one who has already experienced the pain of a lost or unrequited love. The inherent message in the warning is that though you need money to buy food and shelter “Give crowns and pounds and guineas, / But not your heart away; / Give pearls away and rubies / But keep your fancy free” (line 3-6.), it would be better to go without these material objects that keep us alive than to suffer in love. The poem conveys the message that a person in love is not free, that one must avoid giving their heart to another in order to keep their “fancy free” (line 6). The speaker’s use of “but” in “But I was one-and-twenty, / No use to talk to me” (line 7-8) denotes his realization of his youthfulness, thus foreshadowing a later fact.
The second stanza begins with a repetition of the first line of the poem “When I was one-and-twenty” (line 9), denoting that the second stanza will be a continuation of the ideas first presented in the first stanza. The speaker tells us that he was warned more than once “I heard him say again” (line 10) substantiates this notion. On the one hand, Houseman uses the word “paid” in line 13, continuing the imagery of material objects in contrast with love - nothing is harder to give away than one’s heart “The heart out of the bosom / Was never given in vain / Tis paid with sighs a plenty / And sold for endless rue” (line 11-14). Falling in love, on the other hand, does take one’s freedom, and therefore leaves a person in misery, or “endless rue” (line 14). The final lines of the poem Housman completes the speaker’s monologue with the wise man’s warnings. Ironically, just one year older “And I am two-and-twenty” (line 15) and apparently now more experienced, speaker suggests the intensity of the woe and sorrow felt, while begins his expression with the word “Oh” (line 16) and repeats the phrase “’Tis true, ‘tis true” (line 16).
The message of this poem seems to be that the effect of surviving one’s (first) love is to be elevated into the ranks of wise people who have already seen the light. Both stanzas are very similar, talking of the same subject and using similar language. However, in the first stanza, the speaker comes off as a brash youth “I was one-and-twenty, / No use to talk to me” (line 7-8) while in the second stanza, Housman makes it clear that with age the speaker has gained maturity and learned a valuable lesson about life and love “I am two-and-twenty, / And oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true” (line 15-16). The idea of money is an interesting way to explain the trials of love, using money-language: “crowns, pound, guineas, pearls, rubies, paid and sold”. Nevertheless, a young man, according to the “wise man” must guard against having his life taken over by his material possessions and other’s opinions, but his mental and emotional life.
Works cited and consulted
A.E. Housman. “When I Was One-and-Twenty”. 20th Century English Poetry (ed. V. Kennedy). 2007. University of Maribor. Faculty of Arts.
“A.E. Housman. ”Poets.org. 18 November 2008.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/631
“Love Poem by A.E. Housman: When I was one-and-twenty. ” 18 November 2008.
http://www.thedatingadvisor.com/love-poem-when-I-was-one-and-twenty.html
“When I Was One-and-Twenty. ” Answers.com. 18 November 2008.
http://www.answers.com/topic/when-i-was-one-and-twenty-poem-8
The poem consists of two rimed stanzas of eight lines each. The rime scheme is ABCBCDAD in the first stanza and ABCBADAD in the second stanza. The end rhymes in the poem are considered perfect or full rhymes, such as in “say” (line 2) and “away” (line 4). The poem also contains some near rhymes within individual lines of the poem; for example, “crowns” and “pounds” in line 3, and “not” and “heart” in line 4. The poem also has certain rhythm – each of even-numbered lines contains six syllables and each of the odd-numbered lines contains seven syllables – giving the poem a musicality. All of the even-numbered lines of this poem contain three segment - which is called iambic trimester – and all of the odd-numbered lines of this poem contain one extra unaccented syllable in the final segment, creating what is called feminine ending.
As I said the poem begins with the speaker recounting the advice given to him from an older man. Housman’s use of “one-and-twenty” (line 1) instead of twenty-one contributes to the lyrical style of the poem as well as the assonance “Give crowns and pounds and guineas” (line 3), and alliteration “But keep your fancy free” (line 6). Advice given to a youth is a notice in the form of a warning, which makes the poem’s imagery and emotions more immediate. A wise person can be thought to be one who has already experienced the pain of a lost or unrequited love. The inherent message in the warning is that though you need money to buy food and shelter “Give crowns and pounds and guineas, / But not your heart away; / Give pearls away and rubies / But keep your fancy free” (line 3-6.), it would be better to go without these material objects that keep us alive than to suffer in love. The poem conveys the message that a person in love is not free, that one must avoid giving their heart to another in order to keep their “fancy free” (line 6). The speaker’s use of “but” in “But I was one-and-twenty, / No use to talk to me” (line 7-8) denotes his realization of his youthfulness, thus foreshadowing a later fact.
The second stanza begins with a repetition of the first line of the poem “When I was one-and-twenty” (line 9), denoting that the second stanza will be a continuation of the ideas first presented in the first stanza. The speaker tells us that he was warned more than once “I heard him say again” (line 10) substantiates this notion. On the one hand, Houseman uses the word “paid” in line 13, continuing the imagery of material objects in contrast with love - nothing is harder to give away than one’s heart “The heart out of the bosom / Was never given in vain / Tis paid with sighs a plenty / And sold for endless rue” (line 11-14). Falling in love, on the other hand, does take one’s freedom, and therefore leaves a person in misery, or “endless rue” (line 14). The final lines of the poem Housman completes the speaker’s monologue with the wise man’s warnings. Ironically, just one year older “And I am two-and-twenty” (line 15) and apparently now more experienced, speaker suggests the intensity of the woe and sorrow felt, while begins his expression with the word “Oh” (line 16) and repeats the phrase “’Tis true, ‘tis true” (line 16).
The message of this poem seems to be that the effect of surviving one’s (first) love is to be elevated into the ranks of wise people who have already seen the light. Both stanzas are very similar, talking of the same subject and using similar language. However, in the first stanza, the speaker comes off as a brash youth “I was one-and-twenty, / No use to talk to me” (line 7-8) while in the second stanza, Housman makes it clear that with age the speaker has gained maturity and learned a valuable lesson about life and love “I am two-and-twenty, / And oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true” (line 15-16). The idea of money is an interesting way to explain the trials of love, using money-language: “crowns, pound, guineas, pearls, rubies, paid and sold”. Nevertheless, a young man, according to the “wise man” must guard against having his life taken over by his material possessions and other’s opinions, but his mental and emotional life.
Works cited and consulted
A.E. Housman. “When I Was One-and-Twenty”. 20th Century English Poetry (ed. V. Kennedy). 2007. University of Maribor. Faculty of Arts.
“A.E. Housman. ”Poets.org. 18 November 2008.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/
“Love Poem by A.E. Housman: When I was one-and-twenty. ” 18 November 2008.
http://www.thedatingadvisor.
“When I Was One-and-Twenty. ” Answers.com. 18 November 2008.
http://www.answers.com/topic/
Critical Analysis of the novel The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden, written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who was born in poor Victorian slums in Manchester, was first published in 1909. When she was 16, her family moved from industrial England to rural America, where she could enjoy the benefits of a green and natural world. This kind of world became a central theme in many of Burnett's later works, including The Secret Garden, which is a readable novel containing magical and secret elements.
Those elements, which are shown as supernatural, have their origin in Christian Science and New Thought. Burnett tried to explain those magical elements that appear with the turn of the main protagonists - Mary Lenox and Colin Craven.
The little girl born in India to wealthy British parents made a tremendous transfiguration throughout the story. If we look deeper into the psychological level, her introduction as a selfish, ill- tempered and spoiled girl, has her hatefulness in her parents, who constantly refused her. Her native (Indian) servants gave her, her own way in everything, so she was “…as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived” (Burnett 8 ).
Almost the same sensations were presented with Colin Craven, whose mother died when he was born. As his father could not reconcile to wife’s loss he started refusing little boy. People who knew Colin felt pity for him and they thought he would die early. The power of their thoughts, including his father’s, were so strong that Colin never left the house in his whole life, and what is even worse, he never tried to stand on his own legs.
In those straitened circumstances Mary and Colin did not have any chance to grow up as healthy and happy adults. Their senses started to waken when they befriended each other. The garden was their source of positive thinking and energy. The narrator puts great value on positive thinking which is also one of the most important Christian elements. Believers reinforce their faith with good thoughts at prayers meetings. Christian Scientists’ idea affirms that no disease is caused by the body, but is in fact the result of morbid and negative thinking. Neither Mary or Colin were not loved and were surrounded with negativism, consecutive they felt anger and rejection to everybody and everything. But once they are thinking of the garden and nature they can no longer concern themselves with fear. They started to become healthy children, full of dreams. Their pale faces become more and more cheerful every day and their selfishness, which was caused by unfriendly relations in the past, started to disappear.
An important role in their transformation is played by strong and satisfied boy, Dickon Sowerby. His mother, Susan Sowerby is introduced as Virgin Mother in Catholic symobology. She lends Mary and Colin warm and support feelings that she gives to her own children. Susan understands how to deal with children, while Dickon knows how to understand animals and plants. Christian overtones can also be found in the scene in which Mary opens the window so that Colin may breathe in the air. Colin’s suggestion: “Open the window … perhaps we may hear golden trumpets!” (Burnett 184) recalls the golden trumpets that are believed by Christians to announce the entrance in paradise. Furthermore, when Mary opens
the window for Colin, she repeats Dickon’s words “… it [fresh air] makes him strong and he feels as if he could live forever and ever…” (Burnett 185). This clearly indicates the Christian belief that Paradise contains the promise of eternal life.
Unlike Dickon, who is already complete from the beginning, Mary and Colin start to feel life in their veins. The garden, which is the great secret among children, is represented as a holy place that helps transform them in the best possible way.
We can see Mary’s growing up from different views. After she moved from India to England, where she was given living plants in real garden, representing life and wakefulness in contrast with Indian unhappiness and sleepiness, she became more and more happy. When she moved to England, the narrator shows us four good things that happened to her: “…she had felt as if she had understood a robin and that he had understood her; she had run in the wind until her blood had grown warm; she had been healthily hungry for the first time in her life; and she had found out what it was to be sorry for some one” (Burnett 49). Divine nature, a warm spring environment and her first friendship with the little robin, which was an orphan like she was, started to arouse feelings in her. She was afraid of company because she was not used to it. Although with her shamefacedness and fear she had an evident desire to be someone’s friend, as we can see how she befriended the gardener Ben: “She surprised him [Ben Weatherstaff] several times by seeming to start up beside him … the truth was that she was afraid that he would pick up his tools and go away if he saw her coming, so she always walked toward him as silently as possible” (Burnett 87). Furthermore, she makes friends with Dickon. I felt as they were in love. She constantly touches him, without knowing what she is doing.
Colin plunged his negative feelings in his hysterical tantrums. He was not ill at all; his disease was entirely a product of his mind. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who published Studies on Hysteria in cooperation with neurologist Joseph Breuer, researched that field. In his book he explains the reason that leads someone to hysterical outbursts. Freud distributes between conscious and unconscious part of mind. Human beings cannot accept all the ideas and acts that are unrolling in their head. He represses some of them in faith to forget or at least mitigate them, but when a person has an idea or fantasy that has been repressed (unconsciously) by the mind, it will find its alternative expression in the body. Colin’s negative thinking is let out through the body. For Freud, the majority of hysterics were women. Colin is therefore feminized – he is weak, frightened and shy. In contrast, Dickon is strong, masculine and vigorous.
The novel would be even more interesting if it was told in Mary’s words. It would be more personal and more touching than it is now, when it is told by an omniscient narrator, who offers extensive philosophical commentary on the novel's action and has access to all of the characters’ thoughts.
The major conflict in The Secret Garden is between each character and his own negative thoughts. Magic is provided as a parable of positive thinking and believing that can solve everything. The secret garden was the place for Mary and Colin to recover and to feel love that they never felt. This novel of ideas shows us life principles and the importance of positive thinking through young people (children), who helped each other and tasted the mercy and glory of life at the end.
Works cited and consulted
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden. London: Penguin Books, 1995.
“Christian Science.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 8 november 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
“Sigmund Freud.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 8 november 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
“The Secret Garden.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 8 november 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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