summary of John Masefield's "Cargoes"

Background

John Masefield was born in Ledbury, England. After attending King’s School in Warwick, he went to sea at age fifteen on a large sailing ship, then worked for a time in New York City before returning to England in 1897. His experiences aboard the ship provided him the raw material that made him famous as a sea poet. In 1902, he published a collection of sea poems entitled Salt-Water Ballads, in which “Cargoes” appeared.

Summary

"Cargoes" is a short lyric poem consisting of three five-line stanzas, each of which describes a different kind of ship. The first two lines of each stanza describe the ship moving through water; the last three lines list the different cargoes the ships are carrying.

Stanza one's ship is a quinquireme, a large vessel which people like the ancient Phoenicians employed to trade across the Mediterranean Sea. These ships were propelled both by the wind and by men rowing. The prefix "quin" may refer to the five banks of oarsmen arranged vertically on each side of the ship. More probably, because five banks of oars would get hopelessly entangled, it refers to the five oarsmen manning the three oars in each vertical row. Masefield's ship departs from "distant Ophir," a region in either Arabia or Africa at the southern end of the Red Sea, and is being rowed to northern end of that sea. (Masefield must have intended the term "Palestine" to apply to the land at farthest reach of the present Gulf of Aqaba.) The ship's goal is a happy one, for Palestine is a safe "haven," and its skies are "sunny." This boat carries a cargo of animals, birds, exotic woods, and wine.

Masefield found many of his details in the Old Testament. Nineveh, an important Assyrian city, is often mentioned there, and many of the details of this stanza come from 1. Kings 10: ivory, apes, peacocks, and cedars. That chapter also mentions drinking vessels, though not the wine in them, and almug trees, which may be the same as sandalwood.

In Stanza two, the poem moves ahead about two thousand years to the sixteenth or seventeenth century and changes its focus to the West Indies. A galleon was a large sailing ship often used in trade between Spain and Latin America, a part of the world Masefield himself knew well from his days as a sailor. This "stately" (splendid, dignified, majestic) ship begins its journey at the Isthmus of Panama and progresses with a vessel's normal up-and-down motion ("dipping") through the verdant and beautiful islands of the Caribbean. Its cargo contains precious (emeralds and diamonds) and semi-precious stones, spices, and gold coins (a "moidore" is a Portuguese coin; the word means literally "coin of gold").

In Stanza three, the British ship is not so pretty as the previous two (it is "dirty") nor so big. A coaster is a small ship designed chiefly to carry goods along a coastline, not on the high seas. This coaster is propelled by a steam-engine (it has a smoke-stack), and it moves through the English Channel with a force and motion that resembles an animal's butting with its head. Part of its cargo are things to burn: wood for fireplaces and coal mined near Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the eastern coast of Britain. The rest is metal that has been processed or manufactured, perhaps in the British Midlands not far from Newcastle: metal rails with which to build railroad tracks, lead ingots or "pigs," items of hardware made of iron, and "cheap tin trays."

Theme

What ships carry reflects the culture, government, lifestyle, and technology of civilizations over the centuries. For example, in ancient biblical times (stanza 1), oar-propelled ships (quinquiremes) transported ivory, sandalwood, and cedarwood to construct, outfit, and maintain the palace and other buildings of King Solomon. They also carried exotic animals and wine to entertain him and his court. After Columbus discovered the New World, three- or four-masted sailing vessels (galleons) from Spain and other countries carried from the Americas the prizes of exploration and exploitation, as well as the spoils of war against native peoples or enemy ships. Their cargoes of gems, spices, and gold coins enriched the lives of the royalty and the nobility. Early in the twentieth century, commercial steamships traveling along coastlines hauled coal and wood to heat the homes of the masses or to fire the furnaces of factories manufacturing the tools and other products of a technically advanced civilization. They also carried materials to construct railroads for the transport of goods on land. Commoners as well as kings and counts shared in the benefits of ship cargoes.

Type of work and Structure

"Cargoes" is a lyric poem with three stanzas, each with five lines. The stanzas are alike in structure. For example, the first line of each stanza identifies a type of ship at sea, and the second line—beginning with an action verb ending in -ing—identifies a locale. The third line, a prepositional phrase, begins to list items in the cargo; the fourth and fifth lines complete the list. The second and fifth lines of each stanza end in masculine rhyme. In each stanza, the first line has twelve syllables and the second line has eleven syllables. Notice also that the first line of each stanza omits the definite article a before the first word. None of the stanzas has a complete sentence. The stanzas are in chronological order.

Ben Jonson’s Criticism

Introduction

Ben Jonson is a poet and dramatist than a critic.  There is plenty of criticism in his poems, plays, prefaces and in his dedications.  “Timber” or “Discoveries” is one of his famous critical work.  In all his criticism, he wanted writers to write well not by chance but knowingly.  All Ben Jonson’s plays are modeled on the Latin drama.  In his criticism, he follows Aristotle and Horace.  “Discoveries” is a collection of notes that he made from time to time.

His Classicism

Jonson did not like the classic for their own sake but he wanted to raise the English standards on par with the Greek and Latin.  English literature, according to Ben Jonson, had passion, imagination and expression in excess.  Even Shakespeare had everything in excess.  Jonson found well-tried law in “Poetics”.  In his notes, he talks about the need of unity of action and unity of time.  A story is an imitation of one action.  A plot must have a beginning, a middle and an end.  Action in a comedy or tragedy should be fit; it should give rise to the conclusion of the play.  Jonson says that a play can exceed the 24 hours time because life has so many digressions, so art can also have digressions.  Every part of a play should be one and whole.

The Qualifications of a Poet

Jonson, like Sidney, calls a poet a ‘maker’ or ‘feigner’.  Like Sidney, he calls poetry as the queen of arts.  There are five requirements for a good poet: what he should be by nature, by exercise, by imitation, by study and by art.  Poetry is largely an outcome of training and practice.  A poet or the maker should have good natural wit.  To perfect a poem a pet should imitate nature.  He can also imitate what others have said.  Jonson also asks the poets to study.  He believes in Bacon’s statement – ‘reading maketh a full man’.  He follows Aristotle and Horace and says that art can lead a poet to perfection.

His Observation on Style

Ben Jonson is against the Elizabethan use of extravagant expression.  He has no use for words for their own sake.  Words mean thoughts.  Words are like the relation between body and soul.  Words are lifeless without soul.  It should be used aptly.  To use words one should require three necessities – to the read the best authors, observe the best speakers and exercise of his own.  He  repeats his remarks on imitation, when he talks about reading the best author.  He thinks that our mind and memory are sharpened when we read other writers.  The same will happen when a writer listens to a good speech.  A writer should not be content with the first word and with the first arrangement of words.  He should revise them repeatedly and arrive at the best.  A writer should write for the learned people.  He can use ancient words, which are majestic.

Estimates on Bacon and Shakespeare

In his critical works, Ben Jonson talks about Montaigne, Spenser, Marlowe, Sidney, Donne, Bacon and Shakespeare.  Bacon passes the test fully.  According to Jonson, Bacon spoke neatly, more weightily and suffered less emptiness and idleness.  His own writings resembled Bacon’s.  bacon, according to Jonson, would say twenty things in ten words.  Shakespeare is an honest and open natured poet.  He has brave notions and gentle expressions.  He has powerful wit.  He frames his own rules with his wit and he succeeds.  He has more virtues than vices.  He is someone to be praised than to be pardoned.

His Liberal Concept of Rules

Jonson also talks about the rules given by the ancients.  He wants a writer to read and learn as much as possible.  He never advises them to rest in the soul authority of what they read.  If a writer finds some truth and fitness that the ancients haven’t found he can say it in his own way.  A writer can consider the classics as their guides and not as commanders.

Conclusion/The Value of His Criticism

Jonson saw some danger in the English literature.  Shakespeare and Bacon had their own lights to guide them but not other writers.  Jonson in his criticism, address to the other English writers.  He is not against new paths, provided they conform to nature and reason.  He also advises critics.  he asks critics to look at the intricacies of poetic art.  To judge a poet one must be a best poet.  To sum up Ben Jonson’s criticism we can use the word ‘the curb’ – the necessity of submission to a code of conduct both on the part of the writer and the critic.

summary of Stephen Leacock's "With The Photographer"

            Stephen Leacock is a modern English prose writer.  He has written many prose pieces.  All his prose pieces are known for their subtle humour.  They talk about real life situation.  With The Photographer is a short prose that describes the Leacock’s experience with a photographer.  Leacock, as is the regular case, gets a bitter experience.

Leacock goes to a photographer to get himself photographed.  He waits for an hour and he is called into the inner room.  The photographer is a grave man.  The photographer is not satisfied with the Leacock’s face.  He says that Leacock looks ugly.  He then concludes that he would shoot three quarter view of Leacock.  Leacock acknowledges this and starts reasoning about the decision but the photographer do not respond or care for what Leacock is talking. 

The photographer hides himself behind the camera and comes out of it.  He comes close to Leacock.  Leacock thinks that the photographer is going to kiss him but he turns Leacock’s face that would be good for a pose.  The photographer gives a series of instructions like close mouth, droop ears, roll eyes, turn face, expand lungs, etc., to Leacock.  Leacock is confused and he is frightened.  Leacock becomes impatient, he scolds the photographer, and the photographer clicks a shot.  Leacock is shocked.

The photographer asks Leacock to check the proof on Saturday and the photograph would be delivered by Sunday.  On Saturday Leacock is further shocked on seeing the proof.  The photographer says that he has edited the eyebrows and the mouth.  He also plans to edit his ears.  Leacock shouts at the photographer asking for a photograph that would resemble him.  He says that he loves his original face than the altered one.  He leaves the photo studio with tears.

Summary of R. Parthasarathy’s Exile from Homecoming

R. Parthasarathy is a famous Indian English poet.   He hails from the southern parts of India.  As the title, Exile from Homecoming, announces, R. Parthasarathy comes home after spending sometime abroad, but he is not able to fit himself in the current scenario culturally, linguistically, sociologically and psychologically.  The poem builds on the idea of the poet feeling exile and isolated, in spite of familiar things that surround him.

            The persona opens the poem by sharing his linguistic instability or inability.  He accepts that his tongue is been tied by English and he is not fluent with Tamil, as he was abroad.  He expects people to speak good Tamil, as been used in good old Tamil literature and scriptures.  His expectations are in vain and his hopes vanish, when he hears people use Tamil that is articulated by the characters in celluloid world or cinema.

            The persona moves on to brief his attempts to establish relation with his relatives.  The family members gather at a Tiruchchenur for family function, which happens after 1959, when his grandfather died.  They come in crowded buses loaded with dust of many years of memory.  The relatives gather in groups and sit without much formality.  They ear the packed food they have brought for lunch.  He looks at Sundari, probably his relative, who had once climbed up and down a tamarind tree with the poet.  She is married and has three daughters clinging to her like three planets.  The poet cannot relate himself with his relatives and with the circumstances.  He stays aloof and he claims expertise when it comes to farewell.  He feels guilty of losing his familiar tradition.  He regrets for throwing stones from a glass house built by his father.  He has evaded from his father’s footprints and he hopes that his son will not follow him in the future.

            The poet walks near river Vaigai that flows in Madurai, his hometown.  He is not satisfied with the sight it offers him.  He calls it as river once and not as a river.  The river is barren and empty without water.  Boys get into the river to play with paper boats.  Buffaloes also loiter in the river and they diminish it into a pond.  It is filled with hair and stale flowers.  Though the banks of the river are full of temples and other sacred things, the happenings inside the river are mean and degrading.  No emperor or poet can talk or boast of river Vaigai.  Not even birds like kingfisher and egrets come to river Vaigai. 

            The poet walks home.  The roads are dusty, which fills his eyes.  The streets are jammed with traffic.  His thoughtful walk is answered by the barking dogs.  He goes home and climbs up the stairs carefully only to be tripped off over the mat.

            The poet persona becomes fed up with things around the world.  He considers himself as a poet and a creator.  All he could do is defined a poet.  He looks himself as a poet and comes out defining him.  A poet is someone who becomes fat (fills his brain) by reading many old poems and poets.  He also reads more commentaries.  He is been invited to conferences and sometimes to schools and colleges to teach.  The poet is against himself being a poet and abuses himself of being one.

            The poet persona is finally willing to retire from life, yet he is not content with life.  He establishes himself as a freelancer.  He prays to god that a few of his articles should be published in newspapers and his prayers are sometimes answered.  He concludes the poem with a compelling thought of contentment that he should go through his life with “small change of uncertainities.”

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.”