Assignment writing: Paper no. 104(Literature Of Victorians)

 Assignment writing: Paper no. 104(Literature Of Victorians)

This blog is Assignment writing on paper 104 (Literature Of Victorians) assigned by Professor, Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Name: Archana Dave

Paper: Victorian literature

Roll no: 03

Enrollment no: 4069206420220008

Email ID: archanadave1212@gmail.com

Batch: 2022- 24( M.A. Sem - 1)

Submitted to: Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Thematic Study Of 'Hard Times'

Introduction 

Hard Times, novel by Charles Dickens, published in serial form (as Hard Times: For These Times) in the periodical Household Words from April to August 1854 and in book form later the same year. The novel is a bitter indictment of industrialization, with its dehumanizing effects on workers and communities in mid-19th-century England.

Louisa and Tom Gradgrind have been harshly raised by their father, an educator, to know nothing but the most factual, pragmatic information. Their lives are devoid of beauty, culture, or imagination, and the two have little or no empathy for others. Louisa marries Josiah Bounderby, a vulgar banker and mill owner. She eventually leaves her husband and returns to her father’s house. Tom, unscrupulous and vacuous, robs his brother-in-law’s bank. Only after these and other crises does their father realize that the manner in which he raised his children has ruined their lives.

Major Themes 

Fact vs. Fancy

Dickens depicts a terrifying system of education where facts, facts, and nothing but facts are pounded into the schoolchildren all day, and where memorization of information is valued over art, imagination, or anything creative. This results in some very warped human beings. Mr. Thomas Gradgrind believes completely in this system, and as a superintendent of schools and a father, he makes sure that all the children at the schools he is responsible for and especially his own children are brought up knowing nothing but data and "-ologies".

As a result, things go very badly for his children, Tom Gradgrind and Louisa Gradgrind. Since they, as children, were always treated as if they had minds and not hearts, their adulthoods are warped, as they have no way to access their feelings or connect with others. Tom is a sulky good-for-nothing and gets involved in a crime in an effort to pay off gambling debts. Louisa is unhappy when she follows her mind, not her heart, and marries Mr. Bounderby, her father's friend. As a result of her unhappy marriage, she is later swept off her feet by a young gentleman, Mr. James "Jem" Harthouse, who comes to stay with them and who seems to understand and love her. Louisa nearly comes to ruin by running off with Harthouse.

Cecilia (Sissy) Jupe was encouraged when she was little to dream and imagine and loved her father dearly, and therefore she is in touch with her heart and feelings, and has empathy and emotional strength the other children lack. Sissy, adopted by the Gradgrinds when her father abandons her, ultimately is the savior of the family in the end.

Industrialism and Its Evils

Hand in hand with the glorification of data and numbers and facts in the schoolhouse is the treatment of the workers in the factories of Coketown as nothing more than machines, which produce so much per day and are not thought of as having feelings or families or dreams. Dickens depicts this situation as a result of the industrialization of England; now that towns like Coketown are focused on producing more and more, more dirty factories are built, more smoke pollutes the air and water, and the factory owners only see their workers as part of the machines that bring them profit. In fact, the workers are only called "Hands", an indication of how objectified they are by the owners. Similarly, Mr. Gradgrind's children were brought up to be "minds". None of them are people or "hearts".

As the book progresses, it portrays how industrialism creates conditions in which owners treat workers as machines and workers respond by unionizing to resist and fight back against the owners. In the meantime, those in Parliament (like Mr. Gradgrind, who winds up elected to office) work for the benefit of the country but not its people. In short, industrialization creates an environment in which people cease to treat either others or themselves as people. Even the unions, the groups of factory workers who fight against the injustices of the factory owners, are not shown in a good light. Stephen Blackpool, a poor worker at Bounderby's factory, is rejected by his fellow workers for his refusal to join the union because of a promise made to the sweet, good woman he loves, Rachael. His factory union then treats him as an outcast.

The remedy to industrialism and its evils in the novel is found in Sissy Jupe, the little girl who was brought up among circus performers and fairy tales. Letting loose the imagination of children lets loose their hearts as well, and, as Sissy does, they can combat and undo what a Gradgrind education produces.

Unhappy Marriages 

There are many unhappy marriages in Hard Times and none of them are resolved happily by the end. Mr. Gradgrind's marriage to his feeble, complaining wife is not exactly a source of misery for either of them, but neither are they or their children happy. The Gradgrind family is not a loving or affectionate one. The main unhappy marriage showcased by the novel is between Louisa Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby. Louisa marries him not out of love but out of a sense of duty to her brother, Tom, the only person in the world she loves and who wheedles her into saying "yes" because he works for Bounderby and wants to improve his chances at rising in the world. Bounderby's intentions regarding Louisa seem a bit creepy at first, but he turns out to mean no harm to her (except that he deprives her of any marital affection). The only solution to this bad marriage, once Louisa has escaped the hands of Jem Harthouse, is for Louisa to live at home the rest of her days. She will never be happy with another man or have the joy of children, though Dickens hints she will find joy in playing with Sissy's future children.

Stephen Blackpool, too, is damned to unhappiness in this life as a result of his marriage. The girl who seemed so sweet when he married her many years ago becomes, by a gradual process, a depraved drunk who is the misery of his life. She periodically returns to Coketown to haunt Stephen and is, as he sees it, the sole barrier to the happiness he might have had in marrying Rachael. Mrs. Sparsit (an elderly lady who lives with Mr. Bounderby for some time) was also unhappily married, which is how she came to be Mr. Bounderby's companion before he marries Louisa.

Femininity

The best, most good characters of Hard Times are women. Stephen Blackpool is a good man, but his love, Rachael, is an "Angel". Sissy Jupe can overcome even the worst intentions of Jem Harthouse with her firm and powerfully pure gaze. Louisa, as disadvantaged as she is by her terrible upbringing, manages to get out of her crisis at the last minute by fleeing home to her father for shelter, in contrast to her brother, Tom, who chooses to commit a life-changing crime in his moment of crisis. Through these examples, the novel suggests that the kindness and compassion of the female heart can improve what an education of "facts" and the industrialization has done to children and to the working middle class.

Still, not all the women in the novel are paragons of goodness. Far from it. Mrs. Sparsit is a comic example of femininity gone wrong. She cannot stand being replaced by Louisa when Bounderby marries, and watches the progression of the affair between Louisa and Jem Harthouse with glee. As she attempts to catch them in the act of eloping (and ultimately fails), she is portrayed as a cruel, ridiculous figure. Stephen Blackpool's wife, meanwhile, is bleakly portrayed as a hideous drunken prostitute.

So while the novel holds women up as potentially able to overcome the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and fact-based education, those women in the novel who do not fill this role, who have slipped from the purity embodied by Sissy and Rachael beyond even the empty-heartedness of Louisa, are presented as both pathetically comic and almost demonic. Women in the novel seem like a potential cure to the perils of industrialization, but also the most at peril from its corruption.

Surveillance and Knowledge

One of Dickens's major themes centers on the idea of surveillance and knowledge. As is the case in other novels by the author, there are characters who spend time keeping secrets and hiding their history and there is another set of characters who devote themselves to researching, analyzing and listening in on the lives of others. Mrs. Sparsit and Mr. Gradgrind are both masters of surveillance but Sparsit is more gossipy while Gradgrind is more scientific. Another operator to consider is James Harthouse who devotes himself to the task of understanding and "knowing" Louisa. From all three of these characters we get the idea that knowledge of another person is a form of mastery and power over them. Besides Louisa, Josiah Bounderby is another victim of surveillance. Without knowing what she has done, Mrs. Sparsit manages to uncover the secret of Bounderby's upbringing and his foul lies about being a self-made man.

Fidelity

The theme of fidelity touches upon the conflicts of personal interest, honesty and loyalty that occur throughout the novel. Certainly, characters like Josiah Bounderby and James Harthouse seem to be regularly dishonest while Louisa Gradgrind and Sissy Jupe hold fast to their obligations and beliefs. In Louisa's case, her fidelity is exemplified in her refusal to violate her marital vows despite her displeasure with her husband. Sissy's exemplifies fidelity in her devotion to the Gradgrind family and perhaps even more remarkably, in her steadfast belief that her father is going to return for her seeking "the nine oils" that she has preserved for him.

Escape

The theme of escape really underscores the difference between the lives of the wealthy and the lives of the poor. In Stephen Blackpool, we find a decent man who seeks to escape from his failed marriage but he cannot even escape into his dreams for peace. On the other hand, we find Tom Gradgrind who indulges in gambling, alcohol and smoking as "escapes" from his humdrum existence. And after he commits a crime, his father helps him to escape through Liverpool. Again, Louisa Gradgrind desires a similar escape from the grind of the Gradgrind system, though she resorts to imagined pictures in the fire rather than a life of petty crime. Finally, "Jem" Harthouse rounds out the options available to the nobility. With all of his life dedicated to leisure, even his work assignment is a sort of past-time from which he easily escapes when the situation has lost its luster.

Conclusion 

To conclude, Dickens’ novel discusses the social impact of the Industrial Revolution and the dehumanization of workers by machines. Much like the repetitive actions involved in working in factories dull the lives of the workers, the teachings of fact prevent characters from reaching their full potential. Louisa’s inability to express herself prevents her from stopping Tom’s exploitation of her love for him. Similarly, Louisa needs Sissy Jupe to send James Harthouse away from Coketown, as her cold upbringing has limited her ability to interact with others. Stephen Blackpool is the best example of an individual who has been dehumanized by the stress and working conditions of being a ‘hand’ during the Industrial Revolution. Only with the help of his so-called angel, Rachel, is he able to maintain his morality and strong values. Finally, Sissy Jupe is arguably the most important character in the novel. Her impact on the Gradgrind family is extreme, as she allows Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind to recognize that imagination is the key to happiness, not fact. While the relationships throughout the novel are often one-sided, the influence that each character has over others is essential in the demise of fact and the rise of critical thinking.

Words Count - 2109

References:

Burton, John. "Hard Times Themes". GradeSaver, 9 September 2001 Web. 5 November 2022.

Barnes, Christopher. “‘Hard Times’: Fancy as Practice.” Dickens Studies Annual, vol. 34, 2004, pp. 233–58. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44372096. Accessed 17 Oct. 2022.

Qasm, Dler. “The Conflict between Fact and Fancy in Hard Times.” Academia.edu, 11 June 2016, www.academia.edu/26054870/The_Conflict_between_Fact_and_Fancy_in_HARD_TIMES.

Assignment writing: Paper no. 101 (Literature Of The Elizabethan And Restoration Periods)

 Assignment writing: Paper no. 101 (Literature Of The Elizabethan And Restoration Periods)

This blog is Assignment writing on paper 101 (Literature Of The Elizabethan And Restoration Periods) assigned by Professor, Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Name: Archana Dave

Paper: Elizabethan & Restoration Literature

Roll no: 03

Enrollment no: 4069206420220008

Email ID: archanadave1212@gmail.com

Batch: 2022- 24( M.A. Sem - 1)

Submitted to: Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Absalom and Achitophel as a Satire.

Introduction

Written in 1681, Absalom and Achitophel is a witty heroic poem. It is a grand satire by John Dryden. It is about the biblical rebellion of Absalom against King David. This story is used as an allegory to represent the then contemporary situation concerning King Charles II. The poem also has references to the Popish Plot and Monmouth Rebellion. The main purpose of writing the poem was “the amendment of vices by correction”. His satire is sharper as per the degree of corruption. Monmouth is Absalom, Charles is David and Shaftesbury is Achitophel. The most common reading of the poem is the connection between fatherhood and kingship. Through the biblical allusion Dryden is connecting fatherhood and the royal’s responsibilities. Dryden has used the fatherly affection of David and the legitimacy of Absalom’s succession. The object of the poem was to praise the king and his party at the same time satirising his adversaries. Index Terms: satire, heroic, rebellion, succession, allusion, Old Testament, allegory, witty, parallel, temptation, characteristics, panegyric.

What is Satire ?

Satire is a form of literature, the proclaimed purpose of which is the reform of human weaknesses or vices through laughter or disgust. Satire is different from scolding and sheer abuse, though it is prompted by indignation. Its aim is generally constructive, and need not arise from cynicism or misanthropy. The satirist applies the test of certain ethical, intellectual and social standards to men and women, and determines their degree of criminality or culpability. Satire naturally has a wide range; it can involve an attack on the vices of an age, or the defects of an individual or the follies common to the very species of mankind.

Absalom and Achitophel is a satirical poem

Absalom and Achitophel is a satirical poem written by John Dryden published in 1681 and is written in heroic couplet. It narrates the Biblical rebellion of Absalom against King David. It is an allegory used to represent the story that was contemporary to Dryden [1679-1681] that concerned King Charles II. It also has reference to the Popish Plot [1678] and the Monmouth rebellion [1685]. In 1681, a crisis occurred in the conflict between Shaftesbury and his followers, who wished to exclude the Catholic Duke of York from succession to the throne and those who stood with the King himself in favour of true succession. Towards the end of the year, Shaftesbury was to be brought before the Grand jury and Dryden was asked by the King himself to write a poem in opposition to the pamphlets stating the Whig case. Its publication was timed to influence the case of Shaftesbury’s trial but he was acquitted by the Grand jury. Dryden wrote a narrative poem describing the events which had led to that particular situation in the manner in which the King’s followers wanted them to be viewed. He paints the official picture. 

The poetical intention of the poem is emphasised by the fact that the concluding speech from the throne summarises several of the arguments put forward in the official defence of the dissolution of the Parliament. In England, the use of political allegory increased greatly during the Civil War and the controversies which succeeded it. King Charles and his courtiers brought a taste for this species of writing with them from France. It is a narrative poem written in heroic couplet, in which an Old Testament allegory is used to describe contemporary events as they appear to a partisan. King Charles likened himself to David early in his reign. Charles had the morals from the story of David drawn on his mind by the contemporary preachers. For the loyal subjects of the King, the story of David seemed too fit for the present times. The analogy between David’s indulgent attitude to his son and Charles’s to Monmouth was so obvious that Dryden just did not need the idea but the permission or encouragement to use it. The Old Testament allegory helped Dryden to raise his poem to a dignified level without collapsing into “bathos”. It also acted as an instrument of Dryden’s brilliant wit and helped the poem with an air of objectivity more impressive than the direct exclamations so common in political satires. The fact that the figures such as the King, The tempter and the mob are so readily recognized and carries the action a step further from the realm of mere political wrangling in the direction of universal philosophical or poetic truth. In the allegory that he took over and remodelled it he found a powerful ally in the task of raising the political satire to a new level. Although this poem is always known as a satire, the style in which it is written is by no means a characteristically satiric idiom. The object of his first official production as the Poet Laureate is not merely to attack the men who plotted against the King, but to present the whole constitutional position in a certain way. 

While the King’s enemies are represented in an unfavourable light, the Royal Party is egotistically portrayed. It is basically written in a heroic style with occasional baser details in the portraits of Shaftesbury’s followers. Like an epic or a heroic play, Dryden’s poems represent ‘Nature wrought up in a higher pitch’, as a natural consequence, the plot, the characters ,the wit ,the passions, the descriptions are all exalted above the level of common converse as high as the imagination of the poet can carry them with due proportion to verisimilitude. The verse is marked by what Dryden called “the smoothness, the numbers, and the turn of heroic poetry”. One finds a dignified verse which rises as occasion offers to that long majestic march and energy divine. He devised a new heroic idiom and chose his diction as much for their music as for their meaning. Sounding words is a frequent phrase used throughout by his critics.Once or twice as in the Miltonic description of the temptation, the unusual arrangement of the words makes it heroic. 

The whole poem is not uniformly elevated. When the characters such as Corah and Shimer are described, the style is accordingly lowered. Still the truth remains that the basis of the idiom is heroic. . This can be verified by a glance at the imagery. It has lively and apt descriptions dressed in colours of speech which sets before the eyes the absent object more perfectly and delightfully. An elaborate simile is used to emphasise the effects of the plot. The relation of Absalom and Achitophel to heroic poetry is particularly evident in the five speeches which can be easily compared to classical epics or ‘Paradise Lost’. They are every bit as grand as the heroic characters. Achitophel’s first speech to Absalom is fairly representative. It begins with flattery and passes to artful temptation to betrayal to his father. The imagery is perfectly adapted to the purpose of courtly oratory. It emphasises that it was in the theatre that Dryden learnt the art of dramatic rhetoric. The magnificent hypocrisy in these lines are brilliant, the style that suits the speaker, the subject and circumstances simple and yet each line is like a blow on softened steel. 

Dryden varies his treatment of different characters which is more remarkable than anything else. He makes clear about the complexity of his object in the poem rather than being a mere lampooner. The measure of a man’s merit or guilt, the nature of Dryden’s own relations, his social position, the degree of royal favour which he enjoyed are taken into consideration before treating them. The presentation of Absalom is a good example. It is done so suavely that we hardly notice what a remarkable case of special pleading such a contention is, so in the poem itself Dryden lays emphasis on the cunning of Achitophel. He refrains from inventing a conclusion to the story which would show Absalom unfortunate. Not content with this, he lavishes some of the most brilliant lines of panegyric on Absalom. He emphasises his ‘goodly person’ and describes his reception by the crowd as ‘their Messiah’. None of the members of the King’s party receives such eloquent praise. Yet in their brief characterizations, a proper need of praise is allotted to each. Although they lack the tremendous power which has immortalised the hostile “characters”, these portraits are done very skillfully. 

Dryden was under personal obligations to several members of the King’s party. He repays one of his debts by describing Barzillai in an exalted style. In these lines, which form a brief funeral panegyric on the Duke's son, the usual characteristics of the genre-exclamations, the heavenward flight of the soul, the fiction that the poet’s life has terminated with that of the dead man and even the circle image beloved of Donne and his imitators. He wishes to praise the King’s friends while censuring his enemies. Like the Royal Party, Shaftesbury and his followers are introduced as characters in a heroic poem. With the exception of the cruel couplet about his son, there is no trace of the low style in the description of Achitophel. Practically there is no ridiculing. 

Dryden is intent on portraying Achitophel as an evil man whose existence is a perpetual threat to the safety of the state. Several points or parallels are suggested between Shaftesbury’s temptation of Monmouth and the fall of man with Charles himself in the background as the representative of the Deity. He follows the lead of a hundred Tory preachers and pamphleteers in casting Shaftesbury as “Hell’s dire Agent”, the Satan of the plot. The description of Achitophel is a reminder that satire can exist without humour. The portrayal of the Duke of Buckingham is very different. Achitophel is essentially a picture of an individual, and secondly a representation of ruthless Ambition is the character of Zumri . It is general rather than particular. It is a humorous character of an inconstant man. He wanted to avoid any mortal offence to Buckingham. He claims for Zimri, a subtlety and indirectness which cannot be justified. The style is slightly lowered as it is emphasised by the presence of two pairs of feminine rhymes. Serious scorn distinguishes the characters of Shimmer and Corah from that of Zimuri, while an indirectness of approach involving some degree of humour marks them off even more clearly from the unsmiling Achitophel. There is a contemptuous humour in the lines devoted to Bethel and Titus Oates which is completely absent from the description of Shaftesbury. 

The character of Shimer begins with explicit and emphatic criticism. The effect of irony which informs the whole portrait, however, modulates from pure scorn to scornful ridicule. The portrait of Corah, that “Monumental brass” is a similar compound of direct name calling and devastating irony. Such irony is found in the hostile characters of the poem, practically directed at religious non conformists. Absalom and Achitophel have characteristics which are largely akin to those of heroic poetry. It is because of this poetic quality that the poem owes its supremacy amongst the political satires in the English language. The structure of Absalom and Achitophel has little in common with a heroic poem. Except in the speeches there is practically no portrayal of character in action or of the development of character and motive. Most parts of the poem are not concerned with characters or speeches. They are more dignified and moralising. 

The poem as a whole may be compared to a masterpiece of historical painting. It is written solely with the purpose of pleasing its patron. The canvas which is a very large one is crowded with figures, clearly divided into two opposing groups painted in varying perspectives. The blending of the heroic basis with wit gives the poem its characteristic tone. The main object of his poem is to praise the king and his party, at the same time he satirises his adversaries. It was deliberately written in this manner as King Charles was a witty man. Dryden was free to use a new alloy for his poem, a skillful blend of panegyric, satire, discourse and witty commentary. The whole poem is a consummate example of adaptation of means which have been perfectly mastered to a perfectly mastered to the achievement of a clearly conceived end. The close relationship between the art of oratory and the art of poetry is maintained throughout. 

                                  Absalom and Achitophel is a landmark political satire by John Dryden. Dryden marks his satire with a concentrated and convincing poetic style. His satiric verse is majestic, what Pope calls: “The long majestic march and energy divine”.  Critics have unanimously remarked on Dryden’s capacity to transform the trivial into the poetical; personal envy into the fury of imaginative creation. The obscure and the complicated are made clear and simple. All this transforming power is to be seen at the very beginning of Absalom and Achitophel. The state of ‘Israel’ is easy to understand and yet Dryden shows himself a master both of the Horatian and the Juvenalian styles of Satire. He is urbance witty, devastating and vigorous, but very seldom petty.

Basically a Political Satire:

                                                                 Dryden called Absalom and Achitophel ‘a poem’ and not a satire, implying thereby that it had elements other than purely satirical. One cannot, for instance, ignore the obvious epic or heroic touches in it. All the same, the poem originated in the political situation of England at the time and one cannot fail to note that several political personalities are satirised in it. Published in  November 1681, the theme was suggested by the king to Dryden. At this time, the question of succession to King Charles had assumed great importance. The Earl of Shaftesbury had been thrown into prison to face a charge of high treason. There were two contenders for the succession. Firstly, Charles’ brother James, Duke of York, a known Roman Catholic; the second contender was Charles’ illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth. The Whigs supported Monmouth while the Tories supported the cause of James in order to ensure stability in the country. There was great public unrest on account of the uncertainty of succession. King Charles II saw to it that the Exclusion bill brought before Parliament, to exclude the succession of his brother James, could not be pushed through. The earl of Shaftesbury, a highly ambitious man, sought to capitalise on this unrest. He also urged Monmouth to rebel against his father. The King, though fond of his illegitimate son, did not support his succession because that would have been against law. The Earl of Shaftesbury was arrested on a charge of high treason and lost popular support.

Dryden’s Aim in Absalom and Achitophel:

The aim of Dryden was to support the King and to expose his enemies. Of course, Charles had his own weaknesses; he was extremely fond of women. But Dryden puts a charitable mantel over his sexual sins. He is mild in dealing with his real vices. The king himself did not think unfavourably of his love affairs. Sexual licence was the order of the age and as such, it did not deserve condemnation. Dryden has nothing but praise for the king’s moderation in political matters and his leniency towards rebels. Dryden’s lash falls on the King’s enemies, particularly the Earl of Shaftesbury. He was a reckless politician without any principles who, “ having tried in vain to seduce Charles to arbitrary government had turned round and now drives down the current”. Dryden dreads the fickleness of the mob and he is not sure to what extremes a crowd can go. However, the king’s strictness and instinct for the rule of law won him popular support and he was able to determine the succession according to his desire. Dryden’s reference to the godlike David shows his flattery of the King and his belief in the “Theory of the Divine Right of Kings”.

Political Satire Cast in Biblical Mould:

                                                                   Dryden chose the well known Biblical story of Absalom revolting against his father David, at the wicked instigation of Achitophel, in order to satirise the contemporary political situation. The choice of a Biblical allegory is not original on dryden’s part, but his general treatment of the subject is beyond comparison, as Courthope points out. But all the while Dryden takes care to see that the political satire is not lost in the confusion of a too intricate Biblical parallelism. The advantage of setting the story in pre-Christian times is obvious as it gave Dryden had at once to praise the King and satirise the King’s opponents. To discredit the opponents he had to emphasise on Monmouth’s illegitimacy; but at the same time he had to see that Charles (who was Monmouth’s father) was not adversely affected by his criticism. He could not openly condone Charles’ loose morals; at the same time, he could not openly criticise it either. With a masterly touch he sets the poem :

  “In pious times are priestcraft did begin

    Before polygamy was made a sin;

    When man on multiplied his kind,

    Here one to one was cursedly confined ....”

 

The ironic undertone cannot be missed; Dryden is obviously laughing up his sleeve at Charles himself, who, as a witty patron, could not have missed it, nor failed to enjoy it.

Conclusion:

                      Dryden is correctly regarded as the most vigorous and polished of English satirists combining refinement with fervour. Dryden is unequalled at debating in rhyme and Absalom and Achitophel displays his power of arguing in verse. It may be said that Absalom and Achitophel have no rival in the field of political satire. Apart from the contemporary interest of the poem and its historical value, its appeal to the modern reader lies in its observations on English character and on the weaknesses of man in general. His generalisations on human nature have a perennial interest. Dryden triumphed over the peculiar difficulties of his chosen theme. He had to give, not abuse or politics,but the poetry of abuse and politics. He had to criticise a son whom the father still liked; he had to make Shaftesbury denounce the King but he had to see to it that the King’s susceptibilities were not wounded. He had to praise without sounding servile and he had to criticise artistically. Dryden achieves all this cleverly and skilfully. Achitophel’s denunciation of the king assumes the shades of a eulogy in Charles’ eyes. Absalom is a misguided instrument in Achitophel’s hands. The poem is certainly a political satire, but it is a blend of dignity with incisive and effective satire.

Words Count - 3274

REFERENCES :

• https://desdemonaliterarism.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/absalom-and-achitophel-as-a-political-satire/

• THE SATIRES, edited by J. C. Collins (1905) 

• John Dryden: A Critical Biography By Kenneth Young Sylvan Press, 1954 

• Nothing to Admire: The Politics of Poetic Satire from Dryden to Merrill By Christopher Yu, Oxford University Press, 2000 

• Dryden and the Traces of Classical Rome By Paul H. Hammond Oxford University Press, 1999 

• Latt, D. J., & Monk, S. H. (1976). John Dryden: a survey and bibliography of critical studies, 1895-1974. U of Minnesota Press 

• John Dryden, David Hopkins Oxford University Press, 01-Aug-2018 - Literary Criticism - 137 pages

• https://www.ijsdr.org/papers/IJSDR1805118.pdf

Assignment writing: Paper no. 102 (Literature Of The Neo-Classical Period)

 Assignment writing: Paper no. 102 (Literature Of The Neo-Classical Period)

This blog is Assignment writing on paper 102 (Literature Of The Neo-Classical Period) assigned by Professor, Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Name: Archana Dave

Paper: Neo - Classical literature

Roll no: 03

Enrollment no: 4069206420220008

Email ID: archanadave1212@gmail.com

Batch: 2022- 24( M.A. Sem - 1)

Submitted to: Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Tale Of A Tub & Symbols 

Introduction 

One of the most generally accepted readings of Tale of A Tub states that Swift's author surrounds an allegory about the abuse of Scripture with a series of introductions and digressions in which he abuses learning. The reading, moreover, suggests that abuses of both religion and learning result from pride, that the author and his characters are self-indulgent men who try to create a world that will counter their madness. This approach to the Tale is clearly supported by the systematic abuse of language by the author and by Peter and Jack. For in works other than the Tale—especially in "A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue" (1712)—Swift indicates that language marks the state of morality. The satirist dramatises this idea in the Tale by having his author abuse secular language as Peter and Jack abuse Scripture. He implies thereby that corrupt English has every connection to the pride that leads to a misunderstanding of Divine Law.

About Jonathan Swift

Anglo-Irish poet, satirist, essayist, and political pamphleteer Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland. He spent much of his early adult life in England before returning to Dublin to serve as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin for the last 30 years of his life. It was this later stage when he would write most of his greatest works. Best known as the author of A Modest Proposal (1729), Gulliver’s Travels (1726), and A Tale Of A Tub (1704), Swift is widely acknowledged as the greatest prose satirist in the history of English literature.

Swift’s father died months before Jonathan was born, and his mother returned to England shortly after giving birth, leaving Jonathan in the care of his uncle in Dublin. Swift’s extended family had several interesting literary connections: his grandmother, Elizabeth (Dryden) Swift, was the niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, grandfather of the poet John Dryden. The same grandmother’s aunt, Katherine (Throckmorton) Dryden, was a first cousin of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh. His great-great grandmother, Margaret (Godwin) Swift, was the sister of Francis Godwin, author of The Man in the Moone, which influenced parts of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. His uncle, Thomas Swift, married a daughter of the poet and playwright Sir William Davenant, a godson of William Shakespeare. Swift’s uncle served as Jonathan’s benefactor, sending him to Trinity College Dublin, where he earned his BA and befriended writer William Congreve. Swift also studied toward his MA before the Glorious Revolution of 1688 forced Jonathan to move to England, where he would work as a secretary to a diplomat. He would earn an MA from Hart Hall, Oxford University, in 1692, and eventually a Doctor in Divinity degree from Trinity College Dublin in 1702.

Swift’s poetry has a relationship either by interconnections with, or by reactions against, the poetry of his contemporaries and predecessors. He was probably influenced, in particular, by the Restoration writers John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester and Samuel Butler (who shared Swift’s penchant for octosyllabic verse). He may have picked up pointers from the Renaissance poets John Donne and Sir Philip Sidney. Beside these minor borrowings of his contemporaries, his debts are almost negligible. In the Augustan Age, an era which did not necessarily value originality above other virtues, his poetic contribution was strikingly original.

In reading Swift’s poems, one is first impressed with their apparent spareness of allusion and poetic device. Anyone can tell that a particular poem is powerful or tender or vital or fierce, but literary criticism seems inadequate to explain why. A few recent critics have carefully studied his use of allusion and image, but with only partial success. It still seems justified to conclude that Swift’s straightforward poetic style seldom calls for close analysis, his allusions seldom bring a whole literary past back to life, and his images are not very interesting in themselves. In general, Swift’s verses read faster than John Dryden’s or Alexander Pope’s, with much less ornamentation and masked wit. He apparently intends to sweep the reader along by the logic of the argument to the several conclusions he puts forth. He seems to expect that the reader will appreciate the implications of the argument as a whole, after one full and rapid reading. For Swift’s readers, the couplet will not revolve slowly upon itself, exhibiting intricate patterns and fixing complex relationships between fictional worlds and contemporary life.

 The poems are not always as spare in reality as Swift would have his readers believe, but he seems deliberately to induce in them an unwillingness to look closely at the poems for evidence of technical expertise. He does this in part by working rather obviously against some poetic conventions, in part by saying openly that he rejects poetic cant, and in part by presenting himself—in many of his poems—as a perfectly straightforward man, incapable of a poet’s deviousness. By these strategies, he directs attention away from his handling of imagery and metre, even in those instances where he has been technically ingenious. For the most part, however, the impression of spareness is quite correct; and if judged by the sole criterion of technical density, then he would have to be judged an insignificant poet. But technical density is a poetic virtue only as it simulates and accompanies subtlety of thought. One could argue that Swift’s poems create a density of another kind: that “The Day of Judgement,” for example, initiates a subtle process of thought that takes place after, rather than during, the reading of the poem, at a time when the mind is more or less detached from the printed page. One could argue as well that Swift makes up in power what he lacks in density: that the strength of the impression created by his directness gives an impetus to prolonged meditation of a very high quality. On these grounds, valuing Swift for what he really is and does, one must judge him a major figure in poetry as well as prose.Swift suffered a stroke in 1742, leaving him unable to speak. He died three years later, and was buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

Summary 

'A Tale of a Tub' is Swift’s wildest adventure in satirical humour. Speaking through a diabolical persona of his own making, he pillories the corruption of churches and schools. The title refers to the large tub that sailors would throw overboard to divert a whale from ramming their boat. In Swift’s satire, the whale is Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651), a political monster born of Descartes’s mathematical philosophy. Institutional Christianity is the ship that might be sunk in such an onslaught, and its timbers have already been loosened by schismatic factions.

The book is an allegory of church history. A father wills suits of clothes to his three sons, with directions that the suits never be altered. Brothers Peter, Martin, and Jack represent Catholic, Anglican, and Puritan sects, respectively. Peter upgrades his garments with gold lace, shoulder knots, and such trappings. Martin removes the false ornamentation from his without tearing the cloth. Jack zealously rips his garment to shreds to get rid of all ornaments.

This basic allegory is richly embellished with outlandish digressions, parodies, puns, quibbles, unstructured foolery, and displays of odd erudition. The diabolical narrative takes every opportunity to prick the pretensions of pedants, religious dissenters, and perfectionists whose projects try to remake human society along rational lines. Swift thought that human reason is rather weak, blown flat in fact by the merest gust of desire, and so people should behave themselves and be governed by institutions such as the Church of England. Yet his diabolical narrator weakens this myth of order and reason by showing how vulnerable the mysteries of religion are to sceptical scrutiny.

Dressed in his sanctimonious vestments, Peter looks ridiculous issuing papal bulls on the superstitious doctrine that bread can be turned into mutton. The excesses of religious enthusiasts are reduced to absurdity in Jack’s rantings and in a scatological satire on a sect of Æolists, who believe that wind is the essence of all things, the original cause and first principle of the universe. In their most ridiculous rite, Æolists seat themselves atop barrels that catch the wind and blow inspiration into their posteriors by means of a secret funnel. Sacred sermons are delivered by their priests in oracular belches, or bursts of internal wind.

This maniacal conception reemerges in the famous Digression on Madness. There, the modern upsurges in religion, politics, and science are diagnosed as a form of madness, caused when the brain is intoxicated by vapors arising from the lower faculties. This vapor is to the brain what tickling is to the touch. Real perceptions are disordered in a happy confusion. Thus, happiness for moderns amounts to “a perpetual Possession of being well Deceived.” In the madhouse world of A Tale of a Tub, the modern man cut off from classical culture is lucky to be a fool among knaves, like the book’s demoniac narrator.

Symbols

The Three Coats

The three brothers' coats are the central symbol of A Tale of a Tub. (Tubs, despite the title, figure only incidentally in the work.) Outwardly plain and simple, the coats are the brothers' sole inheritance from their father, who promises that they will last for a lifetime if cared for properly. In his will, he warns them against altering the coats in any way. These coats represent the practices of Christianity as originally revealed and commanded by God and as stipulated in the Bible (the father's will). Like the early Church written about in the New Testament, the brothers initially do a good job of sticking to the rules laid down by the will. It isn't long, however, before they are finding ways to excuse themselves from following the will too scrupulously when it conflicts with their immediate desires. This behaviour is dramatised as a gradual altering of the coats in spite of the father's express wish to the contrary.

 The individual alterations represent the different ways in which Christianity, in Swift's view, deviated from the practices and beliefs given in the Bible. The "flame-colored satin" that makes up the coats' lining, for instance, represents the concept of purgatory, regarded in the Catholic tradition as a place of purification for souls not yet worthy of heaven but not condemned to hell. To Swift, an Anglican living in post-Reformation England, this was a false doctrine that lacked any demonstrable basis in Scripture. The "Indian figures" embroidered on the coats are the statues and stained-glass images present in many Catholic churches, which Swift (like many other Protestants) saw as incompatible with the Bible's warnings against graven images. By the time the brothers finally realise the error of their ways, their coats (i.e., their practice of Christianity) have become barely recognizable.

 Midway through the main narrative, however, Martin and Jack undergo a change of heart when a breach erupts between them and Peter (who claims to be the oldest). By showing how the brothers react to this disagreement, Swift praises or criticises the three main Christian traditions represented in the England of his day. In the pre-Reformation era, the brothers were all prone to the same extravagances, adorning their coats with lace, fringe, and many other ornaments. Peter, who represents Catholicism, sticks to those extravagances and even multiplies them; he deliberately avoids consulting the will to see whether he is going astray. Martin, named after Martin Luther, represents the moderate Protestant tradition. He carefully and diligently strips away the forbidden ornaments from his coat while taking care not to harm the underlying fabric. Where something cannot be removed without damaging the original coat, he reluctantly lets it remain.

 Jack, in contrast, rips away every shred of embroidery and fringe, tearing up the original underlying fabric in the process. His brand of reform, which Swift identifies with the Dissenters, is aggressive, destructive, and haphazard. Ultimately, Swift condemns Jack as motivated more by his hatred of Peter (i.e., resentment of the Catholic Church) than by a concern to live a moral life. He is a reactionary anti-Catholic rather than a Christian in his own right. However and significantly, Jack's extremes end up closely resembling Peter's as the rags worn by the one man come to look like the fringed finery worn by the other. Thus, both are satirised.

 The Father's Will

The father's will represents the Bible, which Swift regards as Christianity's fundamental instruction manual. Swift's paramount claim in A Tale of a Tub is that the Bible should be consulted for basic, immutable guidance on all Church matters. Practices prohibited by the Bible cannot and should not be embraced by the Church, while practices required by the Bible cannot simply be set aside. In their youth, the three brothers exemplify this kind of Christianity. The more closely the brothers adhere to the prescriptions of the will, the happier they seem to be and the more peaceful their consciences are.

 All three brothers start off faithfully following the will, but they are gradually corrupted by outside influences. They stray from its obvious intent and, increasingly, from its directly stated rules, becoming ridiculous and superficial in the process. This behaviour is provoked by a desire to fit in with the rest of the world, as illustrated in the middle of Chapter 2. There, the brothers realise that they will have to get creative if they want to give the appearance of following their father's wishes while actually ignoring them. They use Latinate terms to add an aura of respectability to their dubious behaviour: failing to find permission to change their coats "totidem verbis" ("in so many words"), they start looking "totidem syllabus" ("in so many syllables"). Finally, they declare that their father's will allows them to add shoulder knots "totidem literis" ("in so many letters") because it contains the letters S, H, O, U, L, D, E, and R.

 Peter, the most scholarly of the brothers, undergoes great intellectual contortions to avoid the document's clear restrictions. In addition to the "totidem literis" episode above, he declares that certain premises must be added to the will or else "multa absurda sequerentur" ("many absurdities will follow"). (He never specifies what those absurdities might be.) All of Peter's interpretive practices, along with the terms used to describe them, ultimately derive from a Catholic tradition that Swift views as legalistic, insincere, and self-serving.

 The consequence of following this interpretive tradition is that both the clergy (Peter) and the congregants (Martin and Jack) grow further and further removed from the actual will. As early as Chapter 2, the brothers have agreed to "lock up" the will "in a strong-box, brought out of Greece or Italy," which symbolises the use of Greek or Latin texts rather than vernacular translations. Here, Swift recalls and criticises the Catholic Church's long history of forbidding vernacular Bibles, thereby preventing many adherents from reading Scripture for themselves. By the time the brothers go their separate ways in Chapter 4, Peter has begun to interpose himself as the will's sole interpreter, deciding its meaning on behalf of the others and pronouncing his decisions ex cathedra (with papal authority; literally, "from the chair").

 Clearly, Peter (i.e., the Catholic Church) is not cast in a good light in A Tale of a Tub. That's not to say, however, that Swift viewed all reforms as equally salutary. Martin (moderate Protestantism) and Jack (Dissent) successfully obtain their own copy of the will, which gives them the all-important ability to read it for themselves and judge how well they are following it. In itself, Swift implies, vernacular access to the Bible is a good thing, but a person can still go overboard in relying on Scripture. To this end, Swift ridicules Jack in Chapter 11 for using his father's will as an umbrella, a nightcap, and a bandage—the implication being that the Bible should not be viewed as a universal guide to mundane matters, such as diet and health care. Swift's stance seems to be that the Bible is the ultimate authority on Church doctrine and discipline but that it is foolish to see it as a substitute for all earthly wisdom.

 VAPOR/WIND

In the story, vapor represents the true essence of a person. It is what the Aeolist Priests belch out into the air in order to share their ideas with each other. This is how philosophers teach their students. They look on their bodies as vessels, and Swift notes that in this case, that is true, as they are the vessels for this vapor that they emit as knowledge. Everybody has this vapor, which might be called the core of a person—their soul. Using satire, Swift turns this concept on its head by depicting the religious figures as expelling flatulence into the mouths of their followers, thereby “passing” their essence.

THE TUB

The tub represents the diversion that sailors would throw out so that whales would not overturn their ships. Here, Swift suggests that the whale is representative of “Hobbes’s Leviathan, which tosses and plays with all other schemes of religion and government” (20). In this case, the whale is trying to destroy the steady ship of government and religion, and those in power are throwing out a diversion, but the whale keeps coming. Although “A Tale of a Tub” within the text would seem to be a diversion, it is designed as a commentary on the state of religion and government in England.

 Conclusion 

“A Tale of a Tub” is the most impressive of the three compositions in A Tale of a Tub for its imaginative wit and command of stylistic effects, notably parody. The 11 sections that make up “A Tale of a Tub” alternate between the main allegory about Christian history and ironic digressions on modern scholarship.

Words Count  - 3083

References:

https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Tale-of-a-Tub/symbols/

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jonathan-swift

https://www.enotes.com/topics/tale-tub  

Koon, William. “SWIFT ON LANGUAGE: AN APPROACH TO A TALE OF A TUB.” Style, vol. 10, no. 1, 1976, pp. 28–40. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45108735. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022.

Assignment writing: Paper no. 103 (Literature Of The Romantics)

 Assignment writing: Paper no. 103 (Literature Of The Romantics)

This blog is Assignment writing on paper 103 (Literature Of The Romantics) assigned by Professor, Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Name: Archana Dave

Paper: Romantic literature

Roll no: 03

Enrollment no: 4069206420220008

Email ID: archanadave1212@gmail.com

Batch: 2022- 24( M.A. Sem - 1)

Submitted to: Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

 The characteristics of romantic poetry, Wordsworth and Coleridge.

 Introduction

Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18th century, and lasted approximately from 1800 to 1850.

Here are some characteristics of Romantic poetry

Back From Set Rules

Interest in Rural Life

Common Life

Love of Liberty and Freedom

Escape to the Middle Ages

Predominance of Imaginations & Emotions

Supernaturalism

Endless Variety

Subjectivity

Lyricism

Simplicity in Style

Back From Set Rules

The poetry of the Romantic Revival is in direct contrast to that of Neoclassical. In the 18th century, poetry was governed by set rules and regulations. There were well-prepared lines of poetic composition.And any deviation from the rules was disliked by the teachers of poetic thought. The first thing that we notice in the poetry Romantic age is the break from the slavery of rules and regulations. The poets of the Romantic Age wrote poetry in freestyle without following any rules and regulations.

 Interest in Rural Life

The poetry of the 18th century was concerned with clubs and coffee houses, drawing rooms and the social and political life of London. It was essentially the poetry of town life.

Nature had practically no place in Neo-classical Poetry. In the poetry of Romantic Revival, the interest of poets was transferred from town to rural life and from artificial decorations of drawing rooms to the natural beauty and loveliness of nature.

Nature began to have its own importance in the poetry of this age. Wordsworth was the greatest poet who revealed the physical and spiritual beauty of nature to those who could not see any charm in the wildflowers, green fields and the chirping birds.

 Common Life

Romantic Poets started taking interest in the lives of the common people, the shepherds, and the cottages and left the gallant lords and gay butterflies of fashion to the care of novelists.A renewed interest in the simple life marked the poetry of the poets of the Romantic Age. A feeling of humanitarianism colored the poetry of Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron. Thus Romantic Poetry was marked by intense human sympathy and a consequent understanding of the human heart.

 Love of Liberty and Freedom

In Romantic Poetry, the emphasis was laid on liberty and freedom of the individual. Romantic poets were rebels against tyranny and brutality exercised by tyrants and despots over humans crushed by poverty and smashed by inhuman laws.

 Escape to the Middle Ages

Some Romantic poets felt irritated with the tyranny and ugliness of materialistic life of their age and to avoid the life of uneasy restlessness, they escaped from the problems of the world to a world of beauty and joy which their poetic definitions had pictured.

In many ways, Romantic Poetry proved to be the poetry of escape from the sorrows and sufferings of worldly life and their times to the Middle Ages, where they found the eternal bliss.The enthusiasm for the Middle Ages satisfied the emotional sense of wonder on the one hand and the intellectual sense of curiosity on the other hand.

 Predominance of Imaginations & Emotions

In Romantic Poetry, reason and intellect were subdued and their place was taken by imaginations, emotions, and passion. In the poetry of all the Romantic Poets, we find heightened emotional sensibilities and imaginative flights of genius bordering on heavenly heights uncrossed by the poets of the previous age.

 Supernaturalism

Supernaturalism is another outstanding quality of Romantic Poetry. Poets like Coleridge and Scott gave a sense of wonder and mystery to poetry. It was this supernaturalism that gave the atmosphere of wonder and mystery to Romantic Poetry.

 Endless Variety

In Romantic Poetry, we come across an endless variety. The poetry of this age is as varied as the character and moods of different writers.

 Subjectivity

Subjectivity began to have its full play in the poetry of this age. The poets of this period were in favour of giving a subjective interpretation of the objective realities of life. “The Romantic Movement”, says William J. Long “was the expression of individual genius rather than of the established rules.”

 Lyricism

In Romantic Poetry, lyricism predominates and the poets of this school have, to their credit, a number of fine lyrics excelling the heroic couplet of the Neoclassical Age in melody and sweetness of tone.

 Simplicity in Style

The style of the Romantic Poets is varied but the stress was laid on simplicity. Instead of an artificial model of the expression of classical poets, we have a natural diction and spontaneous way of expressing thoughts in Romantic Poetry.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth

 In a chance meeting that would change the course of poetic history, Samuel Taylor Coleridge made the acquaintance of William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, in Somerset in 1795. The two became immediate friends. Upon meeting Wordsworth, Coleridge decided to move to Grasmere to be in close proximity to his fellow poet. During this time, Wordsworth and Coleridge greatly influenced, criticised and inspired eachother’s poetry. In 1798, the two poets joined together to publish the first edition of Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems that is considered by many to be the definitive starting point of the Romantic Era. Over the course of their collaboration, the second edition followed suit in 1800. Their mutual friend Robert Southey, who was also a poet, worked with them and the trio became known at the “Lake Poets.” In this page, we will more deeply explore the relationship between these two Romantic poets and the people, like Southey, who shaped their lives and their poetry while they lived in Grasmere. Not only did Wordsworth and Coleridge have similar poetic interests, but the two developed a deep and lasting friendship that was able to withstand the trials of their drug addiction, bouts of depression and mutual artistic criticism.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Background Information

(1772-1834) As a child, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was described as a dreamer. He was allegedly quite enthusiastic and interested in his surroundings, and very eager to learn. After his father’s death, he was sent to school in London. He eventually studied at Cambridge, and was an accomplished scholar. He eventually became bored with his studies, due to a lack of a challenge. As a result, he rapidly declined into a state of depression and worked up a great deal of debt while he was at it. He left school and joined the British Army. He was a horrible soldier, and ended up returning to Cambridge. Unfortunately this didn’t work out. In 1794, Coleridge officially became a Cambridge dropout. In the meantime, Coleridge’s rheumatism, which he had since he was young, had been flaring up. He became hooked on the drug, laudanum, which was used to treat his condition. It was a mix of opium and alcohol. Unfortunately this sent him spinning on a downward spiral, while his health deteriorated even furthermore. By 1806, he had hit rock bottom. Though he was at rock bottom personally, his career had really taken off. His literary works became the talk of London town from 1813-26. His joint publication of “Lyrical Ballads” with William Wordsworth marked the beginning of the Romantic Period in literature. Before his death in 1834 he had slowly put his life back together again. Samuel Coleridge was happier than he had been in quite some time before.

From The Aeolian Harp

-written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in 1795 and to Sara Fricker, his wife

-Stanza 2 to 4*

“And that simplest lute,

Placed length-ways in that clasping casement, hark!

How by the desultory breeze caressed,

Like some coy maid half-yielding to her lover,

It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs

Tempt to repeat the wrong! And now, it’s strings

Boldlier swept, the lond sequacious notes

Over delicious surges sink and rise,

Such a soft floating witchery of sound

As twilight Elfins make, when they at eve

Voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land,

Where Melodies round honey-dropping flowers,

Footless and wild, like birds of Paradise,

Nor pause, nor perch, hovering on untamed wing!

O the one life within us and abroad,

Which meets all motion and becomes its soul,

A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,

Rhythm in all thought, and joyance every where –

Methinks, it should have been impossible

Not to love all things in a world so filled;

Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air

Is Music slumbering on her instrument.

And thus, my love! as on the midway slope

Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon,

Whilst through my half-closed eye-lids I behold

The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main,

And tranquil muse upon tranquility;

Full many a thought uncalled and undetained,

And many idle flitting phantasies,

Traverse my indolent and passive brain,

As wild and various as the random gales

That swell and flutter on this subject lute!

And what if all of animated nature

Be but organic harps diversely framed,

That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps

Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,

At once the Soul of each, and God of All?”

From Dejection: An Ode

-by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in 1798

-from stanza 5*

“O pure of heart! thou need’st not ask of me

What this strong music in the soul may be!”

“Joy is the sweet voice, Joy the luminous cloud-

We in ourselves rejoice!

And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight,

All melodies the echoes of that voice,

All colours a suffusion from that light.”

-from stanza 7*

“Hence, viper thoughts, that coil around my mind,

Reality’s dark dream!

I turn from you, and listen to the wind,

Which long has raved unnoticed. What a scream

Of agony by torture lengthened out

That lute sent forth! Thou Wind, that ravest without,

Bare crag, or mountain-tairn, or blasted tree,

Or pine grove whither woodman never clomb,

Or lonely house, long held the witches’ home,

Methings were fitter instruments for thee,

Mad Lutanist! who in this month of showers,

Of dark brown gardens, and of peeping flowers,

Mak’st Devils’ yule, with worse than wintry song,

The blossoms, buds, and timorous leaves among.”

William Wordsworth

Background Information

(1770-1850) Brought up in the Lake District of England, Wordsworth went to live with his uncles after the death of his father. To deal with the great deal of grief and depression Wordsworth experienced, he indulged in his vices of writing and poetry. He attended school at Cambridge, however wasn’t an exceptional student. William Wordsworth was an innovative writer who marked the start of the Romantic Period in literature. His joint publication of “Lyrical Ballads” with Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the text that started a new era of writing. He was the Poet laureate of England from 1843 till his death in 1850.

Lyrical Ballads

The Role of Poetry and the Poet

The ordinary man, Wordsworth believes, is closer to nature; and therefore closer to human-nature. To succeed in directing poetry toward the “ordinary man”, Wordsworth must address the significance of language in his poetry, as well as the effects of poetry on the reader. This leads to the discussion of the poet’s role where Wordsworth claims he, being a poet, is capable of educating the reader by his ability to be affected by absence.The poet is a “man speaking to men” whose language should not fall short of that which would be heard by men. The opinion of these “men” differ among Wordsworth and Coleridge. Coleridge thinks the role of the poet should maintain some of the previous ideals of poetry regarding language rather than completely change to a language of lowly men.The role of poetry is where both writers seem to agree. Wordsworth and Coleridge believe the purpose of poetry is to stir passion in the reader. However, their methods are slightly different. Coleridge agrees that being a poet does take the imagination and the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”; but, it also requires “good sense,” which is the body of poetic genius”.

Expostulation and Reply

“Why, William, on that old grey stone,

Thus for the length of half a day,

Why, William, sit you thus alone,

And dream your time away?

“Where are your books?–that light bequeathed

To Beings else forlorn and blind!

Up! up! and drink the spirit breathed

From dead men to their kind.

“You look round on your Mother Earth,

As if she for no purpose bore you;

As if you were her first-born birth,

And none had lived before you!”

One morning thus, by Esthwaite lake,

When life was sweet, I knew not why,

To me my good friend Matthew spake,

And thus I made reply:

“The eye–it cannot choose but see;

We cannot bid the ear be still;

Our bodies feel, where’er they be,

Against or with our will.

“Nor less I deem that there are Powers

Which of themselves our minds impress;

That we can feed this mind of ours

In a wise passiveness.

“Think you, ‘mid all this mighty sum

Of things for ever speaking,

That nothing of itself will come,

But we must still be seeking?

“–Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,

Conversing as I may,

I sit upon this old grey stone,

And dream my time away.”

This poem is a great example of what the Romantic poets thought of learning. Unlike the Augustan poets, who thought learning could only be done by looking to the Classics like Aristotle and Virgil, the Romantics believed that a person could learn from observation rather than just reading a book. The Romantics also believed that life experience provides a better base for learning as opposed to the learning from reason. This poem shows the contrasting views of the two writing periods and is a great defense for the Romantics’ idea of learning.

The poem starts out with Matthew questioning the narrator about why he is sitting there daydreaming and why he has no books. Clearly, Matthew believes in the Augustan way of learning and doesn’t think that the narrator is going to learn anything by sitting around and daydreaming. When he says, “Where are your books?–the light bequeathed/ To beings else forlorn and blind!” it seems as if he thinks that the light is the books and without them he will be blind to the learning that he could acquire from them. It is very obvious that Matthew thinks that a person has to learn from books because there is no other good way to learn, just like other Augustan followers.

The second part of the poem is the narrator’s reply to Matthew, which is basically defending the Romantics’ idea of learning. In the fifth stanza, the narrator goes on and on about the senses and how a person can’t help but hear, see, or feel things. He says it is something that is “Against or with our will” and that our senses are going to take things in whether it is actively or passively. That is how he defends that he is not daydreaming but that his mind is still taking in information even though he is not actively learning. This is further proof that the narrator does not believe everything can be learned from a book and that he believes even when it appears a person is daydreaming they are still learning.William Wordsworth was considered the poet who, with Samuel Coleridge, launched the Romantic Period with their joint publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, where his most noted contribution remains The Preface, detailing the nature of the collection, as it looks to reach out to the common man, placing verse in a form to which he can relate. Of Wordsworth’s most noted contributions to the poetic realm, his sonnets remain the forces that resonate above all else, encompassing the “sense sublime” Wordsworth feels through Nature and the empowering religious connection he forges.

The World is Too Much With Us

The world is too much with us; late and soon, ————A

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: ———B

Little we see in Nature that is ours; ————————B

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! ———-A

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; ————-A

The winds that will be howling at all hours, ————–B

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; ———B

For this, for everything, we are out of tune; ————–A

It moves us not.—Great God! I’d rather be —————C

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; ———————D

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, —————-C

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; ——-D

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; —————C

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn. ————-D

In this poem, Wordsworth bemoans the loss of individual human talents, lost to the materialistic society in which we live. To Wordsworth, the poet and the common man are placed on the same level, as both have extraordinary talents that could change the world, yet give into the fabricated, falsified life which deviates from Nature and the beauty of spiritual existence. Works by Wordsworth follow the same themes and are representative of the Romantic period, and the sentiments of its writers, which urge society to rely on their spiritual connection and their own artistic talents (seen through nature and its beauty) rather than through logic, reason, and materialistic thought.

Wordsworth and the Sonnet

Wordsworth’s The World is Too Much With Us is a Petrarchan sonnet recognizable by the rhyme scheme and the eight/six line format. In the first eight lines, Wordsworth draws a picture of the awesome power and beauty of nature and comments on humankind’s reaction to nature in the last six lines, the common usage of the eight/six structure.

Words Count - 3104

References:

Information: Norton Anthology: Eighth Edition: Volume 2. Website: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/18century/welcome.htm

“Esthwaite Water.” The Lakeland Cottage Company. http://www.lakeland-cottage-company.co.uk/lakeland-guide/area-information.php?ID=21

Poem cited from the Norton Anthology of English Literature: Eight Edition, Volume 2

https://englishsummary.com/romantic-poetry/#Back_From_Set_Rules