Summary of Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise"

 

Maya Angelou is an African-American poet.  She has written many poems.  She has written many poems on women and race.  ‘Still I Rise’ is a poem by the American poet Maya Angelou.  This is a protest poem.  ‘Still I Rise’ is about racial and gender discrimination. 

 

Angelou starts her poem by saying "you." She uses wordplay with "write down in history." This phrase means both "write my history" and "downplay me by lying." Even if people try to make her and other African-Americans feel small, Angelou says she will rise, just like dust, and not be defeated.

 

In the second stanza, Angelou asks if her confidence and attractiveness upset people. She walks proudly, like a rich oil baron. In the third stanza, she says she will rise like the sun and moon, and like our hopes for a better future.

 

In the fourth stanza, Angelou asks more questions. She says the addressee wants to break her spirit. In the fifth stanza, she shows her pride. She holds her head high instead of bowing. She laughs confidently, like someone very rich with gold mines in their backyard.

 

In the sixth stanza, Angelou shows her defiance. People may use cruel words and unkind looks, and throw 'hatefulness' (meaning both 'bad attitudes' and 'hate for others') at her and other black people. But they will rise 'like air': naturally and lightly.

 

In the seventh stanza, Angelou talks about her 'sassiness' becoming 'sexiness'. She shows more confidence. Now, she looks like she has diamonds between her thighs. This means her body and wealth have come together.

 

‘Still I Rise’ ends differently with fifteen lines repeating ‘I rise’ many times. Angelou says she and others rise from the shameful history of how black people were treated. She is like a powerful, vast, and energetic ocean that can handle life's challenges.

 

She is leaving behind the dark times of fear and starting a new, brighter, and hopeful time. Her ancestors, who suffered as slaves and faced racial prejudice, dreamed of this moment. Their hard work and struggles, including those of Civil Rights campaigners like Angelou, have made this dream come true.

Summary of Oliver Goldsmith's A City Night-Piece

 

A City Night-Piece

-          Oliver Goldsmith

Introduction

Oliver Goldsmith is a poet, dramatist, essayist and a novelist.  He has contributed to English literature in all its forms.  His works are known for their observation of his society.  He explains in detail about the people and the setting of age in all his works.  A City Night-Piece is a short essay about Goldsmith’s experience during a night.  He walks alone by 2.00 a.m. and observes the people and the happenings in the streets of London.

London at 2.00 a.m.

Goldsmith comes out by 2.00 a.m. and finds the taper busy rising and falling into the socket.  The watchman is almost asleep.  People who worked hard are asleep.  People who are suffering from guilt and despair, drunkards, robbers and people who commit suicide are the ones who are awake.

Goldsmith’s Philosophical Thoughts

Goldsmith stops his observation and decides to walk around the streets.  All streets are empty without people.  A few hours before all the streets were full of people, who were very proud.  By 2.00 a.m., there are no people and no pride.  The sound of a dog and a chiming clock is heard.  All human beings are silent.  It is like a mockery of human pride.  Goldsmith thinks of a period where a future traveler like him may come and look at the empty city.  The traveler would see bushes and plants in the place of churches.  Reptiles will be seen in temples and theatres.   All places would have fallen and become empty.  The rich and influential people would become dead.  Every human being and their pride will become nothing.

The People at 2.00 a.m.

Goldsmith looks at the few people who are found in the street at that part of the day.  They are the people who wear a mask during day time.  These people will hide themselves during day.  These people are strangers, wanderers and orphans, who usually stay in the streets and before the houses of the rich.  These people horrify Goldsmith and they create pity.  Some people are without proper clothes and many are with diseases.  There are some women, who are turned to be prostitutes by rich men.  These women were beautiful once.  They were misused by villains who are rich.  These women are now suffering and shivering in snow.  The villains who ruined their life are happy and peaceful.

Conclusion

Goldsmith finds it difficult to see the suffering of all these people.  The world, for him, will give him only sufferings.  People are suffering because of the small habits of the rich people.  The powerful people destroy their life.  The poor people only cry out of pain.  Even laws become an enemy to the poor.  Goldsmith feels bad for observing such people, because it pains him.  He cannot help them and this makes him suffer more than those people.

Summary of Francis Bacon's "Of Adversity"

 

Of Adversity

-          Francis Bacon

 

Introduction

Francis Bacon is called as the father of English prose.  He was the first to write prose pieces in English, during Elizabethan period.  He writes about common topics.  He deals the topics in a straight forward manner by using less number of words.  Of Adversity is one such essays, which is about the positive features of adversity.  Adversity means bad or difficulty times.

 

Positivity of Adversity

Bacon opens the essay by quoting Seneca, a Roman Philosopher, who has said that prosperity is always related to good things, so it is often wished for.  Adversity should be admired and appreciated.  He quotes another Latin saying which means, things of victory are desired and adversity is wonderful.  Through these quotes Bacon wants us to see adversity in a positive way.

 

Miracles and Adversity

Miracles happen during adversity.  These miracles are created by God, to save normal human beings.  These miracles prove our faith in God.  Bacon again quotes a Latin proverb, which says that greatness is in the man’s prayer to God during the times of adversity.  When we accept that we are powerless, we are great before God.

 

Adversity through Poetry

Bacon says that these miracles happen in poetry.  The calamities and adversities of our life are better explained through the imagination in poetry.  Bacon shares the story of Hercules and Prometheus to explain this.  Prometheus was a brave man, who wanted to help human beings, but he was punished by God.  Hercules, who was Prometheus’ friend, went to rescue him.  Hercules crossed an ocean in a very small vessel to save his friend.  This story in the form of poem helps us to think of adversity in a positive way.

 

Adversity and Bible

Prosperity and adversity are gifts of God.  Prosperity brings moderation and adversity brings courage.  Prosperity is the sign of Old Testament and adversity is the sign of New Testament.  Bacon narrates the story of Job from Bible.  Job faces many difficulties or adversities during his life, which has a happy and blessed ending.  Bacon wants us to accept a life of adversities, so that we become stronger and courageous.

 

Adversity compared with Embroidery

Bacon says that prosperity is not always with joy and happiness.  Adversity is not always with sorrow and grief.  He explains this by comparing it with an embroidery.  It is good to see a bright embroidery with a dull background.  If the background is good and the embroidery is dull, it will not be attractive.  We cannot complain the embroidery work.  We should judge something by heart and not with our eyes.

 

Conclusion

Bacon concludes the essay by saying that the true smell of a flower will be experienced only when it is crushed.  Similarly, our true strength and courage will be known to everyone only during the times of adversity.

 

Summary of Bacon's Of Truth

 

Introduction

Francis Bacon is called as the father of English prose.  He was the first to write prose pieces in English, during Elizabethan period.  He writes about common topics.  He deals the topics in a straight forward manner by using less number of words.  Of Truth is one such essays, which talks in favour of truth.  Bacon argues about the values of truth.

 

Truth and Lie

Bacon begins the essay by quoting an incident, where Pilate, a Roman governor, asked what is truth but he did not wait for an answer.  People usually do not like truth because of the following reasons:

1.      Truth affects free thinking

2.      It takes a long time to prove

3.      People like lies

The philosophers who talked about truth are no more alive.  The modern philosophers who talk about truth are not that vigorous as the old philosophers.  Bacon says that lie gives pleasure in poetry, it gives gains to business men and people like it for the sake of it.  He compares truth to the day light, which shows everything as it is.  Lie is compared to a candle light, which shows and hides things.  Truth is like a peal, which shines only during day time.  Lie is like a diamond, which shines during night and changes its shade with different colours of light.  Lie adds some pleasure to our life.  Life would be dull and melancholic, when there are no false valuations, imagination and lie.

 

Qualities of Truth

People normally blame poetry because it is filled with lie.  This is not true.  Poetry is a reflection of reality.  A lie that passes over the mind is good, but the lie that sinks into the mind hurts.  Truth can be defined only by itself.  The best part of human nature is to find truth, love truth and to believe in truth.  Bacon compares truth to light through Bible.  He says that God created light on the first day and He created man on the sixth day.  After creating man, He gifted him the light of reason.  Bacon says that it is better to be present in the ship, which is in the sea and to be in the battle field and fight, than to stay in a place and look at the happenings.  Such people, who are in the field, would look and at the human errors with pity and not with pride.  Truth makes a man move in charity and this would heaven in earth.

 

Truth in Normal Life

            After talking about truth in a religious and philosophical tone, Bacon talks about the role of truth in normal life.  He compares lie mixed with truth with a gold coin mixed with copper.  The copper makes gold better, but it reduces the value of gold.  Speaking lie is like a snake that moves with its belly and not upright upon its feet.  There is not shame for a man other than speaking lie.  Bacon quotes Montaigne, who said that a man who speaks lie is brave towards God but a coward towards human beings.  By this Bacon means that a man who speaks lie will face the judgement of God.

 

Summary of Margaret Atwood's Survival

 Introduction

            Margaret Atwood is a famous Canadian writer.  She has written many novels.  The prose Survival talks about her reading habits, when she was young.  It also talks about her introduction to Canadian literature.

 

Atwood’s First Books

            At her young age, Atwood started reading Canadian literature without knowing that she is reading Canadian literature.  Later she reads comics like Captain Marvel, Plastic man and Batman.  She reads comics because her parents asked her not to read them.  She also read some animal stories.

 

Reasons for her Reading

            Nobody says her that she was reading Canadian literature.  Even if someone had said her that she was reading Canadian literature, she would not have thought much about it.  She reads for entertainment.  She did not see different literature in her reading.  She read books for entertainment. 

 

Reading at a Later Age

            Her level of reading changes when she grows up.  She reads Captain Marvel as a fantasy escape.  She reads animal stories because she finds them real.  She reads a few books on recipes.  She says that only a few recipes are good when cooked and others are bad.  The animal stories were about the struggle to survive.  It is like a riddle to her.

 

Her Christmas Gift

            When she grows up someone gives her Robert Weager and Helen James anthology Canadian Short Stories.  For the first time she reads a story named Canadian literature.  The stories have animals in the form of human beings.  The stories are about human beings chased away by other human beings.  The stories are about dead bodies.  This gives a different feel to her.

 

Conclusion

            Atwood concludes the essay by saying that she has read some her literature but other do not read their own literature.  She also says that the more she reads Canadian literature she comes to know more about her country Canada.

 

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History of Translation

 

 

            George Steiner in his work “After Babel”, divides the history of translation into four periods.  The first starts from the statements of Cicero and Horace on translation up to the publication of Alexander Tytler’s “Essay on the Principles of Translation” in 1791.  The chief features of this period is that it gave importance to empirical focus.  The statements and theories about translation were directly from practical work of translating.  The second period runs up to the publication of Larbaud’s “Sous I’invocation de Saint Jerome” in 1946.  This period is characterized by the development of vocabulary and methodology of approaching translation.  The third period begins with machine translation in the 1940s.  The theories in this period were characterized by structural linguistics and communication theory.  The fourth period starts sometime from 1960s and is based on the metaphysical inquiries into translation and interpretation.

            This division of translation is highly personal, because the first period covers a span of 1700 years while the last two cover a mere thirty years.

            Susan Bassnett divides the history of translation in the following order, which is more extensive and conducive.

 

The Romans

            Eric Jacobson claims that translation is a Roman invention.  Cicero and Horace discuss more about translation.  They say that the two main functions of the translation are much similar to the functions of a poet:  the universal human duty of acquiring and disseminating wisdom and the special art of making and shaping a poem.  The Romans were popular translators because they were less creative.  They were forced to translate so that they could create their own literature.  They believed that with translation the SL is to be imitated and not to be crushed by the too rigid application of reason.  They advocated sense for sense translation and not word for word.  The Romans translated as a part of enriching their literature than more of translation.  It is therefore believed that they had the habit of borrowing and even coining words.

 

Bible Translation

            With the spread of Christianity, translation came to acquire another role, that of disseminating the word of god.  Christianity, which is a text based religion presented the translator with a mission that encompassed both aesthetic and evangelistic criteria.

            Translation of the New Testament by St. Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damasmus in 384 A.D.  following Cicero, St. Jerome declared that he had translated sense for sense rather than word for word.  But the fine line between the stylistic license and heretical interpretation was a stumbling block in the field of translation.

            In the 17^th century, Latin began to decline from the state of universal language.  Problems intensified with the growth of concepts of national cultures and reformations.  Transaltion came to be used as a weapon in religious and political conflicts.

            The first translation of the complete Bible in English was the Wycliffe Bible produced between 1380 and 1384.  This marked the start of great flowering of the English Bible translations linked to the chaging attitudes to the role of the written text in the church.

            John Wycliff was a famous theologian from Oxford.  He put forward the theory of dominion by grace, that is man is responsible to god and his law.  This theory also meant that the Bible was applicable to all human life and each man should be granted access to that crucial text in a language that he could understand.  Though Wycliff had some followers, they were denounced as ‘lollards’.  But the idea was maintained by Purvey.  Purvey revised the first edition before 1408.

            The second Wycliff Bible contains a prologue, which describes the following four stages of translation process:

1.      A collaborative effort of collecting old Bibles and glosses and establishing an authentic latin source text.

2.      A comparison of the versions

3.      Counseling with the old grammarians about hard words and complex meanings

4.      Translating as clearly as possible the sentence, that is the meaning

            Purvey too states clearly that the translator should translate after the sentence and the meaning should be plain.  He said that text must be used by laymen.  But it was said that ‘the pearl was cast before swine.’

            In the 16^th century with the advent of printing the history of Bible, translation acquired new dimensions.  William Tyndale translated New Testament in 1525 and printed.  His intention was also to offer a clear version as possible to the layman.  But he was burnt alive, because he had translated the new testament from Greek and Hebrew.

            In 16^th century, Bible was translated into large number of European languages.  Hebrew Bible appeared in 1488, Erasmus published first Greek New Testament in 1516 and Martin Luther published the German version in 1522.

 

Early Theorists

            With the invention of printing press in the fifteenth century serious attempts were made to formulate theory of translation.  One of the first writers to come out with translation theory is a French humanist, Etienne Dolet.  He published a short outline of translation principles in “How to translate well from one language to another”.  He established five principles for the translator:

1.      The translator must fully understand the sense and meaning the original author.

2.      The translator must have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL.

3.      The translator should avoid word-for-word renderings.

4.      The translator should use forms of speech in common use.

5.      The translator should choose and order words appropriately.

            George Chapman while translating Homer stresses and emphasizes Dolet’s views.  Chapman states that a translator must:

·         Avoid word for word renderings

·         Attempt to reach the spirit of the original

·         Avoid over loose translations

 

The Renaissance

            Reformation was a major reason for translation during the renaissance.  During these period the translators concentrated on the affirmation of the present through the use of contemporary idiom and style.  They also frequently replace the indirect speech with that of the direct speech.  In poetry, the translations of Wyatt and Surrey led critics to describe their translations as adaptations but his is misleading.  Their translations were not faithful the roginal words but to the notion of meaning of the poem.

 

 

 

The Seventeenth Century

            In 17^th century the French people were busy translating the classics.  Sir John Denham whose theory of translation was expressed in his preface to his translation of “The Destruction of Troy” covers both the formal aspect and the spirit of the work.  Denham considers the original author and the translator as equals but operating in a clearly different social and temporal contexts.  Abraham Cowley in his preface to his “Pindaique Odes” says boldly that he added and deleted words as he wished.

            John Dryden in his preface to “Ovid’s Epistles” formulates three types of translation:

§  Metaphrase – word for word translation

§  Paraphrase – sense for sense translation

§  Imitation – translator can abandon the original text as he sees it fit

            Of the three Dryden chooses the second as the best.

 

18^th Century

            Dr. Johnson in his work “Life of Pope” has advocated that a translator can add something to the original work of art while translating.  This addition is possible and allowed only when it leads to the elegance of the work.  During 18^th century a translator is called as a painter or imitator.  The translator has a moral duty both to the SLT and the receiver.  Goethe, an eminent scholar of the 18^th century, said that every literature must pass through three phases of translation:

·         Epoch – acquaints us with foreign countries on our own terms

·         Appropriation through substitution and reproduction, where the translator absorbs the sense of a foreign work but reproduces it in his own terms

·         The highest part of translation is one which aims for perfect identity between the SL text and the TL text, and the achieving of this mode must be through the creation of a new manner which fuses the uniqueness of the original with a new form and structure.

            Alexander Fraser Tytler in his work “Principles of Translation” comes out with three principles of translation:

1.      The translation should give complete transcript of the idea of the original work.

2.      The style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original.

3.      The translation should have all the ease of the original composition.

            Tytler is against Dryden’s concept of paraphrase, because it leads to loose translation.  Tytler says that a translator is a painter but he should not use the same colours of the original painter.

 

Romantic Age

            Coleridge in his “Biographia Literaria” talks about the concepts of imagination and fancy.  Though these two concepts belong to the understanding of literature it was also applied in the field of translation.  It gave rise to the problem whether translation is a creative or a mechanical process.  Friedrich Schlegal said that translation is a category of thought than something associated with language and literature.

 

Post Romanticism

            Friedrich Schleiermacher insisted in creating a new sub-language for the use in translating literature only.  D.G. Rossetti insisted in the translator’s subservience to the forms and the language of the original.  Oscar Wilde commented on William Morris’ translation of “Odyssey” and “Aeneid” as a “true work of art, a rendering not merely of language into language but of poetry into poetry.”

 

The Victorians

            The Victorians were keen on the fact that a translation need to convey the remoteness of the orginal in time and place.  Translation was considered as an activity that enriches the intellectual and cultivated reader on moral and aesthetic grounds.  Matthew Arnold in his lecture “On Translating Homer” said that a translator is a scholar and he must be evaluated by a lay reader.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow compared a translator with a technician rather than a poet or a commentator.  Edward Fitzgerald is known for his “The Rubayat of Omar Khayyam”.  He considers the SL as a clay and a translator moulds it into the TL.  Translator is considered as a live sparrow than a stuffed eagle.  Eugene Nida advocated the spirit of exlusivism in translation.  Translator is a skillful merchant offering exotic wares to the discerning few.

 

Conclusion

            To sum up the history of translation from the age of colonial expansion to the first world war, it could be done as follows:

1)      Translation as a scholar’s activity, where the pre-eminence of the SL text is assumed de facto over any TL

2)      Translation as a means of encouraging the intelligent reader to return to the SL original

3)      Translation as a means of helping the TL reader become the equal of the original, through deliberately contrived foreignness in the TL text

4)      Translation as a means whereby the individual translator who sees himself enchanted offers his own pragmatic choice the TL reader

5)      Translation as a means through which the translator who seeks to upgrade the status fo the SL text because it is perceived as being on a lower cultural level

Translation Shift

 

 

Translation shift are some changes occurring in the translation process.  Munday, a translation theorist, considers translation as a process that involves product and process.  The product is the translated text and the process is the process of conversion from one language to another.  Shift is unavoidable in translation.  There are three kinds of shift:

Structural shift – change in the structure of a sentence when translated from one language to another.

·         Class shift – change in the word class, while translating

·         Unit shift – changing in the units of words

Popovic identifies the following shifts in translation:

1.      Constitutive shift – described as an inevitable shift that takes place as a result of differences between two languages, two poetics and two styles.

2.      Generic Shift, where the constitutive features of the text as a genre may change

3.      Individual shift, where the translator’s own style and idiolect may introduce a system of individual deviations

4.      Negative shift, where information is incorrectly translated, due to unfamiliarity with the language or structure of the original

5.      Topical shift, where topical facts of the original are altered in the translation.

Translation - Equivalence

 

            Levy, a Czech translator, considers contracting and omitting in translation as an immoral activity.  Translation is problematic and translation should find a solution not only in meaning but also in style and form.  Albrecht Newbert gives the example of Shakespeare’s sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”.  Translating this line is tough for a person if his country experiences a different climatic condition.  Similarly translating the phrase “God, the father” is also equally difficult because most cultures may have a woman as their deity or God.  The problems raised while translating idioms and metaphors are called as equivalence.

            When we take an idiom like “beating the bush”, translation is not possible based on the function of the idiom.  Idioms are unique and they do not have counterparts.  Popovic identifies four types of equivalences.  They are as follows:

1.      Linguistic equivalence, where there is homogeneity on the linguistic level of both SL and TL texts, that is word for word translation.

2.      Paradigmatic equivalence, where there is equivalence of the elements of paradigmatic expressive axis, that is elements of grammar.

3.      Stylistic equivalence, where there is functional equivalence of elements in both original and translation aiming at an expressive identity with an invariant of identical meaning.

4.      Textual equivalence, where there is equivalence of the syntagmatic structuring of a text.

            Eugene Nida focuses on two types of equivalence – formal or gloss translation and dynamic equivalence.  In formal translation the focus is on the message in form and content.  Poetry is translated into poetry, sentence to sentence and concept to concept.  This allows the reader to understand the SL context.  Dynamic translation is based on the principal of ‘equivalent effect’, that is the relation between the receiver and the message should be same on the original receiver and the SL message.

            When a poem is given a set of translators to translate you will have ‘invariant core’.  They are stable, basic and constant semantic elements in the text.  Variants or transformations on the other hand changes that do not modify the core meaning but influence the expressive form.

            Neubert considers translation equivalence as a semiotic category, comprising syntactic, semantic and pragmatic component.  These components are arranged in an order that semantic is given more importance.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AND TRANSLATION STUDIES

 

 

            Some critics consider comparative literature as a subject and some do not consider it as a subject.  However, comparative literature depends very much on translation. Translation studies promote comparative literature.

 

            Comparative literature is a reaction against the narrow 19^th century nationalism.  It is originated in France in the year 1816.  Matthew Arnold popularized the term in England in 1848, through his lectures.

 

            Comparative literature is a study of intertextuality, for example, if we have to compare an English novel with that of an Oriya novel, we have to use English or Oriya as out medium.  Certain conditions determine high translation activities.  According to Evan Zohr, translation activity takes place when the literature is in its initial stage or when it is marginal.  For example, in 12^th century Europe the translation activity was significant because of a shift from epic to romance.

 

            In India there is craze for translation in recent times for two reasons:

 

1)      The writers or the critics want their literature to be translated into English or any other language because they want others to notice their literature and language.

2)      When their literature is translated there is so much scope of comparing their literature with other literary texts and its own text in source language.

 

Derrida’s theory of translation is very important.  He does not consider the source text as original because it is an elaboration of an idea, of a meaning and it in itself is a translation.   This idea about the original translation makes us conclude that translation is no more a secondary work.

 

To conclude, we could quote Susan Bassnett, who says “We should look upon translation studies as the principle discipline from now on, with comparative literature as a valued but subsidiary subject area.”

TRANSLATION AS CREATIVE WRITING

 

 

            In olden days, translation was considered as a mere rendering of SLT in TLT.  Many scholars and translators considered translation as creative process and as new writing.  Best translations are that does not read like translation at all.  Translation theories have undergone sea change with the modern critical theories.  Modern critical theories give new meaning to literature.  Based on their argument, we could easily say that translation is creative for it recreates SLT into TLT.

            A translator is a reader, an interpreter and a creator.  Sir Aurobindo says “a translator is not necessarily bound to the original he chooses; he can make his own poem out of it, if he likes…”

            Old classics, in our country, like Upanishads, Gita, Ramayana and Mahabharata have been rendered into many languages of India and the world.  Every such rendering is called as a new writing.

            K. Ayyapa Panikar says that the evolution of translation in our country began in the middle ages with the translation of Sanskrit classics like epics and puranas.  They were translated without exactness and accuracy.  These works are translated based on the features of the target language and the taste of the target readers.  The Aryan texts were translated to the Dravidian or south Indian languages, they were localized.  These localized versions are well received by the public and there is nothing alien about them.  These stand an example for the fact that translation is more of creation and not mere imitation.

            The concept of translation as a creative writing can be better understood if we examine the works of self-translators.  Self-translators are people who write the same work in two languages.  For example, Tagore’s Gitanjali in English is vastly different from his original Bengali version.  Manoj Das, a bilingual writer in Oriya and English, writes a short story in Oriya and gives sometime to translate it into English.  He keeps the plot of the story but changes many details while translating it in English.  He creates a new version in English.  Both their writings, language 1 and language 2, should be considered as new writings and creations.

Summary of A.K. Ramanujam's "A River"

  

Introduction

A.K. Ramanujam was born in Karnataka and brought up in Madras.  He is considered as one of the major modern poets of Indian poetry in English.  He has published many poems.  In almost all his poems he uses images of traditional India and places them in the modern context.  A River is one of A.K. Ramanujam’s finest poems.  It is about river Vaigai, which flows through Madurai.  Through this poem the poet talks about the old and modern Tamil poets, who have not given importance to human sufferings and emotions.

 

River during Summer Season

He begins the poem by introducing river Vaigai, which runs through Madurai, a city of temples and poets.  During summer, the river gets dry and trickles in the sand.  When all the water vanishes, the river poses straws and women’s hair clogging in the iron bars under the bridges.  The bridges are also worn out and needs mending. The river has only sand, which is like bare ribs.  There are a few wet stones, which are like sleepy crocodiles.  Apart from the stones one could see buffaloes resting in the sun.

 

Old Poets’ Observations

Ramanujam talks about the old poets, who had been in Madurai during rainy season.  They had seen river Vaigai flooded with water.  They praise the flooded water.  Their praise is all about the way the river raises by inches and how it covers the steps in the bathing place.  The poets also give a live relay, as the common people do, on how it carried away three village houses, a couple of cows named Gopi and Brinda and a pregnant woman.

 

New Poets’ Observations

            The new poets are also like the old poets.  They quote the old poets with minor changes to achieve sensation.  They say how the water level raises in the river and how it carries away a village house, a couple of cows named Gopi and Brinda and a pregnant woman probably carrying identical twins within her. 

 

A.K. Ramanujam’s Satire

            Through this poem A.K. Ramanujam satirizes on how the olden day poets and modern day poets does not view the human pain when the river dries or when the river carries their properties and people.  He comes down heavily upon the poets who are more like normal human beings and forsake to represent human emotions and troubles, which is a duty of a poet.  The poet subtly affirms the work of a poet and at the same time highlights the wrong done by the old and modern poets.

 

Summary of Bacon’s “Of Friendship”

 

Introduction

Bacon is considered as the father of English prose.  He has written many prose pieces on various topics.  His language is to the point and short.  He uses powerful words.  In almost all his prose pieces, he tries to prove himself as an educated scholar.  He quotes Latin and Greek works and myth casually to prove his knowledge.  The prose “Of Friendship” shares Bacon’s ideas and views about friendship.

 

Lonely People

Bacon begins the essay by quoting Aristotle, who once said that people who are alone are either god or a beast.  He calls a lone human to be a beast because when we are alone we would hate society and behave like animals.  Bacon does not accept a lonely man to be godly because they cheat people in the name of higher conversation.  Bacon claims that people who are in crowd also would feel alone and look at others as pictures and mere sounds.  This is true for people living in big cities.  When a city is big, solitude is also big.

 

Principle Fruit of Friendship

The major advantage of friendship is that it makes us to share our heart in an open way.  It is a medicine that cures our hear.  We share our griefs, joys, hopes, suspicions and counsels with a true friend.

 

Friendship in the Past

In the past, kings would spend money over people and make them friends.  They raise their servants and ordinary people s their friends.  According to Bacon, such friendship should not be maintained.  He gives the example of Sylla and Pompey, Ceaser and Brutus, Augustus and Agrippa, Septimius Severus and Plautianus etc. All these men tasted a bitter fruit of friendship. 

 

First Fruit of Friendship

Friendship increases joy.  It reduces the intensity of sorrow.  If a man shares his happiness with a friend he feels more happy.  If he shares his sorrow, he feels lighthearted.

 

Second Fruit of Friendship

The second fruit of friendship is about understanding.  Friendship brings light when we are darkness or in confusion.  A friend is therefore a counselor.  He helps us to come out of our confusion.  It is better to share our problem with our friend than to meditate for a whole day.  If we are in a trouble we should think critically and friends would help us with our thought.  Friendship will help us and guide us.

 

The Final Fruit of Friendship

            The last fruit of friendship is the multi-purpose of friendship.  Friends are helpful to us in many ways.  For example when a friend dies at an early age, it is our duty to continue the noble works of our friend in his remembrance.  If we cannot talk something openly with our close relations, a friend can do that for us.  A friend is far better than any relation is.

 

Conclusion

Bacon concludes the essay by comparing life with a stage.  A stage needs many actors and a person cannot perform on his own.  If a man does not have friends it is better he exit from the stage.

Summary of Shakespeare's "All The World’s A Stage"

 

Introduction

William Shakespeare is the most famous English writer.  He has written many dramas, sonnets, and a few long poems.  He is the most translated English dramatist.  He is popular even today for his variety and characters.  “All The World’s A Stage” is an excerpt from Shakespeare’s famous play, “As You Like It”.  This poem is a monologue spoken by a character named melancholic Jacques.

 

Life is a drama

Shakespeare, as a dramatist, compares life with a stage.  He extends this metaphor throughout the poem.  Shakespeare compares the world with a stage.  All men and women are actors in the play.  Every human being has their entry and exit.  Every stage has an entrance and exit; similarly, our lives have birth as an entry and death as an exit.  Every person plays different roles in their short period of life.  According to Shakespeare, everyone plays seven different stages or roles in our lifetime.

 First Stage

The first stage is our infancy.  In this stage, we cry in the nurse’s arms.  We mewl like a kitten.  We vomit the milk that we drink.  We are totally dependent on others.

 Second Stage

In the second stage, we become a schoolboy.  The school boy’s face shines in the morning.  He carries a huge school bag like a snail.  He goes to school without willingness.

 Third Stage

In the third stage, we play the part of a lover.  Men fall in love with women.  They glow like a burning furnace.  They spend most of their time writing poems.  Most of the poems are about the eyebrows of their lady love. 

 Fourth Stage

This is the next stage of our life.  We play the role of a soldier.  In this stage, a man takes strange oaths.  He has a beard like a leopard.  He is jealous of honor.  He is quick in quarreling with people.  He stands bold and proud even before a canon.  He looks for a quick reputation and fame.

 Fifth Stage

            We become mature in this stage, after experiencing half of our life.  We must have read many books and try to prove ourselves as a judge.  We have a formal beard and a round belly at this stage.  We try to speak wisely.

 Sixth Stage

In this stage, a man steps into his old age.  He becomes lean and his clothes become loose.  He wears slippers and pantaloons.  He becomes physically weak.  He wears spectacles on his nose.  He has a purse in his side to hold coins and money.  His loud voice becomes shrill and feeble.  His speech is like whistling.

 Seventh Stage

This is the last stage of human life.  Shakespeare calls life a ‘strange eventful history.  In this last stage, we become very weak.  Shakespeare calls our last stage a second childishness.  We lose our memory, teeth, eyesight, taste, and our life and breath. 

 Conclusion

            Shakespeare proves himself as a genius through this short monologue.  He is able to explain the philosophy of life and life cycle in a very simple way.  He has compared life with drama, which is his profession.