English Notes Latest Questions

In: ,
  1. Poonam Sharma
    Best Answer
    Poonam Sharma literarian

    Following are the main literary/poetic devices used in the poem “The Voice of the Rain” by Walt Whitman. Personification :- Rain is personified in the whole poem. The rain talks to the poet like a human. Here are some dialogues by the rain – “I am the Poem of Earth”, “I descend to lave the drouths,Read more

    Following are the main literary/poetic devices used in the poem “The Voice of the Rain” by Walt Whitman.

    1. Personification :- Rain is personified in the whole poem. The rain talks to the poet like a human. Here are some dialogues by the rain – “I am the Poem of Earth”, “I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe”, “I give back life to my own origin, and make pure and beautify it;” etc.
    2. Metaphor – The poet uses a lot of metaphors in the poem e.g. “I am the Poem of Earth”, “the voice of the rain” etc.
    3. Alliteration – “(s)aid I to the (s)oft-falling (s)hower”, “(w)hence, (v)aguely form’d” etc.

    Read summary of this poem.

    See less
    • 203
In: ,
  1. Poonam Sharma
    Poonam Sharma literarian

    In the poem “The Voice of the Rain”, Walt Whitman gives his opinion regarding the poetry he writes for the people. In order to do that, he describes his imaginary talk with the rain. For him, rain is also poetry but of the earth whereas he himself is the poet of people. In the imaginary conversationRead more

    In the poem “The Voice of the Rain”, Walt Whitman gives his opinion regarding the poetry he writes for the people. In order to do that, he describes his imaginary talk with the rain. For him, rain is also poetry but of the earth whereas he himself is the poet of people.

    In the imaginary conversation, the rain tells him how she changes from liquid to gas and back to liquid. Her basic qualities remain the same but the process gives the earth and her inhabitants life. Thus her vaporising into the atmosphere and falling backing is vital for the earth.

    The poet says that like the rain, his poetry is also vital for the humanity. After writing, the poetry goes to different people, makes them happy or angry. They either like it or criticise. However, all these things when return to poet, they make him perfect.

    Read summary of this poem.

    See less
    • 3
In:
  1. Poonam Sharma
    Poonam Sharma literarian

    In the first stanza of the poem Obituary, the poet, AK Ramanujan is talking about the problems which arose immediately after the death of his father. According to him, after his (father's) death, there was nothing left in the house except for dust on a table of papers. In addition, he was indebted tRead more

    In the first stanza of the poem Obituary, the poet, AK Ramanujan is talking about the problems which arose immediately after the death of his father. According to him, after his (father’s) death, there was nothing left in the house except for dust on a table of papers.

    In addition, he was indebted to a number of people and hence a lot of debt was left behind by him for the poet to pay. He also left his daughters (probably unmarried). Hence the responsibility of his sisters were on the poet.

    And finally the poet says that his father left a young child who is bedwetting i.e. so young that he urinates on the bed and who is given the surname of his grandfather. In the first stanza, we find the picture of a patriarchal society and its problems when the head i.e. male member dies. No one is earning for livelihood and all the responsibilities fall on the poet

    See less
    • 9
In:
  1. Lucifer
    Lucifer better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven

    Structuralism is a school of literary criticism that holds that different literary works have underlying structures that are similar, and that these structures can be identified and analyzed as if they were (parts of) machines. Read a detailed article on Structuralism

    Structuralism is a school of literary criticism that holds that different literary works have underlying structures that are similar, and that these structures can be identified and analyzed as if they were (parts of) machines.

    Read a detailed article on Structuralism

    See less
    • 0
In: ,
  1. Poonam Sharma
    Best Answer
    Poonam Sharma literarian

    In this poem, we find three important things which the poet is trying to depict. 1. First, the people change and so their sentiments. The people praised the patriot a lot on his victory and loyalty for the country. However after a year, the same people were either cursing him or throwing stones at hRead more

    In this poem, we find three important things which the poet is trying to depict.

    1. First, the people change and so their sentiments. The people praised the patriot a lot on his victory and loyalty for the country. However after a year, the same people were either cursing him or throwing stones at him till he died.
    The reason for such a hate among the people was some sort of misunderstanding. Once a big fan of the patriot are now haters of him. However the patriot has no complains against them as he believes that his love and loyalty for the country will finally be rewarded in the afterlife.

    2. Second important thing worth noticing in the poem is poet’s and patriot’s optimism. In spite of being betrayed by his country and the people because of misunderstanding, the patriot remains optimistic. While he is taken to be executed, he says that he will be rewarded for his bravery in the afterlife. It shows patriot and thus the poet’s belief in God. It is this belief which makes people optimistic and hopeful even in the worst and fatal situations like the one in the poem.

    3. Third important thing I find in the poem is the idea of war. It is rightly said “everything is fair in love and war”. Throughout the history, war has always harmed humanity. The patriot being a loyal soldier of his country kills other people who are also brave soldiers of their countries. However, as he is victorious, he is praised, but after a year, he too suffers the same fate. Hence war a curse on humanity.

    See less
    • 7
In:
  1. Athar
    Athar

    John Crowe Ransom is known as the father of New Criticism. He coined this term in 1941. This approach to literature is based on the principle of 'Art for Art's Sake." It focuses on the text (Formalist), known as "close reading" (particularly) and ignores other parameters like social context, readerRead more

    John Crowe Ransom is known as the father of New Criticism. He coined this term in 1941. This approach to literature is based on the principle of ‘Art for Art’s Sake.”

    It focuses on the text (Formalist), known as “close reading” (particularly) and ignores other parameters like social context, reader and author in order to find how a work of literature functions as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.

    See less
    • 3
In:
  1. Poonam Sharma
    Poonam Sharma literarian

    It means "Looking for a person who will buy a drink for you". The word was commonly using during the 19th century. e.g. Amit has spent all of his money and is off Juggins hunting.

    It means “Looking for a person who will buy a drink for you”. The word was commonly using during the 19th century. e.g. Amit has spent all of his money and is off Juggins hunting.

    See less
    • 1
In:
  1. Mirza Noman Shamas
    Best Answer
    Mirza Noman Shamas

         Ecology A. K RAMANUJAN In terms of colonialism the image of his mother symbolizes the poet’s love for his motherland and his native people. They are considered as colonized people. They sacrifice themselves for the sake of colonizers but despite colonizers are treating with them brutally. TheyRead more

         Ecology A. K RAMANUJAN

    In terms of colonialism the image of his mother symbolizes the poet’s love for his motherland and his native people. They are considered as colonized people. They sacrifice themselves for the sake of colonizers but despite colonizers are treating with them brutally. They harm them and treat them as inferior. They consider his native people and him as third world country, other and orients. Colonized people serve them in many ways in spite of it they behave with them cruelly to show their imperial impact over them.

    On the other hand the image of Red Champak tree shows the poet’s hatred towards colonizers. They came for the sake of prosperity, calmness and civilization but despite they are demolishing all these things from his country. Just like the fragrance of flowers is the cause of her mother headache in the same way the appearance of colonizers in his country is the clear description of destructive situation of his country.

    That’s why poet hates this tree in terms of colonizers and their imperial power over his native people. Moreover her mother stops him to cut off the tree that shows the cultural hegemony and cultural hybridity of his native people that now they have mixed race and they have stranded in cultural and identity crisis. The act of cut off the tree by poet shows that actually he wants to cut off the hypocritical and wicked nature of colonizers toward his native people. Actually he wants to cut off the imperial power that is working under the disguise of prosperity and civilization.

    See less
    • 4