Alexander Pope | Biography and Literary Works

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Alexander Pope was one of the most distinguished poets, satirists, and translators of the Augustan Period of the Enlightenment Age. He was born on May 21, 1688, in London in a Catholic family and his father was a successful wholesale linen merchant. It was the year of the Glorious Revolution by which, Catholic monarch James II was replaced by his protestant daughter Mary II and her husband William III of Orange. His father suffered losses in business and in 1700, he was forced to leave London and shift to live at Binfield in Windsor Forest. There were many other Catholic families at Binfield. It was a safer option and Alexander Pope made some really close friends including John Caryll the younger who became the second Baron Caryll of Durford in the future. John Caryll persuaded and financed Alexander Pope to write a satirical poem based on a real incident involving his relatives. That poem was titled The Rape of The Lock. Another of Pope’s close friends was Martha Blount to whom he dedicated some of his most famous poems and bequeathed most of his property to her. However, there were some repercussions of leaving London. Pope was 12 years old and he failed to attain any formal education at Binfield. Though he was a precocious child who wrote his first poem Ode to Solitude in 1700. He got some academic help from Catholic priests at his home but mostly, he was a self-taught boy who enjoyed solitude and invested most of his time in books, learning Latin, Greek, French, and Italian. He then translated Greek and Roman classics and which influenced his own writing. One other reason for his remaining in solitude was his illness as he suffered from Pott disease, a kind of tuberculosis that attacks the spine. As a result, his spine became weak and he grew a hunchback and failed to attain proper height. As an adult, his height was 4 feet 6 inches with a hunchback.

Being a Catholic, he couldn’t get admission to any of England’s Universities. But he continued to visit London frequently and made friends with some students of John Dryden including William Wycherly, Henry Cromwell, and William Walsh. Alexander Pope admired John Dryden and considered Dryden his idol. By 1705, Alexander Pope had already written his Pastorals which were being circulated among the best critics and literary groups in London. In 1709, Jacob Tonson published Pastorals in the poetic collection titled Poetical Miscellanies and it became Pope’s first published work. Pastorals are a series of seasonally themed four short poems which shows Pope’s love for Classics. These poems were based on Virgil’s work Ecologues. The four shepherds of Alexander Pope’s Pastorals are named Alexis, Damon, Lycidas, and Thyrsis and they all appear in Virgil’s Ecologues too. The first poem is titled Spring in which he reflects art as natural beauty. The second poem is titled Summer in which he personifies the season. The third poem is Autumn, in which he uses metaphor in place of personification and the fourth poem is Winter in which the poet becomes the absolute force. Through these four poems, Pope explains that art does not reflect nature, but that nature is just a poetical device to depict man. The Pastorals were written in Heroic couplets and iambic pentameter.

Despite his weak health and a hunchback, Pope had an attractive personality though he continued to suffer migraines throughout his life. He learned to ride a horse and enjoyed traveling but was restricted by his medical helpers from doing most of the physical activities. As a result, he had all the time and mental strength to invest in reading and writing. In 1711, Pope published An Essay on Criticism which was a verse essay (an essay in poetic form). The structure of this poem was influenced by Horace’s Ars Poetica and Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura. Pope used the Horatian style of satire and Heroic couplets (pairs of adjacent rhyming lines in iambic pentameter) again in An Essay on Criticism. The poem contains some brilliantly polished epigrams that were later used as proverbs such as “A little learning is a dangerous thing,” “To err is human, to forgive, divine,” and “For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The main theme of this poem was to introduce and demonstrate the ideals of poetry and teach critics how to avoid doing harm to poetry. The poem got strong reactions from critics including Thomas Rymer, John Dennis, and Jonathan Swift. While Thomas Rymer and John Dennis strongly criticized Pope for this poem (John Dennis attacked Pope in his criticism by mentioning him as a hunch-back’d toad), Jonathan Swift supported Alexander Pope and that developed a friendship between the two. In 1713, Alexander Pope joined the Scriblerus Club, an informal group of writers who were Tori supporters. The group included John Gay, Jonathan Swift, John Arbuthnot, Henry St, John, and Thomas Parnell who became close friends with Alexander Pope. Pope became so close to this group that he addressed one of his epistles, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot who was a physician, and it as a memorial to their friendship.

However, the success of An Essay on Criticism brought Alexander Pope close to some authors related to the Whigs group too, including William Congreeve, Nicholas Rowe, Richard Steele, and Joseph Addison. Steele and Addison were working on the publication of The Spectator, a socio-political periodical journal. Alexander Pope contributed to The Spectator and his most successful and original pastoral poem The Messiah was published in The Spectator in 1712. Pope was influenced by Steele and Addison and their idea of reforming public morals and attitudes through satire and admonishment. He exercised the same technique in writing The Rape of The Lock to satirize a real argument between two Catholic families. The first two cantons were published in 1712 and the remaining 3 were published in 1714. This mock-heroic was also written in Heroic couplets.

In 1714, Queen Anne died, and that caused a dispute of succession. During the Jacobite rising of 1715, Pope, being a Catholic was suspected of helping the rebels. This created a distance between Pope and Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. Steele and Addison were staunch Whigs supporters. While Pope maintained friendly relations with some Whigs supporters including Congreeve and Rowe, he grew strong closeness with Tories involved in the Scriblerus Club (Gay, Swift, Arbuthnot, and Parnell).

In 1717, Pope wrote another poem titled Eloisa to Abelard in which he experimented with Ovid’s ‘heroic epistle’ to tell the story of Eloisa who opts for nunnery but struggles to quench her sexual passion while maintaining her dedication to a life of celibacy. The symbols of religious ecstasy further fan the sexual fire in her while she is determined to resist any temptation.

Pope translated Homer’s Iliad in 1720. he translated Odyssey in collaboration with William Broom and Elijah Fenton in 1725. The Tory writers of the Sriblerus Club supported Pope’s translation of Homer. But John Addison and Richard Steele introduced Thomas Tickell, a rival translator of Homer. Undoubtedly, Tickell’s translation was way too inferior to Pope’s work but Addison praised Tickell while ridiculing Pope. Pope wrote the mock epic The Dunicad in 1728 in which he satirized Lewis Theobald as the Goddess of Dullness’s favorite son.

Pope wrote Peri Bathous; or, The Art of Sinking in Poetry in 1728 which was an essay in which he ridiculed contemporary poets. In 1741, a part of "Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus" was published in which all those works that Pope wrote by the shared pseudonym Martinus Scriblerus, were included. The other writers who used the same pseudonym in collaboration included John Gay, Jonathan Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Thomas Parnell.

In 1716, Pope and his parents left Windsor Forest and shifted to Chiswick. After his father died in 1717, Pope rented a villa on the Thames at Twickenham and started living there. He engaged in gardening and often gave advice to his friends including Jonathan Swift and henry Saint John on maintaining their landscapes. In 1731, Pope wrote Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington in which he offered some advice regarding architecture and gardening to Henry Saint John in a poetical manner of Horace. Pope wrote An Essay on Man in 1734 which examined the relationship between man, nature, and society. While Pope continued ignoring Addison’s attacks and criticism for a long, he wrote An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot in 1735 in which he satirized Addison as the character of Atticus, the insincere arbiter of literary taste.

Pope published Epilogues to Satire in 1738 in which he imitated Horatian themes adapted to contemporary societal and political situations. In 1742, he published The New Dunicad in which he replaced Theobald with Colley Ciber who was newly appointed as Poet Laureate of England. He was writing Brutus, an epic poem in heroic couplet when he died in 1744 and it remained incomplete.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Mending Wall by Robert Frost | Themes, Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Mending Wall was the opening poem of the second poetry collection of Robert Frost titled North of Boston which was published in the year 1914. It is one of the most anthologized and analyzed poems in modern literature. Most of Frost’s poetry is principally about the rural life and landscape of New England. Mending Walls is a poem describing the discussion between two neighbors. The poet is a New England farmer who contacts his neighbor during the spring season to repair the stone wall between their farms. As they start mending the wall the poet and his neighbor engage in a discussion. The poet wonders if they need any such wall and asks "where it is we do not need the wall"? The poet mentions that nature doesn’t like the wall. The poet is of the view that they don’t need a wall but the neighbor is adamant and suggests "Good fences make good neighbors".

Themes of Mending Wall

The poem can be seen in many ways. Through the wall, the poet suggests how individuals create barriers to isolate themselves from others. It also gives impetus to the debate of nationalism and globalization as the wall can be the boundary between two nations. Thus, the poet stresses the idea of the free market.

The neighbor doesn’t agree with the poet and this dispute shows the frequent clash of modernity and traditionalism. In this sense, the poem becomes an argument of a generation where the youth is trying to throw away the age-old traditions while the older generation is trying to do anything to maintain the sanctity of traditions. The neighbor says twice "Good fences make good neighbors" (Lines 27, and 46). This is a strong message. The wall appears to separate the two neighbors but in reality, it brings them close. The wall is not only a physical reality, but it is an ideal sphere of one’s identity. The wall suggests that every individual has got right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and those rights must be respected and maintained. In a relationship, if there are limits to be respected, the relationship goes strong as the limits avoid oppression and humiliation of one by the other.

The poet also suggests that nature doesn’t like the wall between his and his neighbor’s farm and hence it continues to fall again and again. He attacks the neighbor using the word “savage” as he wants to shy away from others around him. However, it is just the opposite. Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. (Ayn Rand). Our clothes and dresses are also a form of the wall separating us from others. Giving us a sense of privacy against nakedness. Animals feel no shyness. The civilized, and intelligent people seek privacy, not the savages.

Structure of Mending Wall

The poem is a dramatic narrative written in blank verse. Iambic pentameter appears great as it offers a sense of speech and debate within the poem. The poem contains a single stanza of 46 lines without any end rhymes or rhyming patterns. However, the poet used assonance at end-words (wall, hill, balls, wall, and well sun, thing, stone, mean, line, and again or game, them, and him twice). Consonance has also been used “And set the wall between us once again”, (sound of /t and /n). Symbolism has been used as, “fence” to symbolize the ‘gap’ that one should maintain to establish long-lasting relationships and maintain privacy. “Nature” symbolizes the reunion of the two as the speaker meets his neighbor every year in spring to fix the fence. Frost also used metaphor and imagery in this poem. “And some are loaves and some so nearly balls”, “He is all pine and I am apple orchard” and “Not of woods only and the shade of trees.”

Summary of Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Lines 1 – 4:
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The poet begins by mentioning that there is ‘something’ mysterious that doesn’t like the wall between the two farms. The poet uses ‘something’ to clarify that it is not a work of humans, indicating nature. He speculates that the water beneath the ground freezes during the winter and swells. This forces an upward thrust that creates cracks in the wall. As the spring comes, the sun heats up and the cracks widen so much that two people can pass through it side by side and walk in the same direction.

Lines 5 – 11:
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.

In these lines, the poet says that the hunters are another challenge to the wall as the wall restricts the otherwise wider spread of the hunting ground. During the hunting season, the hunters come and damage the wall during their sports and never bother to repair it again. The poet says that he has been witness to the hunters' acts when they make holes in the wall for their dogs to catch rabbits. The hunters believe that no one is watching them over and hence, they do not sense the responsibility of repairing the wall before leaving. But the poet caught them doing so as he followed them and then repaired the wall. The poet suggests that it could be the hunters’ act as there are gaps in the wall again.

Lines 12 – 15:
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.

In these lines, the poet informs that his neighboring farmer lives on the other side of the hill and every year he informs his neighbor about the damage to the wall. The neighbor and the poet then decide on a day on which they both meet and walk along the wall, each on his side surveying the damage.

Lines 16 – 19:
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

In these lines, the poet expresses the act of mending the wall and how difficult the process is. The poet and the neighbor meet on a fixed day on their side of the farm and start putting back every single boulder that has fallen on each of the sides of the wall. The poet picks up the boulder fallen on his side and restores it, while the neighbor does the same on his side. However, it is a difficult and cumbersome task as there are many fallen boulders and they are not of the same size. Some are big, some small, some are very heavy, and some are light. They are not of the same shape too. Some are round and some are oblong and it is very difficult to balance them together in the wall as it is no less than magic to keep them at their places.

Lines 20 – 24:
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on aside. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

The poet tells how difficult the task is as his and his neighbor’s hands become rough and tired while handling the boulders. And it is unnecessary work, like a play, as the poet believes that they do not need the wall because they grow different kinds of plants. The poet grows apples, and his neighbor grows pine trees.

Lines 25 – 29:
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:

The poet has argued with his neighbor that since they grow different kinds of trees, the poet’s apples will never encroach on the land of his neighbor’s pines and thus they do not need the fencing wall. However, the neighbor is not convinced and he always answers ‘Good fences make good neighbors’ However, this time in spring, the poet is adamant to try another trick to make his neighbor realize and agree that they do not need the wall and hence, no need to mend it.

Lines 30 – 35:
‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.’

The poet explains his trick, his new line of argument. He asks his neighbor why good fences make good neighbors? He explains to the neighbor that the grass on another side often attracts cows and to stop the cows from going to other person’s farms, they build fences. However, neither the poet nor his neighbor has got any cow, so why do they need the wall? The poet says that this time he will mend the wall only after knowing what his neighbor is keeping safe by building the wall and what is he keeping out of his reach. The poet stresses that this time, he might not agree to mend the wall without knowing the proper reason.

Lines 36 – 41:
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

In these lines, the poet says that despite his initial adamancy, the act of mending the wall is going on as he failed to convince the neighbor. He again speculates that the wall could have been pulled down by some mysterious force, maybe the Elves. However, the poet decides not to say that to his neighbor as it may offend him which the poet doesn’t want. The poet rather wishes that his neighbor may himself realize it and give up the strenuous task of mending and keeping the wall.

The poet then observes his neighbor picking up a fallen boulder from the wall and feels that he resembles an uncouth and uncivilized inhabitant of the stone age, whose weapons are the very rocks that make up the wall.

Lines 42 – 46:
He moves in darkness as it seems to me –
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

In these lines, the poet says that he feels that his neighbor has some kinship with the darkness or ignorance and he is not ready to learn new things, light. This darkness is not of dense woods and shades of tall trees. But this darkness is of rudimentary archaic ideas, thoughts, traditions, and rituals. The neighbor cannot disagree with his father in saying that good fences account for peace among neighbors.

Robert Frost an excellent use of Paradox in this poem by juxtaposing two opposing instances and opinions by repeating the contrasting lines ‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall’ and ‘Good fences make good neighbors’. The poem ends with ‘Good fences make good neighbors’ as the poet suggests that this old saying may appear archaic and useless but it holds more weight and sense. Even if the neighbor is a savage, the wall will keep the poet safe against his neighbor, and mending the wall keeps these two neighbors peaceful and stable.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Swami and Friends by R. K. Narayan | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Swami and Friends was the first novel by R. K. Narayan that was published in the year 1935. R. K. Narayan along with Mulk Raj Anand, and Raja Rao was a prominent author of early Indian literature in English. Most of his works s set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. Malgudi is a fictional town that is both mythical and mundane and thus it becomes a place that is no place in reality yet it can be any town, any place in India.

Swami and Friends was the first part of a trilogy whose sequels were The Bachelor of Arts, published in 1937, and The English Teacher, published in 1945. The major themes of Swami and Friends include teenage, child psychology, authority, innocence, oppression and escape, colonial domination, friendship, belonging, and competition. Swami and Friends was the first work of R. K. Narayan that got published with the help of his friend Graham Greene who recommended his book to publishers. The initial title of the novel was Swami the Tate, which indicated the excellent skills of Swami as a cricket player, an allrounder batsman, and bowler much like Maurice Tate, the English cricketer. However, the title was changed to Swami and Friend considering the earlier success of Rudyard Kipling’s Stalky & Co.

Characters of Swami and Friends

Swami or Swaminathan is the main character of the novel. He is a 10 years old school-going boy who is a bit lazy and doesn’t like studying much. He is innocent and honest but doesn’t mind telling lies to his father or friends. He is a good friend and a good cricketer. He is popular among his friends which include Mani, Somu, Shankar, and Samuel or Pea. Mani lives with his poor widowed mother. He is strongly built and is also known as ‘Mighty good-for-nothing.’ He often bullies his classmates but he is not good at studies. Somu is the monitor of Swami’s class. He is confident and tries to impose his authority. Swami calls him the ‘uncle of the class.’ Shankar is a very studious and brilliant boy in Swami’s class. Swami admires Shankar’s intellect and often takes his help. However, Shankar leaves Malgudi as his father is transferred to another town. Samuel is the only Christian boy in the class who is short in height and thus, Swami and his friends call him the Pea (Matar). Rajam is the new boy in the class and is the son of the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Malgudi. He is a rich boy who fluently speaks English like a European kid. Being the son of the DSP, he gets more attention at school. He is fearless, witty, and authoritative. Initially, Swami feels threatened by Rajam as he loses his popularity but soon he develops a friendship with Rajam and becomes his fan so much so that his older friends start chiding him as ‘Rajam’s tail.’ Swami develops an inferiority complex. When Rajam visits Swami’s house, Swami lies to Rajam, saying that the room they were seated in was his room and not his father’s when the opposite was true. Rajam sees past Swami’s sham and yet is gracious enough not to ridicule him in his dwelling. Swami and his four old friends do a great job of seeing the positives of their differences but struggle to see the good in Rajam. Mani especially has animosity towards Rajam. However, Rajam manages to bring all of them together and be a close friends. Later on, he gives the idea of making a cricket team. He becomes the captain of the Malgudi Cricket Club (M.C.C) whose other members include Swami, Mani, Somu, and Samuel.

Shrinivasan is Swami’s father. He is a lawyer who is a strict and authoritative father. He adores Swami but wishes to work hard. He wishes Swami to study for long hours but Swami is careless about his studies. When all other students including Mani realize the importance of exam and answering an exam paper with all sincerity or at least as well as possible, Swami is careless and is more interested in non-essentials like clips, pins, nibs, exam cardboard pads, etc to buy which he asks money from his father. He is more interested in the summer vacations that would come after exams. He is so careless about his studies that he gets bored with exams and writes answers haphazardly and leaves the examination hall twenty minutes early. Lakshmi is Swami’s mother who is a housewife. She cares for Swami but remains busy with her kitchen chores and nursing Swami’s newly-born younger brother. Swami’s grandmother is an old religious lady who tells stories to Swami and is fond of him. However, Swami feels that both his father and mother are more concerned for his younger brother. Mr. Ebenezar is Swami’s scripture teacher at the Albert Mission School. He is a Christian fanatic and degrades Swami’s religion, Hinduism, and considers Christianity superior to other religions. Later, he is scolded by the headmaster of the school.

Summary of Swami and Friends

The story is set in the 1930s in British Colonial India. Swami is a 10-year-old boy who lives with his father, mother, and grandmother. His father is an authoritative disciplinarian and doesn’t like his son acting lazy. He may appear irritable to Swami at times but he cares for him and wishes him to succeed in his life. Swami has four close friends Mani, Somu, Shankar, and Samuel who are his classmates at Albert Mission School. Often they call Samuel Pea because of his short height and thin figure while Mani is the tallest and strongest among them and is often called Mighty good-for-nothing. Swami is witty and often leads his friends in games. One day, Mr. Ebenezar, Swami’s scripture teacher criticizes and degrades the Hindu religion in the class. All the students including Samuel, who is a Christian don’t like Mr. Ebenezar. As the teacher continues to chide Hindu deities while praising Christianity, Swami stands against him and asks some witty questions that prove otherwise. Mr. Ebenezar gets angry and punishes Swami. Later on, Swami informs his father about the incident and when his father complains about it to the headmaster, he scolds Mr. Ebenezar. While Swami’s friends appreciate Swami for his wittiness, they stress that it was a school matter and he didn’t need to complain to his father about it. At home, Swami feels that his father isn’t caring enough as his father continues to push him to study for long hours and understand the importance of exams. This creates a distance between the father and the son. Lakshmi, his mother cares for Swami but she is often aloof because of housework and as she gives birth to Swami’s younger brother, she gets busier in nursing the newly born child.

Meanwhile, a new student Rajam joins the Albert Mission School in Swami’s class. He is the son of the new DSP of Malgudi who came from Madras. Rajam is rich, intelligent, and fluent in English. Being the son of DSP he gains the limelight. Swami and his friends don’t like Rajam much. Swami feels an inferiority complex as he cannot match Rajam with his charm, good English, and richness. Yet, Swami finds himself attracted to Rajam and gradually develops a friendship with Rajam. Swami’s old friends start ignoring Swami and calling him Rajam’s Tail. Mani hates Rajam and warns Swami to remain away from Rajam. It isn’t until the three boys confront each other that they realize they have a lot in common, and become fast friends. However, the other three friends remain away from Swami. One day, Rajam invites Swami, Mani, and the other three friends to his home and offers them cakes and new toys if they agree to become friends again. The six boys forget their differences and become a pack of friends.

Swami is intelligent and witty but he is lazy and careless towards his studies and exams. His father warns him that if he won’t study well, he will flunk and will be forced to study with his juniors. Swami convinces his father that he will study well but most of his time is spent on games.

It is a time when Gandhi’s non-cooperative movement is at its peak. A popular leader of Malgudi is arrested in Bombay to oppose which people in Malgudi announce a protest march. Swami hears his father discuss the matter and feels the nationalist fervor. The next day, when he is feeling a bit lazy and wishes to avoid school, his father forces him to go to school. As he goes to school, he sees a crowd shouting slogans against colonial rulers and in support of Gandhi and Gauri Shankar, the leader who was recently arrested. Swami is swept by the crowd and joins them. He feels as if he is giving his bits to the nationalist cause. The DSP decides to quash the protest violently and policemen start beating the protestors with batons. As the crowd responds by throwing stones at police, Swami too picks up a rock and throws it toward his school, and runs back home.

The next day, the school headmaster enquires about the incident and Swami disrespectfully shouts that he doesn’t care for the school and runs away. He is punished for his actions. Not only is Swami forced to switch to a more strict school, but Rajam, being the son of the DSP, is hurt by the actions of his friend, making their friendship unstable.

Swami’s new school The Board High School is an indigenous school and hence, it is not as reputed as Albert Mission School. It is a stricter school with rigorous school studies and extracurricular and co-curricular activities. Attendance is compulsory and the homework and classwork surpass that of Albert Mission School. The Albert Mission School shows the complacency of the Colonial government. Despite being more reputed, that school had little to do with the advancement of students while the teachers openly engaged in trying to proselytize students. The Board High School represents the upcoming wave of Indianized schools with their rigorous school studies and extracurricular and co-curricular activities to mainly prove that even indigenous schools could be run as well as British schools. Swami realizes that his life was much easier at Albert High School but he is forced to learn the rigorous ways and take charge of his life and studies. In a sense, it proves to be better for him though he feels suffocated. His main grumble is that he lost his friends and Rajam is angry with him. Mani softens Rajam’s attitude towards Swami and then Rajam plans to create Malgudi Cricket Club. Swami is a good cricket player and is often called Malgudi’s Tate by his friends. He decides to help Rajam in establishing his cricket club. The two boys are intensely passionate about the team, but tensions rise as Swami’s strict school and intense workload get in the way of his commitment to the club. Rajam threatens to never speak to Swami again if he misses the match of the year against a competing club Young Men’s Union (YMU).

Despite his best efforts, Swami is forbidden by his strict headmaster from leaving early to go to his daily practices. In a rage, Swami throws his headmaster’s cane out of the window. Then, he thinks that his father Srinivasan, would not tolerate his dismissal even from this school in a matter of a few months. Thus, Swami resolutely decides to run away from home. He takes a naive decision, thinking that even though he was running away from home, he would be able to return somehow to the Y.M.U. vs. M.C.C. cricket match happening in one and a half-day. While fleeing, he becomes lost and wanders until he is rescued. Meanwhile, Lakshmi goes berserk, creates a funeral atmosphere in the house, and stops eating until Swami returns. When Swami learns this, he feels elated that his younger infant brother was sidelined in his place of him, at least in this singular instance in his life. While he was missing, Shrinivasan blames himself for being too harsh and aloof to Swami’s concerns. Thus, during the disappearance, the prime thought in his mind is not that Swami has had an accident or been kidnapped but that he must have committed suicide due to harassment.

He has missed the M.C.C. match he swore to go to. Already knowing his best friend may never speak to him again, Swami finds out from his friend Mani that Rajam is leaving the next morning to move to a new city with his family. Swami tries to mend his friendship with Rajam by giving him his favorite book Anderson’s Fairy Tales. This is Swami’s pathetic and simplistic gesture to at least keep his memory fresh in the mind of his friend, who meant so much to him. Swami fails to realize that Rajam would never read Anderson because he is too old and well-read for reading fairy tales.

In a desperate attempt to make amends, Swami rushes to the train station the next morning with a book he intends to give to Rajam as a way to make peace. He nearly misses the train’s departure and looks at his best friend through the window, who still refuses to speak to him. Mani must hand him the book, as he would not take it from Swami. The story ends as the train pulls away. Swami is left wondering if his friend will write and if he is forgiven. The writer leaves the reader with the same question. However, it doesn’t matter. Rajam came like a tornado into the lives of Swami and the rest of his friends and changed them forever, raising their standards about studies, friendship, and good behavior. Swami has a better sense and attitude towards life, friendship, studies, and the importance of exams. He understands his father, mother, and younger brother better now.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Age of Enlightenment in English Literature | Historical Background, Literary Features, Major Writers

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Age of Enlightenment in English literature corresponds to the period from 1700 to 1800 during which, the belief that science and logic give people more knowledge and understanding than tradition and religion gained traction. The Age of Enlightenment is also known as the Age of Prose and Reason, the Augustan Age, and the Age of Sensibility.

Historical Background

The basis for this common belief was developed long with the works of Francis Bacon who proposed the idea of inductive reasoning. In “The Advancement of Learning” and “The New Organon” Bacon expressed the technique of induction through which we establish truth or knowledge on the ground of real observation of several experiences or occurrences. His works gave impetus to the Scientific Revolution which suffered a jolt because of the political upheaval during the Interregnum but the Restoration period brought the scientific method back on the course. The Royal Society was established in 1660 and it was influenced by the imaginative ‘House of Solomon’ in Bacon’s “New Atlantis”.

The other thinkers of influence included Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza. Bacon gave the idea of empiricism and Descartes proposed rationalism. Baruch Spinoza and Leibniz supported Descartes’ Rationalism while empiricists like John Locke, George Berkley, and David Hume opposed it. Nevertheless, both rationalism and empiricism advocated logic. The subtle difference was the final authority to be considered as the foundation of certainty of knowledge. Empiricists favored experience based on human senses, while rationalists supported reason. In religion, you accepted the dictates of the church; in science, you would turn to a recognized authority like Aristotle, Ptolemy, etc. The Wife of Bath trusted experience over authority, but she was wrong to do so. In the Age of Enlightenment, she would be right. Copernicus and Galileo were the Wives of Bath when they trusted their own observations of stars to support their heliocentric view of the world as opposed to the Bible and also opposed to Ptolemy, the then authority of science. Newton further used empiricism to explain gravity, and the laws of motion and developed a whole new mathematics of Calculus. Empiricism gave way to skepticism. Skepticism against dogmas empowered individualism and called for freedom from religious dogmas. The people of the Enlightenment age believed in the universal authority of reason and observation. In his famous work, “Discourse on Method”, Descartes at first doubted the deliverances of his senses, as they frequently mislead us; then he questioned the procedure of reasoning; he reckoned that our universe might be an illusion. But in suspecting everything to be misleading or fake, Descartes speculated: “I think, therefore, I am”

Political and Religious Context of the Age of Enlightenment

Enlightenment wasn’t just about science. Even John Milton met Galileo in his lifetime and admired him, yet, his major work was Paradise Lost surrounding the Biblical Genesis, Original Sin, and Satan. People of the Enlightenment Age were fed up with religious doctrines. they wanted proof; did not want to accept an idea as true just because some person of authority said it. And that gave way to the direct opposition to any idea supporting the Divine Right.

After the death of King Charles II in 1685, King James II became the monarch. But he had to face the opposition of Whigs and proponents of protestants and was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in favor of his Protestant daughter Mary and her Husband William III. The deposition of King James II settled a century of political and civil strife in England by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown through the Bill of Rights passed in 1689 which limited the monarch's power. It was the period when England was striving for individual freedom and rights when John Locke presented his idea of Modern Man. Man, Locke says, is not created with original sin in him and he is not inherently wicked; rather man is born as a blank sheet of paper, you can create whatever sort of man by environmental influences, education, experiences, and what this means is that education became important. So, Man became a creature of indefinite possibility for progress. This reduced the controlling power of the Church and Monarch both on the common man. John Locke presented his idea of the social contract that suggests that the government’s authority lies in the consent of the governed. The Lockean idea of natural rights that stresses that individuals have a right to "Life, Liberty, and Property" became the base of new socio-political arrangements. It turned to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. It was the effect of Humanism and Individualism of the Age of Enlightenment. This new interest in Individuals reduced the importance of theology while giving impetus to humanism. Deism became a common belief.

Enlightenment brought a geographical change too as Scotland and England officially became one and the Parliament of Scotland was abolished through the Act of Union in 1707 and changed England to Great Britain. Act Of Union of 1800 again united Great Britain and Ireland and the unison became The United Kingdom of Great Britain in which, not the king but the English Parliament was the primary force of recognition.

Literary features of the Age of Enlightenment in English Literature

The changing socio-political and religious orders had an influence on the literature of the Age of Enlightenment. Robert Walpole became the first de facto prime minister of Great Britain. He continued as the prime minister for 20 years. Despite his political success, he was accused of corruption and was termed the Great Corruptor and was often compared to Jonathan Wild, the Thief Catcher. John Gay satirized both in his play The Beggar’s Opera. Walpole’s other enemies included Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Johnson. To avoid any such satirical criticism anymore, Robert Walpole introduced the Licensing Act of 1737 to control and censor what was being said about the British government through theatre. This crippled the English theatre but was an equally strong impetus to other means of literature in novels, pamphlets, essays, and other forms of prose.

Licensing act significantly reduced the number of dramas in the 18th century but it helped in bringing a reading revolution. People began to read "extensively", finding as many books as they could. The lack of active theatres gave way to the development of other public spheres. People gathered at coffee houses and discussed political, social, and scientific developments. That gave rise to the concept of journalism and magazines and the print industry got a new impetus as not only novels and pamphlets and other books were becoming the vogue, but newspapers and magazines were also making their space in public. The increased consumption of reading materials brought about the ‘social Enlightenment.’ Novels, books, pamphlets, newspapers, and journals became the "media of the transmission of ideas and attitudes". It also gave way to the printing and production of new dictionaries. Samuel Johnson published A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. Bishop Robert Lowth published his dictionary titled A Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762. The first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in 1771. Lindley Murray published English Grammar Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners in 1794. The authors of the Age of Enlightenment used satire frequently to attack human vices and follies.

We can broadly divide the English Literature of the Age of Enlightenment into three parts. It was a period of intense prose writing. The first part can be considered from 1700 to 1745 which is termed the Augustan period. English writers of this era tried to emulate the golden era of Romans under Emperor Augustus and thus, it is called the Augustan Period of Enlightenment Age. In this period, Writers like Alexander Pope emphasized Classical poetry styles. Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe wrote realistic novels, and Joseph Addison and Richard Steele wrote political pamphlets and essays in this period. Then came the period of Samuel Johnson. From 1745-1760, English authors like Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, and Tobias Smollett wrote realistic social novels. The period from 1760-1800 is known for Sentimalism during which Laurence Sterne and Charlotte Lenox wrote novels, while Oliver Goldsmith, William Blake, Thomas Chatterton, Thomas Percy, and others began the revival of poetry. 

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Birches by Robert Frost | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. In 1934, Robert Frost wrote an essay titled The Figure a Poem Makes which was about the experience of writing a poem. Through this essay, Frost talked about how a poem should offer the image of the subject in the mind of the reader. The essay is all about imagery. Robert Frost was famous as a nature poet who described nature, the rural, and the wild endearingly. One such poem was Birches which was published in 1915 in The Atlantic Monthly. 'Birches' was again published in his collection of poems titled Mountain Interval in 1916. Birches are a kind of medium-sized trees or shrubs that are commonly found in North America.

Birches are supple but strong. They easily bent without breaking. As the poet observes these trees bent on a side while standing alongside straight trees, he imagines a boy swinging on them like he used to do during his childhood. However, he knows that the birches are most probably bent because of the snow that has accumulated on them after the ice storm. Despite that, he likes his imagination of a boy playing and swinging on the birches and causing them to bent.

Structure of Birches

Birches is a long poem with 59 lines written in blank verse, in unrhymed iambic pentameter with great stress on the ‘sound of sense.’ The poet considered more the sound of a natural activity while describing it in the poem than the rhyme of it. For example, the poet describes the cracking of ice on leaves and branches of the trees as “Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells / Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust — / Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away…” The poet suggests that swinging on the birches like a young boy, or dreaming about it is like a reprieve for oneself from the harsh realities of the world for a while, to envigorate oneself, and then come back to face the truth. Frost used blank verses for this poem as it is a poem of talk, offering deep and meaningful thoughts and feelings to the reader in a meditative, reflective mode. The poem is written conversationally as the poet is talking to the readers in first person narrative.

Summary of Birches:

Lines 1-5

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them

The narrator observes some birch trees bent to the sides while many other taller trees are standing straight. The poet is aware of the suppleness of birch trees as he enjoyed swinging on birch trees during his childhood. However, he notices that when a boy swings along a birch tree, it doesn’t remain bent on one side for long as it swings to the other side. This doesn’t happen when birch trees get bent because of the accumulation of snow on them after a heavy ice storm.

Lines 6-9

Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel

The poet continues explaining the birch trees and how they appear and behave after rain and says that the readers must have seen birch trees loaded with ice on a sunny winter morning after it has stopped raining. The birch trees produce a metallic sound like that of iron under the effect of the wind, by clicking against themselves, and become many-colored because of the cracks in their enamel caused by their movement in the wind.

Lines 10-13

Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust —
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.

The sun’s warmth starts melting the ice and the snow falls from the trees like crystal shells. When these lumps of snow that appear like glass, strike the ground, they shatter into many pieces like broken glass. It appears as if the beauty of heaven has fallen on the earth.

Lines 14-20

They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.

The poet then explains how the top of the birch trees are dragged and bowed down, by a load of ice accumulated on them, kissing the fern growing on the ground. The weight of ice has kept them bent for so long that even when the snow falls and shatters like broken pieces of glass, the trees cannot straighten themselves up and their trunk remains arched. The poet then offers a metaphor, suggesting that the arched trees appear as if girls are sitting on their hands and knees, with their hair spread before them to dry in the sun.

Lines 21-27

But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows —
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.

While the poet is mesmerized by the beauty of birches bent due to a load of snow, he says that he would prefer to believe that the birches are bent because some by, who is living afar from the modern town to play games like baseball, went to fetch his cows and decided to play with the birch trees swinging on them. He enjoys this play irrespective of the season as he plays alone.

Line 28-32

One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer.

The poet furthers his imagination of the carefree boy who keeps playing with the birches. The boy swings on all the birch trees one by one as all are owned by his father. And one by one, he subdues the stiffness of all the birches until no more straight birch remains on the ground. He conquers all of them making them bent against him.

Lines 32-41

He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

The poet then explains the proper way of swinging on the birch tree without uprooting or breaking it and without getting harmed. The poet says that the boy he has imagined is smart enough to learn the proper way and he is patient as he doesn’t launch himself too soon and reaches the top branches with the utmost care, balancing himself with the same pain and care that one bestows while filling the cup to the brim, or even above the brim. Then he used to fling himself forward with his feet stretched forward, and passed gently through the air to touch the ground.

The poet says that during his childhood, he too played with the birches in the same careful, yet carefree manner as he was a patient swinger.

Lines 42-49

And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having my lashed opened.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.

The poet then expresses his wish, his desire to return back to childhood and enjoy the same carefree attitude. Yet the poet clarifies that he is not obsessed with this desire. But uses it as a reprieve, a way to refresh himself. He dreams of going back to childhood when he is too tired of his duties as a grown-up man and when his worries and struggles take a toll on him. Then in such moments, he decides to take a break and forget all his troubles and worries and think like that boy, like he was during his childhood. This momentary recluse offers him a chance to reinvigorate himself and return back to his present self refreshed. He then takes on his life with a better attitude and confidence.

Lines 50-59

May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

The poet then stresses that he is no escapist and prays that nobody, not even his fate should consider him an escapist who is trying to run away from his duties, burdens, and life. He claims that he doesn’t wish to escape from the earthly world and its realities as he believes that the earth is the right place for love, and he does not know of a better place than where he is now. Thus, if the birches can lead him to a better place (to heaven), then he would like to go towards heaven by swinging upon a birch tree that takes him back to the earth, to the ground realities. The poet says that it would be good for him to keep going away from the real world to get some rest and return back to conquer his struggles as one does while swinging. In the last line, the poet says that anyone who doesn’t like to swing on the birch trees to keep a balance between facts and fancy is worse than the swinger of the birches. A person may get tired, puzzled, and defeated by the harsh realities of life. He may choose to make use of fancies like the poet's dreams of returning to his childhood and enjoying swinging on birches, but it cannot be a road to escapism, it is just a way to reinvigorate oneself because there is no place better than his real life as Earth is the right place for love.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!