To Summer by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. To Summer is the second lyric poem of William Blake’s collection Poetical Sketches which was published in 1783. In his Season Songs, William Blake gave a hint of the major characters of his personal mythology. In the first poem, he invokes Spring which turns out to be an embodiment of Tharmas, one of the four Zoas, who were created when Albion, the primordial man, was divided fourfold. Tharmas or Spring is the peaceful embodiment of sensation and youthfulness. Next comes Summer, which can be equated to Blake’s mythological creature Orc—the embodiment of passion and energy, and the opposition to Urizen, who is represented in winter. Spring is the season that spreads the seed of innocence and the summer is the period when that seed is used and offspring are to be produced. Summer is the immediate state following Spring where marriage is consummated with fertilization.

To Summer is again an invocation in which Blake personified and celebrated the summer season.

Structure of To Summer:

The poem is composed of nineteen lines set in three stanzas. The first and the last stanzas are sestets containing 6 lines each while the second stanza is a heptet with seven lines. There is no particular rhyming scheme in any of the stanzas, however, Blake used half-rhymes in many of the lines. In this poem, Blake expresses his deep appreciation for the natural world and its transformative power on the human spirit. Through vivid imagery, sensory language, and musical rhythm, he invites the reader to join him in a joyful celebration of life and creativity.

Blake used Personification, Imagery, Enjambment, Caesura, Apostrophe, Anaphora, Metaphor, and Alliteration (use of the same consonant sound multiple times) in this poem.

Summary of To Summer:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-6

“O thou who passest thro' our valleys in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer,
Oft pitched'st here thy goldent tent, and oft
Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld
With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.”

Blake begins with the personification of Summer and describes how Summer has arrived, and pitched his “golden tent. “ He “slept“ underneath the oak trees while “we, “humanity, enjoyed his presence. He depicts summer with ‘ruddy limbs and flourishing hair’ like a strong man. One may notice the use of Apostrophe as though Summer is present, it cannot respond to the invocation. The poet is addressing something incapable of responding. Blake imagines Summer as a god-like figure who visits England each year and brings pleasure to the worlds of the young men, women, and artists of the nation. The fire of the sun is a metaphor for passion, the speaker recognizing the “fierce stead” of “the heat [and] flames” and the “joy” the natural world experiences in its glow.

Blake's use of the word "thou" instead of "you" suggests a sense of intimacy and familiarity with the season. It suggests that it is not the first time but summer arrived in the land in the past also. In the opening two lines, Blake used Enjambment while in line 5, he used Alliteration, repeating the sound of ‘b’ (beneath, and beheld).

Stanza 2 Lines 7-13

“Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard
Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car
Rode o'er the deep of heaven; beside our springs
Sit down, and in our mossy valleys, on
Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy
Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream:
Our valleys love the Summer in his pride.”

The second stanza is a heptet in which the poet describes the importance of summer for the people of his nation and how they feel rejuvenated and joyous at the arrival of summer. The poet describes how good it was when summer arrived in the past “upon his fervid car, “ and brought joy for the people. Enjambment has been used in lines 8 and 9. In addition, Blake used Caesura in the 9th line, breaking it in the middle ( “Rode o’er the deep of heaven; besides our springs.”) Blake used sensory language and alliteration to make the poem lively. He repeats words starting with ‘r’ and ‘s’ which offers an idea of the sound of a rushing stream. Blake describes summer making love or consummating the marriage with the valleys of his land. The valleys have dropped off their clothing and are in a naked/natural state (‘Silk draperies off’) and they ‘love the Summer in his pride’.

Stanza 3 Lines 14-19

“Our bards are fam'd who strike the silver wire:
Our youth are bolder than the southern swains:
Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance:
We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy,
Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven,
Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.”

This stanza is again a sestet. The poet continues to describe how summer strengthens and brings joy to the people. Everything appears more beautiful in this ‘naked/natural ’ state (“silk draperies off”) and nothing is “lacking” in the “dance” and “sultry heat” of this euphoric season.

Blake begins with Anaphora, repeating the word ‘Our’ at the beginning of lines 14, 15, and 16. The whole of England is celebrating the marriage of summer with the English valleys. The bards, singers, and writers of poetry are striking their silver wire, playing their instruments. The youths are bold in their warmth and joy.

Blake also expresses his nationalistic fervor when he compares the English youth with ‘the southern swains.’ He says that the English young men are bolder, and the English maidens are ‘fairer in the sprightly dance’ to celebrate the summer. This suggests that English people are more passionate and alive than those living in southern parts as they are more used to the weather of summer.

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!

To Spring by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. William Blake’s first published work was Poetical Sketches. It was a collection of 19 lyric poems grouped under the title "Miscellaneous Poems" written between 1769 and 1777 when Blake was 12 to 20 years old. In addition to the Miscellaneous Poems, the Illustrated book also contains a dramatic fragment (King Edward the Third), a prologue to another play in blank verse ('Prologue, Intended for a dramatic piece of King Edward the Fourth'), a prose poem prologue ('Prologue to King John'), a ballad ('A War Song to Englishmen') and three prose poems ('The Couch of Death', 'Contemplation', and 'Samson'). Poetical Sketches was published in 1783.

The first four poems of the collection are also known as the Season Songs and they are titled as To Spring, To Summer, To Autumn, and To Winter. These Season Songs are invocations to the four seasons that Blake developed in mythological figures in his later works.

These season songs can be interpreted as a reference to nature and arts but they also highlight sexual desire and fulfillment and to the different stages of human life and civilization.

The poem To Spring shows myriads of moods. One may find it hopeful and celebrating. However, as the poet describes the inevitable arrival and passage of the season, one may feel the deep existential depression hidden in the poem.

Structure of To Spring:

The poem contains 16 lines set in four quatrains or stanzas. There is no fixed rhyming scheme in this poem by Blake but that offers a natural flow to the poem, The poem is an invocation or plea to the Spring season. Offering a natural flow while not restricting the poem to a rhyme scheme, the poet expresses a sense of genuine emotions. Blake has used Enjambment (cutting of a line before its natural end), Caesura (a pause in the middle of a line of a poem), Personification (intentional use of human-specific actions and language to describe something non-human), Apostrophe (addressing someone absent), Metaphor, Imagery, and Repetition in this poem.

Summary of To Spring:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-4

“O thou with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!”

The poet begins with Personification as he addresses the spring season. He describes the spring season as a youthful divine woman with a long lock of hair. Her locks are covered with the due drops. The poet also alludes to England as ‘Wester Isle.’ He describes the Spring as a young beautiful woman while the poet’s land is her desperate lover. The lover is accompanied by a full ‘choir,’ a metaphor for the landscape of England with hills and valleys.

The poet calls upon the season to visit his land. He fervently appeals to the season to pour soft kisses on the bosom of love-sick land and awaken her to a new life and Joy. The poet wants a boon for his native land. He urged the season to bless his land. In line 2, Blake used Enjambment,

Stanza 2 Lines 5-8

“The hills tell one another, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn’d
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!”

The poet continues to describe the Spring while using personification to describe the hills and valleys as coming alive and sharing in the season’s excitement. The hills of England speak to each other. They convey the message of the coming spring. And the valleys of the land go on listening to what the hills Say. The people of the land are eagerly waiting for the spring to lay out her exhibition of flowers, birds, and blossoms. The poet reminds the reader that he is waiting for the spring season and urges the spring to visit his land and sanctify its soil with the touch of her holy feet. In the 7^th line, Blake used Caesura. The ‘Bright Pavillion’ is a metaphor to represent the sky or heaven.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

“Come o’er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.”

The spring has yet not arrived while the poet is invoking her. He continues to talk to the spring which is not present (apostrophe). The poet appeals to the spring to come over the eastern hills of England. The winds will become fragrant by kissing her scented garments. The winds will carry the fragrance of flowers of the spring season. Sweet and soothing things are the breezes of the spring in the morning and evening. They are laden with fragrance which the people are keen to taste and enjoy. The people are pining and languishing because they are in love with the spring. They are crying for her. So she must come.

The speaker pleads with the spring to taste her morning and evening breath. Spring season is the season of flowers that bloom either in the morning or evening. The “morn and evening breath” can be seen as the cool, fresh air of Spring mornings and evenings. It is different from the harshness of winter or the heat of summer.

Stanza 4 Lines 13-16

“O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languish’d head,
Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.”

The poet further adds personification and vivid imagery in the final stanza of the poem. The poet urges the spring to adorn and decorate his native land with her own beautiful fingers. The season should plant soft and sweet kisses on the breast of England. She should decorate England's weak and pale head with her golden crown. The simple traces of hair of the native land were tied up in prayer to the season.

The poet personifies his land as a maiden awaiting jewels on her fingers. By giving them to her, one is beautifying her hands and transforming her fingers in the same way that Spring transforms the land. The ‘soft kisses’ represent the light rains or the warmth of the sun that Spring bestows upon the earth. The ‘golden crown’ represents the light sunlight which is not as harsh as that of summer and is different from the dark evenings of winter. The poet begins lines 14 and 15 with the word ‘Thy’ making use of Repetition.

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!

London by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

London by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. London is one of the most famous Illustrated Poems by William Blake that was included in his poetry collection Songs of Experience, published in 1794. His two most famous collections, Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) have poems that are counterparts of each other. However, London is a unique poem expressing the disappointment of William Blake in the socio-political situation of London during that period. London is a political poem. Previously, Samuel Johnson wrote a long poem with the same title London in 1738. In that poem, Samual Johnson also described the various problems of London, including an emphasis on crime, corruption, and the squalor of the poor.

Blake’s poem is rather short with just 16 lines arranged in four quatrains. Yet, the poem illuminates the problems of London stressing the themes of the effects of Industrialization, Moral Corruption, Poverty, Exploitation of masses, and Universal suffering.

Blake analyzes the troubles faced by the common citizens of London streets. Surrounded by dejected Londoners, he saw evidence that the British government had too much power and little interest in helping those they were supposed to serve. He didn’t mince his words and vehemently blamed the government. Blake offers a damningly hellish image of the streets of London in this poem.

Structure of London:

London is a four-stanza poem that is separated into sets of four lines, known as quatrains following the rhyme scheme of ABAB throughout the poem. In the first stanza, the poet expresses the general sights of London streets while in the following three stanzas, he expresses the various sounds audible in these streets. In the third stanza, Blake used Acrostics making the first letter of the first word of each line into the word ‘HEAR.’ The poem is written from the first-person perspective of an anonymous speaker, who could be assumed to be Blake, walking through the streets of London. Blake used an iambic tetrameter for this poem. Blake has used Imagery, Metaphor, Caesura, Enjambment, Repetition, and Capitalization of words in the poem.

Context of London:

London was published during the “reign of terror”. The French Revolution became an inspiration for many radicals as it was a symbol of how the disenfranchised and oppressed could seize power from the privileged. It resulted in the end of the French monarchy, which is what Blake was hoping for in England, which ended when Louis XVI was executed in 1793. However, it was followed by a "reign of terror", with thousands executed via guillotine. England witnessed the surge of the Industrial Revolution and became an Industrial power. This resulted in a mass movement to cities from the countryside. However, this urbanization led to most of London being covered in smog from factories and industrialization. The government gave the wealthy exclusive rights to land and resources that had been previously owned in common, which meant the wealthy started owning monopolies of land. Blake emphasized those who have been hurt most by the capitalist structures that cause inequality within society, focusing on their misery.

Summary of London:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-4

“I wandered thro each chartered street,

Near where the charted Thames does flow,

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe”

The speaker begins while declaring that he is wandering around the streets of London, observing the situation of the people. He uses the word ‘Chartered’ which means that the streets and the landscape are controlled rigidly by the government that has offered exclusive rights to the rich capitalists over the land and resources (River Thames) that had been previously owned in common, which meant the wealthy started owning monopolies of land and resources. He mentions that he is not wandering around in a free, open area, rather it is a controlled mapped-out area. As he observes other common people on the streets, he observes marks of weariness in them all. He describes their faces as having “weakness” and “woe”.

The first stanza suggests that the tone of the poem is gloom, sadness, and melancholy.

Stanza 2 Lines 5-8

“In every cry of every man,

In every infant’s cry of fear,

In every choice, in every ban,

The mind-forged manacles I hear”

The speaker continues expressing the gloomy situation of poor people on the streets as he watches them pass him by. The speaker reveals that from the cry of the newborn infant to the cry of the full-grown man, he hears the “mind forg’d manacles”. Manacles are shackles or chains used to imprison someone. These manacles are not physical but ‘mind-forged’, that is, the people are imprisoned by the prevailing ideas and thoughts. People are not free, they are restricted, and banned from making free choices. The terms ‘ban’, ‘chartered’, and ‘manacles’ suggest that the authority and the society have metaphorically imprisoned the people.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

“How the chimney-sweeper's cry

Every blackening church appals;

And the hapless soldier's sigh

Runs in blood down palace walls.”

The first letter of the first word of the first line is ‘H’, that of the second line is ‘E’, that of the third line is ‘A’, and of the fourth line is ‘R’ which makes HEAR in vertical and that is the purpose of the speaker. He wishes the reader to hear the gloomy sighs and cries of poor people. The speaker shows his deep concern about poor people and humanity in general. He says that when society strips people of their freedom and shackles them in rigid exploitative ideas. He first mentions the Chimney sweeper, the poorest of the society. He was always dirty and inflicted by pollution that made him sick. The poor people of the lowest class were forced into this kind of work to provide for their families.

The speaker then criticizes the church, terming it ’blackening’ but even the corrupt church ‘appalls’ at Chimney-sweeper. Generally, Chimney-sweepers were used to be kids. They were small enough to fit down the chimneys. These children were often orphaned children. The church had the responsibility for their care and grooming, but they were forced to work in such difficult situations. This is why the speaker connects the gloomy ‘chimney-sweepers’ with the ‘blackening church,’ suggesting the corruption therein. He criticizes the society and the church for the conditions of the poor.

Next, he mentions the ‘hapless soldier’ turning his criticism on the government and suggesting that the soldiers are the poor victims of a corrupt government. He mentions the long-running blood bath of war that flows down the palace walls. The palace signifies the space of royalty and higher echelons of the society. The speaker blames the higher society and administration for spilling the blood of the soldiers to keep their comfort of living in a palace.

Stanza 4 Lines 13-16

"But most through midnight streets I hear

How the youthful harlot's curse

Blasts the new-born infant's tear,

And blights with plagues the marriage hearse"

In the last stanza, the speaker mentions the moral degradation of the society at large. He mentions that he hears the “youthful Harlot’s curse…”. A young woman turning to prostitution itself suggests the level of poverty and corruption in society. The young harlot is cursing someone, a newborn innocent infant as she is crying. In place of lifting the baby in their arms and caring for her, the youthful harlot curses her, as she must be engaged with her customers. It is not clear if the young harlot is the mother of the infant but she could be. This reveals the hardened heart of the harlot, which represents the hardened heart of society at large. While the innocent shed tears, the perverted attack them.

The speaker criticizes the young harlot complaining how she deranged marriage by having sold her body before ever entering into the marriage union. The speaker, however, doesn’t hold any good idea about marriages as he mentions them as a death trap and uses the term ‘marriage hearse.’

The poet criticizes every aspect of society that suggests corruption and moral degradation. He criticizes the ills of society, church, government, high-class people, prostitution, and marriage. The infant shedding tears represents the innocent poor people of the society who are the real victims. There are not many innocents and their innocence too is not going to remain for long as their innocence is ‘blasted’ by the shouting curses of the corrupt.

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

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is one of the Prophetic works by William Blake in which he imitated the Biblical prophecy while expressing his own mythical elements and intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary ideas. Blake experimented with relief etching for this book. It is an illuminated prose poem, the text, decoration, and drawings of which were etched by Blake on copper plates. His wife Catherine helped in coloring and printing the etched plates on paper. The short book in verse was published in 1789. The book is divided into ten sections that can be considered as chapters:

1) "The Argument" 2)“The Voice of the Devil" 3)"A Memorable Fancy" (1)

4) “Proverbs of Hell" 5)"A Memorable Fancy" (2) 6)"A Memorable Fancy" (3)

7) "A Memorable Fancy" (4) 8) "A Memorable Fancy" (5) 9) "A Song of Liberty"

10) "Chorus"

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is an Illuminated Prose Poem with many illustrations and proverbs written in Free Verse style with no patterned rhythm.

The main idea of the book is to blur the lines of difference between heaven and hell, good and evil, and presenting them as contraries necessary for each other. On Plate 1, Blake etched the Book Cover which depicts the earth with heaven above it and hell below the earth. Two naked figures embrace in flame while human spirits are depicted moving upwards in the sky.

William Blake used Symbolism to present his ideas in this book. The flames of hell, traditionally used to symbolize evil and eternal suffering, seem to give rise to trees and living human beings. At the same time, angels, who typically symbolize the divine and are god's messengers or helpers for humanity, are depicted as closed-minded, insolent, and inactive. Blake also used Animal symbolism throughout the book. One of the most notable is in the Proverbs of Hell where he mentioned The "tigers of wrath" and the "horses of instruction." The raw energy of the tiger is opposed to the relentless forward-plodding of the horse. The proverbs state that the tiger is the wiser of the two. Blake used metaphor to compare angels with horses of instruction and devils as tygers of wrath, suggesting that Evil is creative energy while good is passive reason and obedience.

Summary of The Marriage Heaven and Hell:

The book begins with ‘The Argument’ etched in Plates 2-3. It constitutes a poem whose first line is "Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd air". A character named Rintrah is not happy. He's raging out, while a "just man" keeps walking along the "Vale of Death." Rintrah stands for righteous wrath and presages revolution. The poems assert the theme of the book. The poet expresses the necessity of contraries in existence, particularly in the case of reason and energy. The righteous (the Angels) declare that reason is good and is associated with Heaven and the soul, and energy is evil and is associated with Hell and the body.

The poet states that “Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate” are the cause of progression and are necessary for human existence. The poet then redefines good and evil suggesting, “Good” is “the passive that obeys reason,” and “Evil” is only “the active springing from Energy”.

The Voice of the Devil: Plates 4-6

The second chapter is written in prose. In The Voice of the Devil, Blake suggests that all religions and all the conventional angels have committed an error by dividing body and soul and associating evil with bodily energy and good with reason and the soul. The poet corrects this historical wrong and declares that the life-promoting energies that emerge through natural and imaginative desire are the true sources of joy. Body and soul are not two separate entities, and desire should not be restrained by reason. Blake also mentioned John Milton and Paradise Lost in this chapter declaring “Milton was a true poet” who was "of the Devil's party without knowing it." Blake does so because, in Paradise Lost, Satan is portrayed as more energetic and appealing than God and the other angels. Chapter 2 ends halfway down the 6^th plate.

A Memorable Fancy (1): Plate 6-7

This chapter can be seen as a ground for the upcoming chapter Proverbs of Hell. In this, the poet depicts one of his fancies. He was “walking among the fires of Hell,” when he collected some “Proverbs of Hell” to demonstrate Hell’s wisdom to the earthly people. As he returns back, he sees a Devil etching some words on a rock which says –

“How do you know but ev’ry bird that cuts the airy way,

is an immense world of delight closed by your senses five?”

Proverbs of Hell Plate 7-11

It is the most popular part of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The chapter contains 70 proverbs that the poet claims he collected during his visit to Hell. Obviously, these are aphorisms of William Blake. Many of these aphorisms extol the life of energy and natural instinct over reason. In addition, Blake also added a paragraph about the nature of poetry and religion. It is again an imitation of the Bible which is supposedly the the best-known collection of proverbs.

Some of the interesting Proverbs of Hell are –

* “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."

* “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise."

* “Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.”

* “Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unattended desires."

* “The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”

* “The nakedness of woman is the work of God.”

After these 70 proverbs, Blake added a paragraph offering his ideas about organized religion. He says that ancient religion (Paganism) began as a kind of poetry, in which each object in the natural world was turned into a “natural deity” based on what their “enlarged and numerous senses” could perceive. Over time, people began to abstract these deities from the real objects in the world that they were intended to describe. So began priesthood and organized religion, leading people to forget that “All deities reside in the human breast” and giving churches and their administrators power over others. Gradually, people forgot that all those gods actually live in the human imagination.

A Memorable Fancy (2) Plates 12-14

In this fancy, the poet converses with Biblical Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. The poet questions how the prophets know that God is speaking the truth. The prophets' answer, “a firm persuasion that a thing is so” makes it true. They also suggest that “Poetic Genius” is the most important way of accessing the truth. The speaker then prophesizes that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years” and that will change this ‘corrupt and finite’ world into ‘infinite and holy’. The poet again stresses that the prophets must correct the inadvertent mistakes they committed like separating body and soul. He exhorts people to widen their thoughts and says –

* “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite."

A Memorable Fancy (3) Plate 15-17

The poet fancies visiting a printing house in Hell that has 66 chambers.

Each chamber contains different creatures: dragons, vipers, eagles, lions, and eventually men. These represent the progressive improvement of humankind’s ability to perceive the world. This chapter is illustrated with a picture of five sad-looking men huddled together on the floor. The text begins as

* “Giants who formed this world into its sensual existence.”

The poet then divides people into two categories, one is ‘Prolific’ or creators, or producers, and the other is ‘Devourers’ or consumers. He states that these two kinds are enemies by nature but religion tries to bring them together. If you have read Ayn Rand’s novella ‘Anthem,’ or her novel ‘The Fountainhead’ or her magnum opus ‘Atlas Shrugged’, you may find a similarity between Blake’s ideas and Rand’s Objectivism.

A Memorable Fancy (4) Plates 17-22

An angel appears and warns the poet that they are doomed to a “hot burning dungeon.” The poet requests the angel to show him his fate. The angel takes him to a stable, to a church, to a tomb, to a mill, and finally into an Abyss. Leviathan, a monstrous sea creature appears right then and the angel is scared away. As soon as the angel goes away, the Abyss vanishes too and the poet finds himself standing at the bank of a calm river. He listens to a man singing a song on the bank,

* “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind.”

The poet realizes that the Abyss was just a creation of the angel. He seeks and catches him and accuses him of threatening him. He then shows the angel his fate by taking him to a site where monkey-like creatures are fighting among themselves and devouring each other. The poet runs away from the scene with a skull in his hands. He then checks the skull and finds a book of Aristotle. He embraces it while dismissing the Angel as a useless philosopher. The poet then criticizes Emanuel Swedenborg and claims that his writings only rely on unoriginal discussions with the angels while he never tried to talk with the devils. He claims that the writings of Dante and Shakespeare are better.

A Memorable Fancy (5) Plates 22-24

The poet imagines an argument between an angel and a devil. The devil claims –

* “The worship of God is Honouring his gifts in other men."

The angel opposes him and says that Christ alone should be worshiped, but the devil points out that Christ himself broke all of the Ten Commandments in one way or another. Struggling to answer, the angel agrees. It is then revealed that the angel chose to be a devil himself and became a friend of the poet. The angel and the poet now read the Bible of Hell together.

A Song of Liberty: Plates 25-27

It is a short poem in which the poet extols his triumphant declaration of the superiority of devils over angels. He turns it into a political discourse and links the devils with the French and American Revolutions, stating that –

* “Empire is no more and now the Lion and Wolf shall cease."

Chorus: Plate 27;

After the song of liberty, the chorus adjoins while targeting the religious authorities and blaming them for being the institutions of oppression.

The book ends with the declaration –

* “For every thing that lives is Holy."

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!

William Blake | Biography and Important Literary Works

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. William Blake was an English poet, printer, and painter born on 28 November 1757 and died on 12 August 1827 when he was 69. As a poet, he didn’t gain any recognition during his lifetime but in current times, he is considered as one of the most important poets of the Pre-Romantic era. His poetry and visual art had a strong influence over the Romantic Age. William Blake was a devout Christian who always opposed the Church of England and maintained his belief in Marcionism, a Christian dualistic system. Because of his idiosyncracies and eccentricities, his contemporaries considered him a mad person and never got any recognition during his lifetime. William Wordsworth once commented, "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scot.”

The critics and readers of the modern period admired his expressiveness and appreciated the philosophical and mystical basis of his works.

William Blake was born in the Age of Reason and Enlightenment but he often opposed the philosophical ideas of Enlightenment and gave more stress to Humanism, and Romanticism over Empiricism and Rationalism. Blake abhorred slavery and believed in racial and sexual equality. He was a supporter of Free Love and raised the issue of women’s rights for happiness and self-fulfillment. Several of his poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity. He was a close friend of Thomas Paine and was an admirer of Emanuel Swedenborg. Blake was concerned about senseless wars and the blighting effects of the Industrial Revolution. He was influenced by the French Revolution and American Revolution and expressed his views in poetry, paintings, and engravings. Alexander Gilchrist wrote a biography of William Blake in the 1860s.

Blake attained formal education till he was 10 years old and then attained home schooling during which he also enrolled in a drawing class. Later on, he became a printer and engraver by profession. Poetry was his passion and he used his skills as a painter, printer, and engraver to express his poetic ideas in the form of Illuminated poetry in which he presented his poetic ideas in words with the help of assisting paintings and engravings. Literary critic Northrop Frye remarked that Blake perfected a “radical form of mixed art,” a “composite art” that must be read as a unity.

In 1781, Blake married Catherine Boucher who was five years younger than him. She was illiterate and signed her wedding contract with an X. William Blake not only educated her, he also taught her the skills of painting and engraving Later on, she became his assistant at work as an engraver and colorist.

Blake’s Influence:

While William Blake remained unrecognized, ridiculed, and poor during his lifetime, his works later proved to be influential. Some of the literary and artistic critics who appreciated his works included S. Foster Damon, Geoffrey Keynes, Northrop Frye, and David V. Erdman. His poems influenced Dante Gabriel Rossetti and W.B. Yeats. The authors of the Modernist period were hugely influenced by William Blake. The Beats poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylon, Jim Morrison, and English author Aldous Huxley were greatly influenced by Blake’s works.

Important Literary Works of William Blake:

Poetic Sketches:

In 1783, Blake’s first collection of poems and prose writing was published under the title Poetical Sketches. The book was never published for the public, with copies instead given as gifts to friends of the author and other interested parties. The book contains nineteen lyric poems, a dramatic fragment (King Edward the Third), a prologue to another play in blank verse ('Prologue, Intended for a dramatic piece of King Edward the Fourth'), a prose poem prologue ('Prologue to King John'), a ballad ('A War Song to Englishmen') and three prose poems ('The Couch of Death', 'Contemplation', and 'Samson').

The book begins with an 'Advertisement' which says that Bake began writing the contents of the book at the very early age of 12 when he was not well tutored and continued to occasionally add to the book till he was twenty years old. Considering his inexperience during this period, any irregularities and defects should be forgiven.

The first four lyrical poems of Poetical Sketches ('To Spring', 'To Summer', 'To Autumn', 'To Winter'), which are invocations to the four seasons, are often seen as offering early versions of four of the figures of Blake's later mythology, each one represented by the respective season, where "abstract personifications merge into the figures of a new myth." One of the poems titled ‘Fair Elenor’ is a Gothic poem.

In 1788, William Blake experimented with relief etching for the first time and produced two aphorisms titled ‘All Religions are One’, and ‘There is No Natural Religion.’

Songs of Innocence and of Experience:

In 1789, Blake published his first collection of Illuminated Poems titled Songs of Innocence which contained 23 poems illustrated with paintings and engravings. Most of these poems were based on themes of happiness and innocent perception in pastoral harmony. A few poems including "The Chimney Sweeper" and "The Little Black Boy", subtly show the dangers of this naïve and vulnerable state. In 1794, Blake published his second collection of illuminated poems titled Songs of Experience containing 26 poems. Soon, in the same year, he combined both collections and republished them as a single collection titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794. Blake experimented with relief etching, a method he used to produce most of his Illuminated books, paintings, pamphlets, and poems including Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Book of Thel, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and Jerusalem.

Visionary Poet:

William Blake is said to have had visions from a young age. At the age of four, saw God" when God "put his head to the window". At the age of 8, Blake claimed to have seen "a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars." Blake claimed to have such visions associated with beautiful religious themes and imagery throughout his life and these visions inspired his poetry and paintings. William Blake is known as a Prophetic poet and he wrote several Prophetic books in which he invented his own mythology to express his ideas. This poetic device is known as mythopoeia. For his inventive ways, Blake is also known as a Visionary Poet. A visionary poet uproots firmly planted ideas on the structure, the grammar, and the content of poetry to create something that had never been heard of.

Prophetic Works of William Blake :

In these books, William Blake introduced and developed his own mythology. Northrop Frye described these works by Blake as "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language." These works include --

Tiriel (1789); The Book of Thel (1789), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), The Book of Urizen (1794), The Book of Ahania (1795), The Book of Los (1795), Vala, or the Four Zoas (1797), Milton: A Poem in Two Books, Jerusalem: The Emancipation of Giant Albion (1804).

In addition, he also wrote three Continental Prophecies in which he openly criticized and opposed colonialism and slavery. These works by Blake were highly influenced by the American Revolution in which he strongly supported racial and sexual equality. These works include America a Prophecy (1793), Europe a Prophecy (1794), and The Song of Los (1795), which is made up of sections of Africa and Asia.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793):

Blake wrote this book as an imitation of Biblical prophecy but expressed his own beliefs and ideas through the book. He experimented with relief etching in this book and colored it with the help of his wife Catherine.

The book begins with an Introductory short poem titled "Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd air".

In this book, Blake offered his theory of contraries and suggested that each person reflects the contrary nature of God, and that progression in life is impossible without contraries. The Heaven and Hell in the title also suggest two contraries. Another contrary he discussed is reason and energy. Blake suggested that two types of people existed: the "energetic creators" and the "rational organizers", or, as he calls them in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the "devils" and "angels". Blake expounds that “Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.”

In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake appreciated Milton and commented that ‘Milton was a true poet’. He also claimed that John Milton, in his epic poem Paradise Lost was "of the Devil's party without knowing it."

The book describes the poet's visit to Hell, a device adopted by Blake from Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost. The book is written in prose but the Argument is in verse. It also includes a lyrical poem titled Song of Liberty. Blake didn’t express Hell as a place of punishment, rather he depicted it as a source of unrepressed opposition to the authoritarianism of Heaven.

The most popular part of the book is Proverbs of Hell which contains many of Blake’s Aphorisms such as –

*The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

*The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

*If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.

Aldous Huxley chose the title of his autobiographical book ‘The Doors of Perception’ from this book in which he introduced his idea of ‘Mind at Large’ which has similarities with Blake’s idea.

Milton: A Poem in Two Books (1810):

Blake published his epic poem Milton: a Poem in Two Books in 1810. Its hero is John Milton, who returns from Heaven who returns from Heaven to meet the poet and discusses the relationship between current writers and their predecessors. The Preface includes a short poem titled “And did those feet in Ancient Time”. The poem is supposed to oppose the then-common apocryphal story of a young Jesus visiting England. Blake also briefly criticized the Industrial Revolution and its harmful effects on nature and human relationships by the phrase ‘Dark Satanic Mills’ in this poem. Another popular phrase from the book Milton is "Corporeal Friends are Spiritual Enemies".

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

Herzog by Saul Bellow | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Herzog is a novel by Saul Bellow that was published in 1964. It is the story of a middle-aged Jewish man in his early forties going through an existential crisis and neurosis. The novel incorporates several contrasting ideas such as nihilism and hope, despair and comic irony, and alienation and accommodation. The protagonist appears to be masochistic and passive, yet he tends also to be willful and sadistic. He believes in reason but is suffering from a protracted nervous crisis, following the collapse of his second marriage, that leads him to the brink of suicide. The major theme of the novel is to suggest that people must survive by maintaining a painful awareness of this mixed human condition, that life is an attempt to maintain equilibrium between nihilism and hope, and that life involves the necessity of accepting fragmentation, flux, failure, suffering, irrationality, sexuality, decay, and death.

The novel includes several letters that the protagonist writes. The letters are cranky, brilliant, poignant and, of course, they are never sent. He writes these letters to his friends, family members, and celebrities. In all these letters, he expresses disappointment either in the failings of others or their words, or apologizing for the way he has disappointed others.

Herzog won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction of 1964 and in 2005, Time magazine named it one of the 100 best novels in the English language since Time's founding in 1923.

The novel is written from the point of view of Moses Herzog, the protagonist

Characters of Herzog:

Moses Elkanah Herzog is the protagonist of the novel. He is a forty-three-year-old American Jewish man going through an emotional crisis. He is an erudite intellectual. He writes letters to express his ideas though he never posts those letters. Later, he feels that his intellect may have been a burden breaking him down and says, The intellectual has been a Separatist.

He has been cuckolded by his best friend, Valentine Gersbach; both of his marriages have failed; and he has failed to achieve his intellectual quest to resolve the philosophical problems of Romanticism. He is still determining who he is and what his goals are.

Madeline Herzog is his wife who recently divorced him for his close friend Valentine. She also maintained the custody of their daughter Julie. Madeline is the epitome of the selfish, neurotic yet attractive character, making her all the more dangerous female. By birth, she is a Jew but she is more interested in the traditional pieties of Christianity and America. She is beautiful, brilliant, cracked, and works for a doctorate in Russian church history. Her aim is to prove that she is no less intellectual than Herzog. She is flirtatious and dazzling in conversations. Unlike Herzog, she is expressive, a slut at home, and a bitch in bed, she expects a different kind of life. Initially, Herzog expresses all negative thoughts towards Madeline but as the novel proceeds and Herzog begins feeling better and getting rid of his neurosis, he begins letting her go, forgiving and forgetting her. Valentine is a handsome and interesting character. When Madeline gets pregnant, she wishes Herzog to spend more time with her but Herzog prefers his intellectual pursuit. Madeline turns towards Valentine during that period. Madeline is using Valentine to rise high in the intellectual circles. Romana is a beautiful girl in her thirties. She is the recent love interest of Herzog whom he met after his divorce. She is a beautiful, exotic female who devotes herself to sensual experiences. She wants to marry Herzog but doesn’t wish to dominate him like Madeline did. Sandor Himmelstein is Herzog’s lawyer in Chicago who handled his divorce. Harvey Simkin is Herzog’s lawyer in New York whom he requests to help in getting custody of Junie. Simkin tells Herzog to be more practical. Daisy is Herzog’s first wife and Marco is his son from Daisy. Phoebe is Valentine’s wife who doesn’t believe that her husband is having an affair with Madeline. William Herzog is Moses’s younger brother. He is a successful, rational person who helps Herzog and offers bail to him when Moses meets an accident and is charged with possession of a loaded weapon. Geraldine Portnoy is a former student of Herzog who is recently babysitting Junie at Madeline’s home.

Summary of Herzog:

Moses Herzog is wondering about his many failures. His personal life has collapsed and the world itself seems chaotic and mad. He wonders if life has any meaning. He is living alone in his apartment in Berkshire. He recently got divorced from his second wife Madeline. He has two children. His first child Marco lives with his mother and Herzog’s first wife Daisy. His second child, Junie is in the custody of Madeline, her mother and Herzog’s second wife who recently divorced him and chose to live with Valentine Gersbach, one of Herzog’s childhood friends and colleagues. After this debacle, Herzog pushed himself into a complex process of self-examination. He wonders who is he, what is real, and what is unreal, and he has no answers to it. He feels he is suffering from neurosis. If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog. To clarify things, he begins writing letters that he never posts to anybody. Sometimes on paper and other times only in his mind. He writes letters to people he knows, those he has never met, and individuals who died a long time before he was born. He writes letters to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Friedrich Nietzsche, his deceased mother, his intellectual opponents, and even God. In the letters, Moses argues about intellectual ideas held by the individuals or about the things he has said or failed to say.

Moses meets his recent girlfriend Romana who insists that he needs rest and care and requests him to spend the night at her place but he says that he needs to go to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts to visit a friend. During his travels, he continues to write letters. Just a few months ago, his wife Madeline was pregnant with his child. She insisted on moving to Chicago and being a good husband, he couldn’t say no. He spent his $20,000 inheritance on moving from the Berkshires to Chicago and then she had left him for his friend, his ex-friend Valentine. When he reaches Martha’s Vineyard, he retreats to the room prepared for him by his hosts. He finds no peace there. He leaves a note saying bye and returns to New York by plane, and back in his apartment, he begins writing letters once more.

He continued writing letters the other day. In the afternoon, he gets a letter from Geraldine Portnoy, one of his former students living in Chicago. She informs Moses that when she was walking past Madeline’s house, she noticed Valentine had left Junie locked in the car. This further disturbs Moses. He opts to go to Romana’s place to have dinner with her and spends the night there. The next day, he consults his lawyer Harvey Simkin to discuss whether he can gain custody of his daughter, June, from Madeline. Harvey has prior meetings but he agrees to offer time in the courthouse. Herzog goes to the courthouse and waits for Harvey. During this period, he witnesses several cases being discussed. He hears of a case of an unmarried couple accused of beating the woman’s son to death.

Herzog gets too disturbed and decides to go back to Chicago. He goes to his father’s old house, which is now inhabited by his stepmother, and retrieves a pistol owned by his father. The gun has two bullets in it. He takes the pistol with the idea of killing Madeline and Valentine and running away with Junie. He visits Madeline’s house and observes quietly. From the kitchen window, he sees that Madeline is washing dishes. He goes around to check the bathroom and through the window, he sees Valentine bathing Junie with so much patience and love. Herzog feels that his daughter is in no danger. He drops the idea of getting violent and decides to return. He realizes that he cannot murder anyone. Moses visits Valentine’s home and meets his wife Phoebe who declines to believe that her husband is having an affair with Madeline and refuses to help Moses in gaining custody of Junie. Herzog goes to meet his friend Lucas Asphalter who arranges for Moses to visit June the following day.

The next day, Moses takes Junie to an aquarium. While returning, his car collides with a truck. While Junie is safe, Moses gets unconscious. The police investigate and find the loaded pistol in possession of Moses. They arrest him. Madeline visits the police station to get Junie and she further insults Moses. Moses’s brother, William, pays his bail. Moses asks William to visit his home in Ludeyville, Massachusetts that he bought for Madeline. William agrees to go with him. After their marriage, Madeline wished to live in the countryside. Moses spent a major part of his inheritance to buy the house and he loved living there. But Madeline got tired of living in the country and insisted that they should move to Chicago, and then she left him alone. The house has long been deserted.

William compliments the house and says that if Moses wishes to sell it, he will get a good price.

Moses learns that Romana is trying to call him and he asks William to drop him to New York at Romana’s place. Moses asks Romana to have dinner that evening with him at his home in Ludeyville. Romana agrees and William drives both of them back to Ludyville. Moses calls a home helper who begins cleaning the kitchen while Moses prepares for dinner. He realizes that he feels no need to write any more letters. He begins feeling peace at his home and decides to stay at Ludyville for some time. He also calls his first wife and asks her to send Marco to Ludeyville for a visit after his summer camp ends. He begins forgiving and forgetting Madeline.

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!

Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Henderson the Rain King is a novel by Saul Bellow, published in 1959. The novel was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1960. The novel was enlisted as 21st, on the Modern Library’s famous list of the 20th century’s 100 greatest novels in the English language. It is a novel that blends philosophical quests and comical situations entertainingly. The novel has been compared to Miguel De Cervantes’s Don Quixote. There are many parallels in the two novels. The main protagonists of the two novels are both around fifty years of age when they set out, and both, at times, look to connect with their heritage. Both protagonists acquire new names during their quests.

It is a picaresque novel with the main theme of materialism and greed while the author also explores the relationship between America and the rest of the world through symbolism. After World War II, America emerged as the world's strongest economy. Consumerism and competition for status upscaled the American Dream. Americans were replacing the pursuit of salvation with the quest for success. The author used symbolism to express concern about the spiritual death in America. The protagonist of the novel represents Individualism. He is an individual, a 55-year-old millionaire going through an existential crisis. To search his self, he takes a flight from the ‘Idlewild’ airport (the name suggesting the mental status of the protagonist) to Africa. The individual is moving from civilization (America) to its origins (Africa); from City (New York) through Garden (Arnewi village) into Wilderness (Wariri village) and ultimately into the Sky (comes back home as Rain King). It is a coming-of-age satire based on the theme of existentialism. The novel begins with the protagonist’s extreme sense of individuality where he can think nothing but what ‘I want, I want, I want.’ As he travels through Africa, his experiences with various African tribes make him a better person. At the novel's end, he can now listen to other equally authentic voices: ‘He wants, she wants, they want.’ He realizes that identity is found in communion. Man must live with the rhythm of things, for he cannot live forever against it.

Characters of Henderson the Rain King:

Eugene Henderson is a 55-year-old, married, rich farmer living in America. He is the son of a successful author who left 3 million dollars for his son after his death. Eugene is an oversized man but despite his richness, he is not satisfied with his life. He has more money than even his eccentric needs demand. He wishes to pursue medical science and serve the people, treating the ill people. However, his first wife Frances always ridicules his idea. He has a second wife Lily but even with her, he fails to attain peace. Henderson knew his desire but he wasn’t able to pursue it. He began wasting his time in alcoholism, began a new pig farm, and tried to learn music. Yet, he failed to find peace. His frustration turns him angry and violent. Miss Lennox is the housemaid at Henderson’s house. After her death, Henderson begins feeling guilty and decides to go to Africa. Charlie Albert is a childhood friend of Henderson. Henderson goes to Africa with Charlie and his wife. Romilayu is a African young guide with whom Henderson decides to go in the interior parts of Africa. Henderson acquires Romilayu as a sidekick much as Quixote did Sancho Panza.

Willatale is the Queen of the gentle Arnewi tribe. She realizes that Henderson is going through an existential crisis and tries to help him out. Mtalba is the younger sister of Willatale who wishes to marry Henderson. However, he runs away after a disastrous attempt to help the Arnewi people. Itelo is the prince and son of Willatale. He is a strongly built impressive and friendly young man. Henderson wrestles with him playfully and Itelo helps him in being accepted and admired by the tribe's people. Dahfu is the king of another African tribe Wariki. He has had Western education and Henderson realizes Dahfu is more erudite than himself. He understands Henderson’s existential crisis and suggests to him that meaning and truth come from suffering and that one must face difficulties rather than flee from them. The Bunam is the high priest of the Wariki tribe. He is the villainous character of the novel who is jealous of Dahfu and wishes to acquire more power.

Summary of Henderson the Rain King:

Eugene Henderson is a fifty-five-year-old affluent and influential millionaire in America. His father, who was a successful and reputed author, left him 3 million dollars after his death. Henderson is married and has many children. He divorced his first wife Frances and married a beautiful girl Lily. Despite all his richness, he is not happy. He continuously thinks of what he wants and how he can attain inner peace. For a long time, he wished to pursue medical studies and treat ill people. However, he was always ridiculed whenever he talked of pursuing medical education. His first wife Frances always made fun of him. He is overweight and annoying. Even after marrying Lily, he fails to attain happiness. He opens a pig farm in his huge house, begins tasting exotic foods and wines, and even tries to learn music but nothing helps in reducing his frustrations. Gradually, he begins arguing and fighting with Lily too, often belittling her. One day, he gets in a heated argument with Lily and in his anger, he shouts so loud that the housekeeper Miss Lennox suffers a heart attack and dies. Henderson is shocked at his own behavior and he feels guilty. He decides to move away and plans to visit Africa alone. However, his childhood friend Charlie Albert doesn’t let him go alone and plans a visit to Africa with his wife and Henderson.

After reaching Africa, Henderson notices that he is not feeling the freedom he desires while still traveling with Charlie and his wife who often get into arguments. Thus, he decides to run away alone and vanishes without informing Charlie. Since he is unaware of the people of Africa, he decides to take the help of a local guide named Romilayu. Romilayu is a simple sweet talking honest man who soon becomes a friend and confidante of Henderson. Romilayu surmises that Henderson is suffering from an existential crisis. While he is leading a rich lifestyle, he often turns self-deprecating himself. Romilayu and Henderson continue to travel in the inner parts of Africa for several days. They reach a place dominated by the Arnewi tribe. Henderson finds that the Arnewi people are very friendly. He soon befriends the prince of the Arnewi community and playful wrestles with him. The Arnewi queen awards Henderson with respect and treats him well. She realizes that Henderson is suffering from an existential crisis and he doesn’t understand the meaning and purpose of his life. She teaches him about grun-tu-molani, which means, “I want to live” or “man’s will to live.” Henderson learns that the Arnewi people are suffering a natural calamity. The pond on which the Arnewi tribe depends for their daily needs is infested by wild poisonous frogs because of this they are not able to use the essential water. He plans to help them and solve their water problem. He constructs a bomb to kill the frogs that are in the pond but the result is the destruction of the wall of the pond and the loss of the water within it. While the Arnewi people do not blame Henderson, he again falls into the trap of guilt. Heartbroken and exasperated he runs away but Romilayu notices him and follows him.

After traveling further in the interiors of African jungles, Romilayu and Henderson meet the Wariri tribe. When they meet Dahfu, the recent king of the Wariri tribe, Henderson learns that Dahfu is well-educated and has attained Western education. Henderson notices that Dahfu is much more erudite, intelligent, and wise than him. Dahfu befriends Henderson and soon learns that Henderson is confused and he is trying to seek the purpose of his life. Dahfu tells him about the traditions of the Wariri tribe and how he became the king of his people. His father was the previous king and when he died, Dahfu got the right to be the king. However, to ascertain his place, he is required to capture the cub of a lion which is believed to have the spirit of the previous king, Dahfu’s father. If Dahfu fails, he won't remain the king. Henderson learns more about the Wariri people and he realizes that the Bunam, the high priest of the Wariri tribe doesn’t like Dahfu much because of his Western ideas. Dahfu treats the lion that his father captured as his friend which the Bunam opposes. King Dahfu attempts to help Henderson move past the suffering he carries with him by having him spend time with a lion named Atti. Henderson is to try to be like the lion. The king also explains to Henderson that people’s inner and outer appearances are intertwined and that their characteristics and emotions are shown physically. The Bunam opposes Dahfu allowing Henderson go near the lion. One day, Henderson unknowingly lifts up a huge and heavy idol of Shunga, the rain goddess. The Wariri people consider it a divine act and begin respecting Henderson. Even the Bunam begins to praise him and attempts to use Henderson as a way to manipulate the king. Henderson sides with Dahfu.

With the help of the queen's mother, the Bunam forces Dahfu to expedite his task of capturing the cub of the lion. But when Dahfu goes to the jungle to catch the cub, the Bunam hideously tempers his weapons. When Dahfu faces the lion pride, he falls short of weapons and gets killed. Since Henderson had lifted the Shunga, Wariri people invite him to be their king but he realizes that the Bunam planned for the death of Dahfu and he decides to run away from Wariri. He departs with Romilayu and a lion cub, which in the tradition of the Wariri tribe has the spirit of Dahfu. During the journey back home, Henderson provides care for an orphan boy he finds traveling unaccompanied. He comes to the realization that true relationships must stem from love. He returns to America and meets his wife Lily as a changed person. He then decides to begin training to become a doctor.

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