La Belle Dame sans Merci Poem by John Keats

"La Belle Dame sans Merci" is a ballad produced by the English poet John Keats in 1819. The title was derived from the title of a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier called La Belle Dame sans Mercy. Considered an English classic, the poem is an example of Keats' poetic preoccupation with love and death. Wikipedia

Analysis of La Belle Dame sans Merci

La Belle Dame sans Merci with its mysterious narrative and ethereal atmosphere, combines innocence and seduction in an unusual ballad form to produce a haunting story.

In one sense it's little more than man meets woman in the countryside, they have a fling and the man ends up dumped, by a lake. He doesn't know if he's been drugged or not but it certainly seems he has been intimate with this beautiful stranger.

It's up to the reader to fill in the details.

Perhaps this is why the poem is so successful in its portrayal of a relationship that came out of nowhere, progressed to a different dimension and had such a profound effect on the male, and probably the female too.

The reader is left hanging on, with a need to know more, thanks to the metrical pattern of the stanzas and the bizarre circumstances the man finds himself in.

And in certain sections of the poem there is the suggestion of a sexual liaison which is perhaps drug inspired. Notably, stanzas five and seven stand out, with mention of the man making garlands and bracelets and a fragrant girdle (Zone) whilst the woman made sweet moan. And later she finds sweet roots, honey wild and manna dew (manna is the food from heaven as stated in the Bible), most certainly the food of love.

To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

                                             

                                   

                     Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend of John Milton. Wikipedia

Summary:

The poem is spoken by a male lover to his female beloved as an attempt to convince her to sleep with him. The speaker argues that the Lady’s shyness and hesitancy would be acceptable if the two had “world enough, and time.” But because they are finite human beings, he thinks they should take advantage of their sensual embodiment while it lasts.

He tells the lady that her beauty, as well as her “long-preserved virginity,” will only become food for worms unless she gives herself to him while she lives. Rather than preserve any lofty ideals of chastity and virtue, the speaker affirms, the lovers ought to “roll all our strength, and all / Our sweetness, up into one ball.” He is alluding to their physical bodies coming together in the act of lovemaking.

Analysis:

Marvell wrote this poem in the classical tradition of a Latin love elegy, in which the speaker praises his mistress or lover through the motif of carpe diem, or “seize the day.” The poem also reflects the tradition of the erotic blazon, in which a poet constructs elaborate images of his lover’s beauty by carving her body into parts. Its verse form consists of rhymed couplets in iambic tetrameter, proceeding as AA, BB, CC, and so forth.

The speaker begins by constructing a thorough and elaborate conceit of the many things he “would” do to honor the lady properly, if the two lovers indeed had enough time. He posits impossible stretches of time during which the two might play games of courtship. He claims he could love her from ten years before the Biblical flood narrated in the Book of Genesis, while the Lady could refuse his advances up until the “conversion of the Jews,” which refers to the day of Christian judgment prophesied for the end of times in the New Testament’s Book of Revelations.

The speaker then uses the metaphor of a “vegetable love” to suggest a slow and steady growth that might increase to vast proportions, perhaps encoding a phallic suggestion. This would allow him to praise his lady’s features – eyes, forehead, breasts, and heart – in increments of hundreds and even thousands of years, which he says that the lady clearly deserves due to her superior stature. He assures the Lady that he would never value her at a “lower rate” than she deserves, at least in an ideal world where time is unlimited.

Marvell praises the lady’s beauty by complimenting her individual features using a device called an erotic blazon, which also evokes the influential techniques of 15th and 16th century Petrarchan love poetry. Petrarchan poetry is based upon rarifying and distancing the female beloved, making her into an unattainable object. In this poem, though, the speaker only uses these devices to suggest that distancing himself from his lover is mindless, because they do not have the limitless time necessary for the speaker to praise the Lady sufficiently. He therefore constructs an erotic blazon only to assert its futility.

The poem’s mood shifts in line 21, when the speaker asserts that “Time's winged chariot” is always near. The speaker’s rhetoric changes from an acknowledgement of the Lady’s limitless virtue to insisting on the radical limitations of their time as embodied beings. Once dead, he assures the Lady, her virtues and her beauty will lie in the grave along with her body as it turns to dust. Likewise, the speaker imagines his lust being reduced to ashes, while the chance for the two lovers to join sexually will be lost forever.

The third and final section of the poem shifts into an all-out plea and display of poetic prowess in which the speaker attempts to win over the Lady. He compares the Lady’s skin to a vibrant layer of morning dew that is animated by the fires of her soul and encourages her to “sport” with him “while we may.” Time devours all things, the speaker acknowledges, but he nonetheless asserts that the two of them can, in fact, turn the tables on time. They can become “amorous birds of prey” that actively consume the time they have through passionate lovemaking.

Work cite

https://www.gradesaver.com/andrew-marvell-poems/study-guide/summary-to-his-coy-mistress

Daffodils

                   

William Wordsworth's  poem Daffodils

 The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee.

Summary

The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive,” the memory flashes upon “that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the daffodils.”

Form

The four six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme: ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter.

Commentary

This simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon, revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, this time with a particularly (simple) spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet’s wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely, bored, or restless. The characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory—the daffodils “flash upon the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”—is psychologically acute, but the poem’s main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas. The speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud—“I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high...”, and the daffodils are continually personified as human beings, dancing and “tossing their heads” in “a crowd, a host.” This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of Wordsworth’s most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing  SparkNotes

Tughlaq

Tughlaq

Girish Karnad's play Tughlaq explores the character of one of the most fascinating kings to occupy the throne in Delhi, namely, Mohammed-bin-Tughlaq. He ruled for 26 years, a period of unparalleled cruelty and agonising existence for his subjects.

Prof. Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri then of the Gauhati University at Guwahati, has said[10] of the play: "Tughlaq is based on the life and story of Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq -- the most controversial ruler of the Delhi sultanate. Tughlaq is defined as a historical play because the chief protagonist is a character taken from history and the play documents a series of past events that took place during the reign of Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq. Tughlaq can also be considered as a political play as it represents the reign of a king and his various moves to unify the Hindus and Muslims, and establish a just kingdom in Delhi."

Writing in 2012, the research scholar M. Jagadeswari, argues[11]: "Girish Karnad is the foremost playwright of modern India. Tughlaq, his second play, is a historical play replete with symbolism.... In the play, the symbols have a myriad of origin as well as forms. He used symbols to represent universal thoughts and emotions. His use of various symbols in the play such as Chess, Aziz and Aazam, Prayer, Python, Daulatabad, Rose and birds like Vulture add greater emotional and associative significance."

Characters

Tughlaq

The Sultan Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq is the central figure of the play, Tughlaq. He is the protagonist/ antagonist of the play. Many of the critics are of the opinion that Karnad’s Tughlaq is caricature of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. He is very intelligent and works very hard for the people. He becomes successful to kill Sheikh Imam-ud-din and Ain-ul-Mulk in a single stroke. This double-facedness of Tughlaq can be compared with modern politicians

.

Baran

Barani plays significant part in Girish Karnad’s plays. Karnad has used historical background while writing

Tughlaq and The Dreams of Tipu Sultan.In both these plays he has used a fictional histori

an named Barani. His character is contrast to Najib who is a politician. To him history is not made only in straight crafts; its lasting results are produced in the ranks of learned

men. Like Najib, Barani is also the favourite of Sultan but unlike Najib, he is an idealist. He is a good man and sees goodness in everyone. He is a moderate and temperate. He does not want violence. He praises the Sultan’s generous and kind deeds and does not approve of his killings

and murders. He is a scholar historian standing for the virtues of life.He is a simple, good and an honest advisor to the Sultan completely unaware of intrigues and treachery.

Sheikh Imam-ud-din

He is a holy character of India who defies the Sultan and meets his death by being caught in the trap of the Sultan. He is a bold and courageous man and is a great fiery speaker. He boldly tells the people that Muhammad is a murderer of his father and brother. The Sheikh

is a man of courage and integrity. He warns Sultan against making verbal distinctions between religion and politics. But he is trapped by Muhammad in hisplan and he is killed in the battle.

The Step-mother

The Step-mother of Tughlaq is the only important female character in the play. She is worried about the health and welfare of Tughlaq. She is worried about his late nights. As she dislikes many of Tughlaq’s advisors, she requests Barani to promise her not to leave the Sultan – ever – whatever he does. She comes to the conclusion that Najib is responsible for the killings in the state. She manages the murder of Najib and for that Tughlaq gives order for her being sent to prison and stoned to death. The Sultan loses a good advisor.

Plot

By no means can the plot of Tughlaqbe called Aristotelian. The playwright has flaunted the unities of time and place. The action of the playtakes place first of all in Delhi in the year 1327,then from the road from Delhi to Daulatabad and lastly in and around the fort at Daulatabad five years later. The unity of action implies that all the episodes in the play must be knit together to form the whole. Not a single episode or incident can be removed from the structure without a loss. In Tughlaq, there are many superfluous incidents e.g. the episode of Aziz and Hindu woman and the episode of Aziz with a family containing six illegal children. Many scenes regarding bloodshed and murders are narrated and not shown directly on the stage. Only the gruesome murder of Sihab-ud-din is enacted on the stage. The stepmother of the Sultan is shown being dragged by the soldiers.In Greek plays, the episodes regarding murders, bloodshed and other horrorful actions are narrated and are not shown onthe stage. Karnad weaves the story of Aazam and Aziz with the main tragic story of Tughlaq. Karnad has become successful in creating suspense in the play by keeping in abeyance the happy fate of Aziz. Though he cheats the Sultan, instead of being killed or tortured, he is rewarded by the Sultan. Girish Karnad uses suggesting method in developing the plot of Tughlaq Karnad has skillfully woven the plot. He knits together the comic story of Aziz and the tragic tale of life of Muhammad. Many critics are of the opinion thatTughlaq is a political allegory based on Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru’s era and it comments directly or indirectly the plans introduced by Jawaharlal Nehru. Tughlaqdeals with the last five years of the reign of Tughlaq. And whatever else we need to know we learn from what others tell us of him.

This has been done in the interest of dramatic effectiveness. The dramatist introduces tension and conflict which are essentialfor plot, in the very beginning and all the events and actions of characters intensify conflict until it reaches the climax. The subplot related with Aziz and Aazam runs parallel to the main plot. It is employed for the purpose of burlesque. In other words it is introduced inthe way of ridicule. And in order to achieve the target it was deliberately written in the convention of the company Natak.

Group work on The Da Vinci Code

Sense of an Ending

This blog is a part of thinking activity given by professor Dr.Dilip Barad sir,

                                             

• What is the meaning of phrase ‘Blood Money’ in Veronica’s reply email?

       The phrase 'Blood Money' can have meanings like, relationship with Sarah caused Adrian's suicide. And her money is given to Tony. Their relationship damages young Adrian's life so it can be called Blood Money and Tony is cause of all damages so Veronica call his (given) money as 'Blood Money'.

• How do you decipher the equation: b = s – v x/+ a1 or a2 + v + a1 X s = b?

The equation Means b =baby or young Adrian, s = Sarah, V= Veronica, a= Adrian.

b = s – v x/+ a1 means, Young Adrian, b is a result of Sarah's relationship with Adrian (x/+) with breaking relationship with Veronica(-).

a2 + v + a1 X s = b? a2 means Anthony ( Adrian used to address Tony as Anthony) It says relationship of Tony with Veronica, and her relationship with Adrian. And Adrian and Sarah's relationship multiplies b means gave birth to baby or young Adrian.

• Adrian’s diary is willed to Tony by Sarah Ford. How come Sarah Ford owned it? Why was it in the possession of Veronica?

              As in last days Adrian is in relationship with Sarah and they both are happy. So, Adrian's diary is with Sarah. Their relationship is an effect of Tony's letter. So, she willed it to Tony. But Veronica knows all the things. even she can view that the reason of young Adrian's suffering is also three of them. The bitter and cruel letter of Tony is in the route. So, she did not want to give him diary. Because of Tony's strong affords, she started giving clues to him and want him to understand all the things. Perhaps that can be reason of her possession.

• What do you mean by Unreliable Narrator? Is Tony Webster classifiable as Unreliable Narrator?

            Definitely, the narrator is unreliable, he himself goes on telling and deconstruction his own narrated events. Another thing whatever he narrated in part one, is deconstruction and challenged in second part. So, he is unreliable. Whatever is said. is only with his point of view and even in far past, so to recall all events truly is impossible and he himself goes on telling that, memory is imperfect...

Lecture on ELT 2

              Department of English organized the three days’ session of Prof. Atanu Bhattacharya on ELT. Atanu sir is a Professor and also a Dean of Central University of Gujarat. We had his lectures for 3 days ( 25th,26th,27th January, 2020.)

                                   

The topics which were taught by Atanu sir:-


 History of English language Teaching -2

 ELT:- Principles and Concepts
 Language Teaching
 Historical perspective in English Teaching:- Western Perspective
 The Audio – Lingual Method or Audio Visual Method
 Communicative Language Teaching : (CLT)
 Task – Based Teaching
 Computer Assisted Language Teaching
 Doing Teaching Task in class
 Rubric Evaluation through watching the videos
 Future of English Studies

History of English language Teaching 2


Sir talked about the historical perspectives of English Language Teaching. He talked about periods like:
· Classical
· Middle Ages
· 12th – 15th centuries
· Renaissance
· 17th ,18th , 19th centuries
· 19th and early 20th

He also talked about the Testing, Evaluation, and Assessment.


§ What is Testing?


Test is an inevitable element of learning process and plays a significant role especially in language learning. It is a reliable way by which a teacher can evaluate his or her student’s knowledge of something which he/she has taught them. The students also get a chance to prove their skill or competence of what they have learnt. So it is significant for both the learner and the teacher.


§ What is Evaluation?


Evaluation is the structured interpretation and giving of meaning to predicted or actual impacts of proposal or results. It looks at original objectives, and at what is either predicted or what was accomplished and how it was accomplished. So evaluation can be Formative, that is taking place during the development of a concept or proposal, project or organization, with the intention of improving the value or effectiveness of the proposal, projected, or organization. It can also be Summative, drawing lessons from a complicated action or project or an organization at a later point in time or circumstances.


§ What is Assessment?



The assessment cycle first plans and formulate a plan to teach students. Secondly, use the plan to effectively do the task of teaching. Thirdly, check whether outcomes the work is according to the plan and outcomes met or not? Lastly, teacher a way to use the learned knowledge.

Assessment is a process which follows a set of four components. These four stages or components are Plan, Do, Check and act. It is a process to evaluate the student’s performance. Besides, it is an orderly process. This uses a test to check the student’s performance. It divides into many types.



§ Types of Assessment


Formative Assessment


It is an essential part of teaching and learning. It does not add to the final marks given for the unit; instead, it up into learning through given advice. Also, it points out what is good about the work and what is not?
Similarly, it also affects what the students and teacher will plan in the future of learning.


Summative Assessment


It shows the amount of learners’ success in meeting the assessment. Also, it contributes to the final marks given for the unit. These are conducted at the end of units. In Addition, it provides data for selection for the next level.
The logic and dependability of summative assessment are of great importance. It can also provide information that has formative value.


Work Integrated Assessment


This type of Assessment is where the tasks and situations are closely associated with what you experience. It helps to develop student’s skills and capabilities along with educational development.


Diagnostic Assessment


Just like formative Assessment, diagnostic assessments intended to improve learner’s knowledge. Besides, it looks backward rather than looking forward. It reviews what the learner knows and difficulty that they are facing in learning.


Dynamic Assessment


It measures what students can achieve when teaches about unfamiliar topic or field. An example can be teaching students Spanish for a short while. It helps to see how students who do not have any prior knowledge adopt it.


Synoptic Assessment


It gives confidence students to unite elements of their learning from different parts of a paln and to show their build up knowledge and thoughtful of a topic or subject area.


Criterion – referenced Assessment


The performance of every student is judged by a specific principle. It should be strictly seen that other student’s performance should not be taken into account.


Ipsative Assessment


It measures the performance of the student in comparison to his previous performance. Also, it helps in keeping in check how well they are undertaking their tasks. Ipsative connect with efforts to enhance motivation to learn.


Future of English Studies


In the evening, we had a merge session. In this session he talked about Future of English Studies. He explained some points like:


  A short History of English Studies Foundation
  Institutionalised Initiatives
  Linguistic Explorations
 Visual Cultures: Film Studies
 Asian Literature