Discuss Santiago's struggle as an 'epic struggle'

 

The Old Man and the Sea is the story of an epic struggle between an old, seasoned fisherman and the greatest catch of his life.

As an adjective, epic has come to describe events that happen over a long period and involve a lot of action and difficulty. examples "It was an epic struggle," or "It was an epic journey. Epic has also come to describe something large.

Santiago suffers terribly throughout The Old Man and the Sea. In the opening pages of the book, he has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish and has become the laughingstock of his small village. He then endures a long and grueling struggle with the marlin only to see his trophy catch destroyed by sharks. Yet, the destruction enables the old man to undergo a remarkable transformation, and he wrests triumph and renewed life from his seeming defeat. After all, Santiago is an old man whose physical existence is almost over, but the reader is assured that Santiago will persist through Manolin, who, like a disciple, awaits the old man’s teachings and will make use of those lessons long after his teacher has died. Thus, Santiago manages, perhaps, the most miraculous feat of all: he finds a way to prolong his life after death.

Santiago’s commitment to sailing out farther than any fisherman has before, to where the big fish promise to be, testifies to the depth of his pride. Yet, it also shows his determination to change his luck. Later, after the sharks have destroyed his prize marlin, Santiago chastises himself for his hubris (exaggerated pride), claiming that it has ruined both the marlin and himself. True as this might be, it is only half the picture, for Santiago’s pride also enables him to achieve his most true and complete self. Furthermore, it helps him earn the deeper respect of the village fishermen and secures him the prized companionship of the boy—he knows that he will never have to endure such an epic struggle again.

 Santiago’s pride is what enables him to endure, and it is perhaps endurance that matters most in Hemingway’s conception of the world—a world in which death and destruction, as part of the natural order of things, are unavoidable. Hemingway seems to believe that there are only two options: defeat or endurance until destruction; Santiago clearly chooses the latter. His stoic determination is mythic, nearly Christ-like in proportion.

For three days, he holds fast to the line that links him to the fish, even though it cuts deeply into his palms, causes a crippling cramp in his left hand, and ruins his back. This physical pain allows Santiago to forge a connection with the marlin that goes beyond the literal link of the line: his bodily aches attest to the fact that he is well matched, that the fish is a worthy opponent, and that he himself, because he is able to fight so hard, is a worthy fisherman. This connectedness to the world around him eventually elevates Santiago beyond what would otherwise be his defeat. Like Christ, to whom Santiago is unashamedly compared at the end of the novella, the old man’s physical suffering leads to a more significant spiritual triumph.  So santiago’s struggle as an epic struggle.

Justify Arther Dimmesdale's sin and redemption

 

Arthur Dimmesdale is fully and painfully conscious of the sin that he has committed. He knows that he has sinned against God against social morality, and against his own integrity as an individual and as a priest. He knows also that he is doubly a sinner in so far as he continues to conceal his sin. His sense of sin not only weighs, but preys, upon his mind ceaselessly. His sin inwardly isolates him from the community, and the deliberate concealment of his sin deepens that isolation. The secrecy which he maintains and the sense of isolation from his professional brethren and from the community in general drives him almost mad.  Apart from his keen awareness of adultery as a sin, he knows that he is a hypocrite and a moral coward. The sense of sin in him is thus heightened and intensified, and allows him no peace of mind.

 

     The public worship by which Dimmesdale is surrounded adds to the torture of Dimmesdale's sense of sin. He genuinely adores the truth and he longs to speak out, from his own pulpit, in his loudest voice, and tell the people what he is. He wants to tell them

that he, their pastor, whom they reverence deeply and trust comp letely, is utterly "a pollution and a lie." More than once, in the course of his sermons, he actually tells his hearers that "he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners

an abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity; and that the only wonder was that they did not see his wretched body shrivelled up before their eyes, by the burning wrath of the Almighty." But his bearers, instead of tearing him to pieces, begin to show him even more reverence because they attribute his words not to any actual sinfulness on his part but to his spirit of humility and self-efface These people would thus comment on his words: “The godly youth! The saint on earth." And Dimmesdale knew well, "subtle but remorseful hypocrite" that he was, that his vague confession would be viewed in that light, "He speaks to his parishioner the very truth, and yet, transforms it into the veriest falsehood.” And yet, by the constitution of his nature, he loves the truth, and hates the lie, as few men ever do. Therefore, above all things else, he begins to hate his miserable self.

 

    So tormented is Dimmesdale by his sense of sin that be begins to impose upon himself   the severest possible penance. He observes rigid fasts with the object of purifying his body. He keeps vigils night after night in order 'to purify his mind. He lashes himself with a scourge till he begins to bleed. One midnight he mounts the scaffold as another act of penance but, as the author points out, this action is only a "mockery of penitence." He is driven to the scaffold by that remorse which pursues him everywhere. - Poor, miserable

man", says the author with reference to Dimmesdale, What right had infirmity like his to burden itself with crime? Crime is for the iron-nerved, who have their choice either to endure it, or, if it pressed too hard, to exert their fierce and savage strength for a good

purpose; and fling it off at once! This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do neither...."

 

      And so the minister continues to suffer the tortures caused by his sense of sin and the persecution to which he is subjected by Chillingworth till he meets Hester in the forest. And then this man, who should long ago have confessed his sin, has his second fall". The enchantment of Hester's presence and her words prove too strong for this man of weak resolutions and, without putting up the least resistance, he accepts Hester's plan of flight from Boston. However, soon afterwards the conflict begins again, this time between

his desire to start a new life in the company of Hester and the voice of his conscience urging him to make a public confession of his sin. This conflict, agonising and heart-rending as it must have been, is not described by Hawthorne. We only learn that Dimmesdale's moral sense wins, that he becomes truly penitent, and that he achieves a re-union with the good which enables him to write the Election Sermon, to confess his sin publicly, and to come at the end into a true relation with all the elements against which he has sinned.

The only way of expressing emoting in the from of art is by finding the “ Objective correlative”

 

Objective Correlative- The only way of expressing emoting in the from of art is by finding the “ Objective correlative” in other words a set of objects a situation a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion, such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience are given, the emotion is are given the emotion is immediately evoked.

In this poem “ The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Eliot uses different images, symbols and other devices as media for the system of objective correlative.

The opening lines of the poem bombard the reader with a series of images which all depict a drab neighborhood and establish the atmosphere of disillusionment and passivity that suffuse the poem. The conceit in which Prufrock compares the evening to “a patient etherized upon a table”.

Using the phrase patient  etherizes upon a table Eliot indicates the existential crisis of Prufrock. Eliot compare the time of sundown with a patient who is under treatment and getting senseless using a simile to indicate the ending time of Profrock. Profrock self realization is that he is in old age. Thus he needs love to survive in the universe. Through the patent etherized upon a table this phrase is used to depict the scenery of nature and the ending time Profrock like but the speaker is focused more. In this poem, Pruprock takes us inside where man women gather in a party. Again the reader’s expectation is violently broken for he does not delve in to the woman’s world. Instead he depicts them as they are taking about Michael Angelo, a man whose image disturbs the hesitant Pruprock and reminds him of his lack of productivity.

“ In the room the women come and go talking of Michael Angelo”

As a result Profrock escape from this world and goes out.  Again the reader is bombard with even more imagery that conveys Prufrock’s discontentment with his surroundings. He talks about,

“ The Yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windows – Panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window- Panes

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening”

 

The above aforementioned images which are carried out through personification depict two important facts, concerning  Prufrock. The first fact asserts that the women’s world from which he has already escaped is foggy and mysterious and it is difficult for the awkward Profrock to Participate in it’s activities or even to understand it. The second portrays Prufrock as a person who wishes to enter and intermingle in this world despite the fact that is fully aware of his eternal defeat. He metaphorically stands out side, by the window and uses different senses. As the verbs “rubs” and licked” show, Prufrock anain says that

“ Do I dare, disturb the universe”

There is an allusion in this above line because it is taken from a novel named “ The chocolate war” In this novel Jerry was a schoolboy who rejects  the trading of chocolate.

Thus he was neglected by the whole school authority. Here, the speaker think that if he propose the striking beautiful lady, she will definitely reject him, Prufrock thinks that the universe will be disturbed if he dare to take a decision of making a marriage proposal to his beloved. For him taking a decision is a  momentous step like disturbing the universe. 

As the poem progresses, further allusions are introduced Prufrock alludes to Hamlet  in order to convince himself that his mission cannot be carried out in addition to be hesitant and indecisive

“ No! I am not price Hamlet, non was meant to be”

In this allusion, Prufrock excuses himself  for Hamlet was price and his mission was great but he acted decisively  at last that is why he says that he is not prince Hamlet.

So above all, I have tried to explored objective correlative in the poem Prufrock. He arranges these media in a way that shows Prufrock's emotion towards the society he lives in, his surroundings, his defects and  inner life. The poet succeeds in doing so by following a certain poetic technique which is a monologue. Through this technique Eliot makes Prufrock talk about himself openly and reveal his inner feeling concerning himself and things which surround him. He produces a series of images which show much about Prufrock's personality and his view towards life. These images range from discontentment to alienation and debasement and then to death-wish. He also uses some symbols which  are, somehow, textual which participate in revealing some other hidden facts about Prufrock's views towards himself where images cannot express them all. These symbols are all connected indirectly to sex. The most disputable ones are "the peach and hair" which play a vital role in showing Prufrock's shyness and impotence. Other devices such as allusions, repetitions and the use of the present tense, explain Prufrock's hesitation, indecision and his motionlessness in a constant mobile world. All these techniques are carried out with the help of the web of the objective correlative.

Compare and contrast between Gerontion and Prufrock.

 

We find many compare contrast between Gerontion and Prufrock poems. They are discussed below:

The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a poem written by T.S Eliot. The epigraph of this poem is a six-line quotation from canto 27 of the inferno by the Renaissance Italian poet Dante. Thus suggesting that the ensuring poem will depict a kind of dark, hellish experience.

And Gerontion is a poem by T.S Eliot. The poem takes as an epigraph lines from Act-iii of Shakespeare’s play “ Measure for Measure” from a speech that is an extended meditation on old age and death. In the poem “ The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” where Prufrock says that “ Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions”. Prufrock think that both he and his lady love will get time for a hundred indecisions, hundred visions and for a hundred revisions. Prufrock is a man of indecisive nature. Here the grandiloquent style is used for a trifling matter, like the making of a marriage proposal.  It has an ironic effect.

On the other hand “Geronation” by T.S Eliot. The Speaker begins by locating himself and giving the reader a few details about who he is. He’s old and living through a “dry mouth” He is in a liminal space in which he is waiting for death, because he has no time to choosing decision or revision. Here we find compare between both of poem idea of time. Prufrock is unable to take any decision. He thinks that he will get enough time for it. But the speaker of Gerontion poem he won’t get enough time.

Prufrock is more focusing on the future but Gerontion is more focusing on the past. Prufrock says that -

“ Do I dare disturb the universe”

Here, the speaker thinks that if he propose the striking beautiful lady. She will definitely reject him. Prufrock thinking is that he can exist without the love, but if he makes a proposal toward girl then the whole world will stand against him. Thus should he dare to disturb the universe? He is raising this question. He is a man who is confused and lacked of courage. And the speakers of “ Gerontion” Poem He says that

“ Neither fear nor courage saves us”

Here, the speaker says that if we fight then they are going to die. Here also we find a lack of courage. So this is a contrast of both of the poem Gerontion and Prufrock by T.S Eliot, ” Gerontion” The poem is lamenting and depressing. It is hopeless the old man laments his age, his inaction and the direction the humans are going. He has no hope for them nor for himself. And Prufrock is also hopeless. He says that

“ I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think they will sing to me”

 

He wants to wear trousers of the latest fashion in order to hide his old age so that he can be acceptable to his lady-love. But in the very moment he decides to take a walk on the sea-shore in order to escape the hard realities of life, and the unpleasant duty of making a decision. While walking on a beach, in his fancy, he remembers the story of mermaids. "Mermaids" are mythical sea-creatures, half women and half fish. Prufrock has heard the mermaids singing, each to each, but he thinks that they will not sing to him. In ancient mythology, Ulysses and his sailors are said to have heard the mermaids singing. But Prufrock cannot rise to the level of Ulysses who was a great hero. Prufrock is not brave and adventurous lie Ulysses. He is timid and cowardly and therefore unfit to listen to the music of mermaids.

 

Mermaids" here are used as a symbol of romantic visions. Prufrock's life is so dull and boring that he cannot hope to see romantic visions. So both of them are hopeless.

 

This is the main compare and contrast between "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufork" and "Gerontion" poems.

 

How has the theme of paternity been crisscrossed by the poem "Marina" and its epigraph?. Explain

 

The theme of paternity:

The poem explores the theme of paternity by focusing on the rediscovery of his lost daughter of William Shakespeare’s Pericles. Marian is the name of the daughter of Pericles who has not seen her right from the birth as he was running away from his enemy facing miseries and threats on land and sea. It is in Act V of Shakespeare’s play, Pericles, Prince of Tyre that Pericles finds out that the dancer and singer performing before him is none else but his daughter. The dancing girl reminds him of his wife Thaisa, he talks to the girl, and is overjoyed to find that Marian is his daughter. Christ is the one being spoken about in "He who was living is now dead". We modern folks are in a similar position as Christ, but instead of being dead, we live in a sort of half-death, as "We who were living are now dying With a little patience".

Epigraph:

The poem takes as an epigraph lines from Act III of Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure, from a speech that is an extended meditation on old age and death. The narrator of Eliot's poem is himself close to death and reflects on his own mortality in terms of the decay of civilization. As in "The Wasteland," Eliot uses imagery of dryness and withering to link the image of the aging fisher king to the decline of the fertility of the kingdom and land. The old man is waiting among the ruins of his own life and western civilization, hoping for a sign of renewal, which is identified with rain. Christ appears as an ambivalent figure, who may be part of both the old world that is fading and the world that might be reborn. Christ is part of the youth of the world, but the present of the poem is one of old age; the second coming of Christ is a distant and uncertain possibility in the poem, that might bring destruction or renewal, the narrator, though, has lost faith, hope, and the strength needed for renewal:

“I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it

Since what is kept must be adulterated?

I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch . . .”

 

Instead, any potential hope for the future must rest in a new generation that can somehow transform or thrive in the fragmented post-apocalyptic modern world. The old man who narrates the poem, though, cannot see forward to the future but only sees the fragments of the past and the deceptions and melancholy lessons of history.

Define the moral lesson that you have got from The Rape of the Lock.

 Some of Pope's contemporaries, like John Dennis found The Rape of the Lock immoral and distasteful. According to them it lacked true wit and judgment. Dennis's remarks on Mr. Pope's The Rape of the Lock severely criticises the poem for deviating from the rules of the epics. His charge was that Pope dealt in trifles, without moral, in his mock epic. However, most critics feel that Clarissa's speech at the opening of Canto V sets the moral tone. As Warburton put it, Pope introduced Clarissa's speech "to open more clearly the moral of the poem." Pope knew that a moral was thought by critics to be important to an epic. From the very beginning, The Rape of the Lock had a moral motive. His aim was to teach the lesson of "concord" and good humour between two quarrelling families. But satire in Pope is so finely chiselled by wit, that it is rarefied into pure humour. Thus, in such a scheme of poetry there is not much scope for serious moral lessons. Even the moral lesson that is there in Clarissa's speech is one more facet of Pope's consummate wit and humour. Even so what can we call these lines of Clarissa as setting a strict moral standard for the 18th century ladies:

But since, alas! frail beauty must decay,

Curl'd or uncurl'd, since Locks will turn to grey;

Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade,

And she who scorns a Man, Must die a Maid;

What then remains but well our Pow'r to use,

And keep good Humour still, whatev'r we lose?

It would not be wrong then to say that Pope did have a moral pre-occupation, even if it is covered in a veneer of wit and humour.

    A true satire is purposive and instructive. In fact, the real end of satire is "the amendment of

vices by correction. The Rape of the Lock is a perfect specimen of satiric literature, and its moral tone is quite patent. Here comes the element of the criticism of life in Pope's mock-heroic satire. The Rape of the Lock contains a good deal of the poet's critical evaluation of the English social life of the eighteenth century. Pope's subject of study here is the showy, artificial and frivolous life of the aristocratic, fashionable society of his own time. He ruthlessly exposes here the gay and thoughtless belles and the idle and vain beaux of the time. He misses no chance to  hit hard at all that characterises that shallow, artificial age – its affectation and vanity, its coquetry and frivolity, its gay foppery and spineless morality.

 

      A particular incident in the battle scene of Canto V shows Pope’s. mystery in reducing to size the pompous men and women of his age. It is the scene where Belinda vanquishes the Baron with a pinch of snuff:

 

Just where the Breath of Life his Nostrils drew,

A Charge of Snuff the wily virgin threw;

 

Sudden, with starting Tears each Eye O'erflows,

And the high Dome re-echoes to his Nose.

 

What a sorry figure the Baron cuts! And what scandalous behaviour on the part of an aristocratic lady! In one stroke Pope has demolished the pompousness of his vainglorious characters.

 

 

Pope's pointed and critical survey of his age is amply evident in his descriptions of the toilet of Belinda, the strange alter raised by the proud Baron and the 'nice conduct of Sir Plume and his 'clouded cane.' Belinda's long and laborious toilet clearly demonstrates her vanity and pride which are certainly unfortunate sins. Pope brings out forcefully the obdurate female pride as well as vanity of his age through his portrait of Belinda and her conduct.

 

And now, unveil'd the Toilet stands display'd,

Each Silver Vase in mystic Order laid.

First, rob'd in White, the Nymph intent adores

With Head uncover'd the Cosmetic pow'rs.

A heav'nly Image in the Glass appears

To that she bends, to that her Eyes she rears;

Th' inferior Priestess, at her Altar's side

Trembling begins the sacred Rites of Pride.

 

And how ridiculous the Baron looks when he,

 

But chiefly Love-to-Love an altar built,

Of twelve vast French romances neatly gilt.

They lay three garters, half a pair of gloves;

And all the Trophies to his former Loves

With tender Billet-doux he lights the Pyre,

And breathes three am’rous Sighs to raise the Fire,

Then prostrate falls and begs with ardent Eves

Soon to obtain, and long possess the Prize:

The Baron's conduct too is, indicative of the moral depravity of the age. Sir Plume stands for the shallow lazy punctilio of the age that has no strength of character or force of morality.

Moralising Tone of Clarissa. But Pope's criticism is not negative. He strikes mightily with his sweeping banter. But he instructs and advises, too, for the cure of the moral degeneration of his age. The poem has a moral purpose, and this constitutes the constructive aspect of Pope's criticism of life. The long speech, given to Clarissa, at the beginning of Canto V chiefly contains his unambiguous instruction to his age, particularly to the ladies of fashion and rank of his time. Through this lecture, Pope tries to enlighten and rectify the frivolous society of his time. He gives his wise counsel here to the gay and silly pursuers of pleasures and vanities, about the transience of all fashions and show, and the triumph of the quality of character. After all, beauty,

with all its charms and allurements, must pass away ere long, and can gain nothing, in the ultimate analysis without the virtue of heart.All the female charms of a lovely belle would seem meaningless, unlessa good and loving husband brings out the best in her :

And trust me, Dear! good Humour can prevail,

When Airs, and Flights, and Screams, and Scolding fail.

Beauties in vain their pretty Eyes may roll;

Charms strike the Sight, but Merit wins the Soul.

It's this ‘merit' - the 'good humour' which wins the soul; that Pope wants his ladies to imbibe and not merely the 'charms' that only 'strike the sight.' And all through this mock-epic poem Pope sets himself to poke fun at this terrible and excessive obsession with one's beauty. The women spend most of their time with their 'toilet' and in reading letters and the men with writing these obnoxious love-letters replete with conventional romantic phraseology. 

    But Clarissa is not at all a prude as the lines quoted above might Convey. Hers is the one sane voice advocating a sense of good humour So as to preserve all the achievement of the beauty and charm of her Sex. Even in her view beautification is not undesirable.

Say, why are Beauties prais'd and honour'd most,

The wise Man's Passion, and the vain Man's Toast?

 

Why deck'd with all that Land and Sea afford,

Why Angels call'd, and Angel-like ador'd?

To her even the amorous supplication of the fashionable youth is highly desirable:

Why round our Coaches crowd the white-glov'd Beaus,

Why bows the Side box from its inmost Rows?

But she cannot resist from giving a warning and stating the disadvantages of shunning morality:

How vain are all these Glories, all our Pains,

Unless good Sense preserve what Beauty gains:

That Men may say, when we the Front-box grace,

Behold the first in Virtue as in Face!

In fact, Pope cannot resist revealing Clarissa's hypocrisy either Even Clarissa forgets her sense of morality and perhaps out of envy towards Belinda or simply out of goodwill towards the Baron aids him in his heinous crime of 'raping' the lock of Belinda.

But when to Mischief Mortals bend their Will,

How soon they find fit Instruments of II!

Even Clarissa is tempted towards evil and she aids the Baron in his evil designs:

Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting Grace,

A two-edg'd Weapon from her shining Case:

So Ladies in Romance assist their Knight,

Present the Spear, and arm him for the Fight.

Pope's Attitude is Impersonal in "The Rape of the Lock." The Rape of the Lock is a triumph of English satire, although it is not a personal satire, like The Dunciad or Mac Flecknoe. Its moral purpose is directed not to any individual in particular, but to society, specially the polished society of Pope's age. In his Dedicatory Epistle to Miss Fermor, Pope writes of the purpose of his poem : "It was intended only to divert a few young ladies who have good sense and good humour enough to laugh not only at their sex's little unguarded follies, but at their own." The poem, indeed, is a refined, playful satire on the universal follies and foibles of the fashionable people of all ages, particularly those of England of the eighteenth century. The superior of the poem as a satire is patent, in no less measure, in the moral aspect.

 

  Actually Pope's satire is a double-edged sword; it cuts both way. At the very moment when he is using Clarissa, a sort of mouth piece of his, to lay down the moral tenets for his age (itself of a

flimsy nature as is the subject of his mock-epic) he is making fun of her and revealing her weakness and hypocrisy. He leaves none unscathed. So strong is the vanity and the deep-rooted rottenness of their nature that their shortcomings stick with them even after their death:

Think not, when Women's transient Breath is fled,

That all her Vanities at once are dead:

Succeeding Vanities she still regards,

And tho' she plays no more, o'erlooks the Cards,

Her Joy in gilded Chariots,when alive,

And Love of Ombre after Death survive.

For when the Fair in all their Pride expire,

To their first Elements their Souls retire.

Even the men turn to gnomes after death, with all their vices. But of course Pope does all this 'beating' in good humour and tries to laugh off the vices in men.

    In the opinion of Matthew Arnold, poetry is at bottom a criticism of life. This criticism, however, should not be merely critical. It must be constructive and instructive too. It must imply a contrast between what life is and what life ought to have been. Judged from this criterion The

Rape of the Lock is a satisfactory work by Pope. It is not merely a scathing satire but a criticism of life in the true sense of the term and it is in a style which is witty and humorous.

Explain the treatment of nature by Thomas Gray.

 

 Thomas Gray, in Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard, treats nature with the utmost respect. According to the poem, nature holds all of mankind at the same level.

With elements of Romanticism in his poem, Thomas Gray's first four stanzas express a communion of nature with the souls of the dead country people.  For instance, the words descriptive of nature, "the world  to darkness," "the solemn stillness of the air," "the "moping owl," and the "moldering heap" of turf in the first four stanzas connote death, its darkness, and its immobility.

The speaker considers the fact that in death, there is no difference between great and common people.

Based upon this, nature is very different from mankind. Mankind draws lines, makes excuses, and believes itself to be (sometimes) all-powerful. Nature, in the end, has the last say--all will die and return to the ground.

 Thomas Gray glorifies common men by making them equal to men who once had possession of power and heraldry. Gray points out that in death, there is no difference between the poor and the wealthy.

  Gray describes the "useful toil" of common people such as harvesting, driving their teams of farm animals, plowing fields, and chopping trees in a positive way. He also highlights their "homely joys" of warm fires, housewife's care, and loving children. He cautions that "grandeur"—in other words, the rich—should not distain the simplicity of the poor.

 On the other hand, Gray emphasizes that the seeming advantages of heraldry, power, beauty, and wealth that the rich seem to have are all lost at death, saying, "The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Gray glorifies common men by comparing their lives with the lives of the rich and privileged. His says is that the poor live simple, honest, and honorable lives, while the lives of the rich and privileged are deceitful and hypocritical because ultimately, they will lose all that they possessed that they thought set them apart and made them better.

  In a further comparison, the lives of the poor, country people who are buried in this obscure churchyard have been unfulfilled just as parts of nature are ignored. As the narrator visits the graveyard of a country church, he muses on the people who lie buried there. He speaks of them as poor, hard working people who have lived and died without wealth or political power, missed and mourned only by their families.   In his poem, Gray suggests that country folk be remembered and appreciated. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was among the first poems to provide a realistic portrayal of the countryside. In speaking of these country people, he contrasts their lives in the country with the lives of those in the city. The contrast is developed primarily in lines 45-75.

  Although the narrator stands in the quiet, beautiful natural surroundings, he notes that those who lived in the country led limited, uneducated lives. Because of where they lived, their potential could not be fulfilled. "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen / And waste its sweetness on the desert air." He wonders how many potentially great, but never realized, poets and political leaders might lie beneath his feet. However, he then acknowledges that the limited country life also stifled any potential to do harm, "their crimes confined." The narrator finally concludes that the city is the place where the "madding" crowd lives in "ignoble" strife, while the country is "the cool sequestered vale of life."

  The narrator finds positive and negative aspects both in city life and in country life. The country offers a peaceful but limited existence. The city offers education and opportunity, but the atmosphere is frenzied, maddening, and less than noble

 Throughout the poem, Gray shows his honor of nature by constantly admitting to the power of nature. Therefore, Gray treats nature with the utmost respect given that nature, unlike mankind, does not prejudice. Instead, the fact that, through nature, the common man is elevated shows the great power which nature has.

A youth to Fortune and Fame unknown

 

These are the opening lines of the epitaph that poet writes at the end the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. The poet writes this epitaph in the hope that someday when he would die, his body will lie in the same graveyard with that epitaph inscribed on his tombstone. These lines of epitaph indicate that in this grave is buried a young man who was neither famous nor achieved any financial success.

  The speaker calls himself a young person who is unknown both to Fortune (i.e., good luck or wealth—it could mean either) and to Fame. In other words, he was of humble birth. But at least he was no stranger to knowledge, or science, in spite of his humble origins. He was a scholar and a poet!

  An epitaph is a tribute written to someone dead. The epitaph of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is often taken to refer to Gray himself and what he thinks might be written about him after he dies. So It states: A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown. But the verse is also sometimes interpreted to simply be the epitaph to an anonymous poet. Therefore it is a riddle.  However, if it refers to Gray, it is significant because it shows that he identifies with all the humble, unknown souls lying in the country churchyard. He is not setting himself above them, but states he is equally obscure. Like them, he has not been born to fortune, which would be high rank or money.

However, given that he is praising these simple people for their worthy if unsung lives, he would appear to be equally praising himself in his epitaph. If he is praising himself for his obscurity, it is ironic, because he has become a famous poet, still read centuries after his death.

Explain the following extract with reference to the context: " Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul."

 

These line occur in "The Rape of the Lock" composed by Alexander Pope. Here Clarissa imparts a piece of counsel to Belinda who had become so much exasperated over the rape of her lock by the Baron. This lines means that physical charm of things—animate, inanimate, does strike the sight of an onlooker. Man cannot remain uninfluenced by the outer charm of things. If one looks at a beautiful human face one is impressed by the sparkling beauty. That is the weakness of man.

 

    Clarissa is the mouthpiece of Pope. Through her, he comments on the general truth about the life of a woman. She moralizes over the decay of human beauty, particularly feminine beauty. She states that beauty is short-lived and must decay one day. Locks of hair, whether formed into ringlets or left uncared for, must ultimately turn grey. A face, whether painted or not, must fade and wither with the coming of age. Not only that, a scornful woman who rejects all eligible suitors cannot gain a husband and must, therefore, die a maid (unmarried). So, the most sensible thing for women to do is to make the best use of their good humour whatever their loss may be. Clarissa is confident that it is only good humour that succeeds in the long run in winning love from men. A beautiful woman may not succeed in love making by casting amorous glances at men because the physical charms of a woman only appeal to the eyes of men, but the hearts of men can be captured by the beauty of mind alone. So, Clarissa asks Belinda to exercise her powers and charms over the Baron, keep up her good humour instead of being so much enraged and try to win over him to a successful marriage.

 

Explain the features of poetry and poet in relation to the poem "In Memory of W. B. Yeats".

 W. H. Auden was admired for his unsurpassed technical virtuosity and ability to write poems in nearly every imaginable verse form; his incorporation of popular culture, current events, and vernacular  speech in his work; and also for the vast range of his intellect, which drew easily from an extraordinary variety of literatures, art forms, social and political theories, and scientific and technical information.  The poet says that-

“In the deserts of the heart

Let the healing fountain start

In the prison of his days

Teach the free man how to praise.”

Here Auden tells about the function of the poet. When Europe is in the grip of the terror of war, nations are isolated by mutual hatred. People have no fellow feeling or sympathy At that time, the poets generally pursue the hidden truth, to explore the subliminal depths. With the gift of his poetry, of saying things in a powerful manner he can persuade mankind to rejoice even in the face of the curse of war. The great poetry can turn a curse into a blessing. It is great poetry that can illumine and transform the human soul, and make the fountain of love and sympathy gush out of it. The poet's own acceptance of life, and zest for it, alone can fertilize the human soul, and teach it to accept life and rejoice in this great gift of God. Thus poetry can have a transforming and ennobling influence on the human soul. He further says that-

“For poetry makes nothing happen; it surveys

In the valley of its making where executives

Would never want to temper, flows on south

From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs

Raw towns that we believe and die in, it survives

A way of happening, a mouth.”

 Here Auden launches into an attempt at relationship between outer landscape and inner states. Auden says that poetry makes nothing happen. The poetry of W. B Yeats could not change the destiny of the Irish people. Despite the great poetry of Yeats Ireland has remained the same. The people of Ireland still have their madness and their weather. His poetry fails to produce any revolutions or to make change in society. The poet is dead. But what lives after him is his style. It survives the death of the poet not for what the poet has said, but for the way in which he said it. It is the language, art and the manner of his poetry, which come to dwell in the sublime depths of human mind. It is the language, the way of saying, the style, survives as a voice as a way of expressing the human condition that is its real significance. 

Poetry is here compared to a river, which can fertilize only the soul, it cannot affect the outside world.

 

Finally poetry is described as ‘the healing fountain’, the water that nurtures our souls. Nightmares and barking dogs and hitting the rock bottom are some images of death, destruction and doom, which are all expected in an elegy.  Rhyme, form and meter are the poem’s blueprints. Each of the three sections of the

poem has unique formal characteristics. Auden uses the traditional elegy form, simple rhyming couplets as well as free form. Yeats himself was a master of form. He played around with everything from traditional Irish limericks and lyrics to epics. Auden’s poetic tribute alludes to Yeats’ technical skill.

 

In this poem the speaker is very close to the poet. The setting reflects the tone of the poem. The first section gives the grim details of dying in a hospital. However apart from the setting of Yeats’ actual death, the whole landscape of his life including Ireland is  depicted. The setting expands to include the world in 1939. Auden paints a vivid picture  of a world built of isolationists and the nightmarish oncoming of World War II. The three settings of the poem cover the mundane details of life even as it philosophizes on the  state of world affairs and the value of poetry.

 All of the above features the poet explain in relation to the poem” In Memory”.