UNIT – 1 WORDSWORTH : THE DAFFODILS, Slides of Voice

Download UNIT – 1 WORDSWORTH : THE DAFFODILS and more Slides Voice in PDF only on Docsity! 1 UNIT – 1 WORDSWORTH : THE DAFFODILS Structure 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Life of Wordsworth 1.3 Influence of the French Revolution and Rousseau on Wordsworth 1.4 Background of the Poem 1.5 Poem 1.6 Meanings 1.7 Stanza-wise Summary 1.8 Summary 1.9 Critical Appreciation 1.10 Self Assessment Questions 1.11 Answers to SAQs 1.12 Let Us Sum Up 1.13 Review Questions 1.14 Bibliography 1.0 Objectives After going through this unit, you will be able to:  know about William Wordsworth  understand the romantic period  understand the ideas contained in the poem and  appreciate and interpret the poem 1.1 Introduction In this unit you are going to study the poem Daffodils written by Wordsworth. You will also learn about the life of Wordsworth, influence of the French Revolution and Rousseau on his life. 2 1.2 Life of Wordsworth William Wordsworth was born on 7th of April, 1770 at Cockermouth. His father John Wordsworth was an attorney to Lord Londsdale and was an influential man of his time. His mother Anne Cookson was the only daughter of William Cookson, a well to do mercer a dealer in milk products at Penrith and of Dorothy Crackanthrope, whose ancestors had been lords of the manor of Newbiggin near Penrith. He was second of the five children of his parents, the others being Richard, Dorothy, John and Christopher. He was educated at Hawkshead Grammar School and St. John College, Cambridge from where he did his B.A. in 1791. He went to France in 1791 and stayed there for a period of one year. During this time he was greatly influenced by the French Revolution which was at its peak at that time in France. He published his first volume of poems in 1793. In 1795 he got a chance to meet S.T. Coleridge and soon they became life time friends. Wordsworth along with his sister, Dorothy and S.T. Coleridge with his wife were neighbours to each other at Alfoxden and Stowey in Somerset for one year. In 1798, both the poets together published Lyrical Ballads which is considered to be an epoch-making collection of lyrical romantic poems whose preface along with the poems appearing in it attracted a lot of public attention. Together at the end of the same year they went to Germany where Wordsworth started writing The Prelude and com- pleted Ruth, Lucy Gray, The Lines on Lucy and some other poems. In 1802, he married Mary Hutchinson of Penrith. After seven years i.e. in 1805 he completed The Prelude which was published after his death on 23rd April 1850. In 1807 he moved to Rydal Mount, Grasmere and lived there till his death. In 1843 he became the Poet Laureate after the death of Robert Southey. 1.3 Influence of the French Revolution and Rousseau on Wordsworth Wordsworth after completing his B.A. in 1791 from St. John College, Cambridge went to France, in the same year. At that time in France, the French Revolution was at its peak. Wordsworth also felt attracted to it. The aim of the French Revolution was to abolish the kingship and aristocracy and to give full authority to the common man. Rousseau a well known French writer and who is also known as “the father of Romanticism” gave his complete sup- port to this revolution. He also had a deep influence on Wordsworth. Rousseau once said in an argument favouring the French Revolution that man is born free but he is chained everywhere. Time has come now to do away with the kingship and aristocracy. It would be best for the man to give all the powers to the common man. Wordsworth shared the same point of view with Rousseau. He supported the purpose of the French Revolution whole-heartedly. He was deeply attached to the French Revolution. When England prepared herself to fight against Napoleon he went to Church and prayed there sincerely for the defeat of England, his own motherland. Though later in his life he changed his opinion about the French Revolution and became a 5 1.7 Stanza -wise Summary 1. I wandered lonely.................... dancing in the breeze. The poet is wandering alone from one place to another like a cloud, which flies over valleys and hills with the flow of wind. Suddenly the poet sees a large number of golden daffodils. These daffodils are growing close to the lake and under the trees. A light breeze is blowing making these daffodils dance and flutter with it. 2. Continuous as the star............................ in sprightly dance. To the poet these daffodils looks like the stars that shine and twinkle in the milky-way. The daffodils are spreading over a very large area along the margin of a bay. They are in an excessively huge quantity. All these daffodils are dancing happily with the wind. 3. The waves beside ........................ to me had brought. The waves in the lake beside these daffodils are also dancing with the wind. But in comparison to the daffodils the waves are not as beautiful and attractive. Watching such a beautiful scene the poet feels very happy. The poet continues to look at the daffodils. The poet prizes the scene greatly for himself. 4. For oft................................. with the daffodils The poet says that whenever he lies down on his bed either thinking about anything or not thinking, the images of daffodils flash upon his imagination. It usually happens only when the poet is all alone. These images of daffodils have a magical effect on the poet. These images fill the heart of the poet with pleasure. The poet also feels like dancing with the daffodils. 1.8 Summary The poet is alone and having nature in mind wandering from one place to another like a cloud which flies over vales and hills with the wind. All of a sudden he sees a large number of golden daffodils which are growing on the bank of the lake under the trees. A light breeze is blowing, making the daffodils flutter and dance with it. For the poet, the view of these beautiful golden daffodils is similar to the stars shining and twinkling in the milky-way. As far as the poet can see, he finds only the daffodils growing along the margin of a bay and they seem to the poet to be in very large numbers. All of these flowers are tossing their heads in a sprightly dance. In the nearby lake, the waves are dancing with the wind and sparkling because of the sun-rays falling on them. But the beauty of the golden daffodils is so attractive and charming that it easily surpasses the beauty of the dancing and sparkling waves. The poet feels happy and blessed in such an enchanting and cheerful company. The poet is completely absorbed in 6 the beauty of the daffodils and for the moment he has lost touch with his surroundings. He considers himself fortunate and very happy that he has been the witness to such a wonderful sight of the daffodils. Later, whenever the poet is thinking of not being busy, lying on his couch the daffodils flash upon his imagination. The memory of the daffodils not only fills his heart with pleasure but also has a refreshing effect on him and he feels like dancing along with the daffodils. 1.9 Critical Appreciation Wordsworth is mainly a nature poet and for him. there is nothing which is superior to and better than Nature. He breathes through with nature and finds solace and spiritual peace in it. In his opinion, nature has the solution for all the problems of mankind. It is through nature that he seeks salvation. The theme of this poem i.e. “Daffodils” is based on the healing and refreshing power of nature. How easy it is for nature to lift the spirit and the morale of the man is also depicted in this poem. The poem is rich in imagery and the description of the daffodils is delightful. The poet starts the poem with the simile and compares himself with the cloud wandering lonely, free from duty and responsibility, here and there like the cloud. But as soon as he sees the beautiful golden daffodils growing along the margin of a bay beneath the trees, dancing and fluttering with the light breeze, he finds himself captivated by their magical beauty. The poet is so impressed by their beauty that the near-by lake whose waves are also dancing and sparkling, thus looking enchanting, also captivate his attention. The poet begins to admire the mesmeric beauty of the daffodils and is unable to think of anything else. Infact, at that time he could not think of the great importance of the scene for him but later while lying on his couch he realizes the very great importance the scene had on him. The last stanza of the poem is the most important part of the poem and is the essence of the poem. In this stanza, the poet speaks about the healing and refreshing effect of nature and also praises solitude. According to him, when one is in the state of solitude, one becomes retrospective and meditates on all the good and pleasurable moments which one had or which had happened to him-in his life. These memories have a cheerful and lively effect on him. He greatly feels happy not only with himself but also with all that happened to him. The poet says that whenever he lies on his couch having nothing to do or in pensive mood, enjoying the solitude, the images of the daffodils flash upon his imagination. When this happens, the poet feels calm, refreshed, motivated and good about himself. This is how nature influences him. The memories of the daffodils fills his heart with pleasure and joy and he feels like dancing along with the daffodils. This shows the healing and refreshing effect of nature on the poet. 1.10 Self Assessment Questions 1. What age is known as the “Age of Sensibility ?” ................................................................................................... 7 ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 2. Which period is known as the Romantic Period ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 3. Who are the main poets of the Romantic Period ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 4. What was the purpose of the romantic poetry ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 5. What are the main characteristics of the Romantic Period ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 6. Who wrote the Lyrical Ballads and when was it published ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 7. When was this poem written ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 8. When was this poem first published ? ................................................................................................... 10 1.12 Let Us Sum Up In this unit you were able to understand;  Wordsworth love for nature,  Nature’s healing and soothing effect on man. 1.13 Review Questions 1. Elucidate the magical effect nature had on William Wordsworth. 2. Wordsworth was truly a romantic poet. Explain with suitable example. 1.14 Bibliography 1. Francis Austin, The Language of Wordsworth and Coleridge (1989) 2. Basil Willey, The Eighteenth Century Background (1940) 3. Jonathan Wordsworth, Michael C. Jaya, Robert Woof, William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism, (New Brunswick and London, 1987) 4. Cazamian, Louis, “The Romantic Period.” A History of English Literature, Part II, Book V,1947. _____________ 11 UNIT – 2 WORDSWORTH : (1) THE SOLITARY REAPER (2) THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US Structure 2.0 Objectives 2.1 Introduction to the Poems 2.2 The Poem: The Solitary Reaper 2.2.1 Glossary 2.2.2 Stanza-wise Summary 2.2.3 Summary 2.2.4 Critical Appreciation 2.2.5 Self Assessment Questions 2.2.6 Answers to SAQs 2.3 The Poem: The World is Too Much With Us 2.3.1 Glossary 2.3.2 Stanza-wise Summary 2.3.3 Summary 2.3.4 Critical Appreciation 2.3.5 Self Assessment Questions 2.3.6 Answers to SAQs 2.4 Let Us Sum Up 2.5 Review Questions 2.6 Bibliography 2.0 Objectives After going through this unit you will be able to - 12 * understand the poems and * appreciate and interpret the poems. 2.1 Introduction In this unit you are going to study the poem “The Solitary Reaper” and ‘The World is too much with us’written by Wordsworth. ‘The Solitary Reaper’ poem was written between 1803 and 1805 and first published in 1807. In 1815-1820 it was included among the “Poems of Imagination.” ‘The World is too much with us’ was also published in 1807. 2.2 The Poem : The Solitary Reaper Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland Lass ! Reaping and singing by herself; Stop here, or gently pass ! Alone she cuts and binds the grain, And sings a melancholy strain; O listen ! for the vale profound Is overflowing with the sound. No Nightingale did ever chaunt More welcome notes to weary bands Of travellers in some shady haunt, Among Arabian sands; A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird, Breaking the silence of the seas Among the farthest Hebrides. Will no one tell me what she sings ? – Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow 15 remember her singing. 2.2.3 Summary The poet is wandering aimlessly on his way when suddenly sees a highland girl alone in the field. The girl is reaping the crop and singing a song to herself. The poet likes her singing very much. He tells the people passing from there not to disturb her in her singing. He wants the people to stop where they are or to pass from there very quietly. There is nobody with the girl and she is cutting and binding the grain all alone. The poet observes that the song which she is singing is full of sorrow and melancholy. The girl is standing in the valley and her song is resounding through the deep valley. The poet feels that the girl’s song is very sweet. He finds her song sweeter than the song of the nightingale. The poet says that the nightingale’s song gives relief and happiness to the travellers in the Arabian deserts when they stayed on Oasis. The poet feels the girl’s song is thrilling also. He says that he has never listened to a more thrilling song than this. He even finds the girl’s song more thrilling than the song of the cuckoo bird. The cuckoo bird sings her songs in spring time over the silent seas of the faraway Hebrides. The problem with the poet is that he is unable to understand the girl’s song. He does not know the language in which she is singing. He wants somebody to tell him the meaning of the song. But there is nobody around to tell him. Therefore, the poet himself begun to guess the meaning or theme of the song. According to him, the song may be about some old, unhappy incidents or of battles of the past. It may also be about a matter familiar to the girl. It can also be about some natural sorrow, loss or pain which has happened to her in the past. The poet is unable to know the theme of the girl’s song. But he is not worried about it. He is still enjoying the song. It seems to the poet that the girl will not stop singing. Her song will never end. She will continue to sing forever. The poet watches the girl singing and doing her work. He stands there without making any kind of movement. He also listens to her song without making any kind of noise. He does not want to disturb the girl. When the poet went up the hill, he could not hear the girl’s song. But the poet says that he can still hear the sweetness and melody of the song in his memory. He is sure that he will never forget it. 2.2.4 Critical appreciation In this poem Wordsworth has beautifully described the life in a countryside, a girl cutting the crop while singing. He has used the language of the common man to describe the country life. The poet sees a highland girl working alone in the field, reaping the crop and singing a melancholy song to herself. The poet immediately feels attracted towards this beau- tiful song. Although he is unable to understand the language of the song but even then he is enjoying the music of the song. The poet loves the girl’s singing so much that he compares it with that of a nightingale and a cuckoo bird. Both these birds are well known for their singing 16 abilities but the poet thinks that the girl was singing sweeter and better than these two birds. He does not want to disturb the girl in her singing. He says to the passers - by either to stop there or to pass away from there without making any kind of disturbance. He himself is listening to the song silently while standing still. As the poet is not sure of the theme of the song, he imagines that the song could be about some old, unhappy incidents or about the battles of the past. The song could also be about some familiar matter related to the girl’s life, or it could also be related to some natural sorrow, loss or pain which must have happened to the girl before. This shows the love of past which is a characteristics feature of the romantic poetry. For the poet to enjoy the music of the song is more important than knowing the theme of the song. He is not concerned about the theme. It seems to him that there is no end of the girl’s singing and she will continue to sing forever. At the end of the poem, the poet says that he knows he will not get a chance to listen to this song again. But even then he will remember her singing. It is impossible for him to forget that singing. He will always remember it. 2.2.5 Self Assessment Questions 1. When was this poem first published ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 2. When was this poem written ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 3. What is the theme of this poem ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 4. What are the other things with which the poet compares the solitary girl’s singing and why does he do so? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 5. According to the poet what can be the theme of the girls singing ? 17 ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 6. The poet says about the possible themes of the girl’s song. Do these themes suggest the romantic nature of the girl’s song. ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... Q.7 Why does the poet think that the girl’s song will have no ending? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 2.2.6 Answers to SAQs 1. This poem was first published in 1807. 2. This poem was written between 1803-1805 3. The theme of this poem is solitude and the bond between man and nature. 4. The singing of the girl is compared with a nightingale and a cuckoo bird which are well known for their extraordinary singing. He does so to suggest that the girl’s singing was sweeter than that of the two birds. 5. According to the poet the song could be about some old, unhappy incidents or about some battles of the past. It could also be related to some familiar matter common to the girl’s life. The song could also be about some natural sorrow, loss or pain which could have happened to the girl in the past. 6. Yes these themes suggest the romantic nature of the girl’s song. These themes show the love of past which is a characteristic feature of the romantic poetry. 7. The poet thinks that the girl’s song will have no ending because he says that he will never be able to forget this song. This song will always remain in his mind and heart. Thus he will enjoy it every time. 2.3 The Poem: The World is Too Much With Us The world is too much with us; late and soon, 20 nature and will be happier than what he now is. He will also watch the Proteus, the sea god in Greek mythology, rising from the sea. He will also hear the Triton, the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, blowing his horn to calm down the angry sea waves. In this respect the Greek paganism was better than Christianity that has made people money-minded. 2.3.4 Critical Appreciation The title of the sonnet “The Word is Too Much With Us” gives an idea about the theme of the sonnet. In this sonnet, Wordsworth tells us about man’s love for money which is hardly useful for his life. The poet says that now a days man gives all importance to money only. All the other things for him are less important. Even nature which used to be very beautiful for him does not attract him. But in the past it was not like this. In the past man used to enjoy the beauty of nature. He used to enjoy very much the scene of moonlight falling on the surface of the sea. But in the present time he does not enjoy this also. He also used to love the thrilling sound of the wind in the day time and the light wind blowing at night. But today he does not feel attracted towards these scenes. These beautiful scenes of nature have no importance left for man. Now he does not like the beauty of nature. The poet is not happy with this change in man. According to the poet, man has started worshipping money instead of nature. The poet does not like it. The poet wants man to love nature more. The poet also wants man to respect nature. According to the poet, if man loves nature he will become happier and will be closer to God. His life will also become better. He will feel happier more, peaceful and more satisfied. But now a days man has forgotten his love for nature. He does not remember the joy he used to have when he used to love and enjoy nature. But the poet still wants to love and enjoy nature. So he prays to God that he would prefer to be Pagan to his remaining a Christian. A Pagan is a person whose religion is not Christian. The poet also says that if he becomes a Pagan, he will enjoy freely the beauty of nature. This will make him feel happy. The poet also tells about his love for nature gods in Greek mythology. The poet says he will then be able to see Proteus who in Greek mythology is a sea god. He will watch him rising from the sea. The poet will also watch Triton who is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite in Greek mythology. Triton had the ability to calm down the angry waves of the sea by blowing his horn. In this way, the poet will be able to live in nature and will be happier than what he is today in the company of the money minded people.. 2.3.5 Self Assessment Questions Q.1. When was the poem first published ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... Q.2 What is the theme of this poem ? 21 ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... Q.3. According to the poet, why can man not enjoy the beauty of nature anymore? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... Q.4 What is now the aim of man’s life? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... Q.5 Why does the poet want to be a Pagan ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... Q.6 What is that wealth that nature can give to man ? ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 2.3.6 Answers to SAQs 1. This poem was first published in 1807. 2. The theme of this poem is man’s love for money against his respect and love for nature. 3. According to the poet, man cannot enjoy the beauty of nature anymore because he gives more importance to money than anything else. 4. To earn and spend money as much as possible has become the aim of man’s life. 5. The poet wants to be a pagan because then he can live in nature and enjoy its beauty freely. 6.  Nature makes man content, peaceful. Through nature man learns to be happy. 22 2.4 Let Us Sum Up In this unit you were able to understand wordsworth his creative process. His belief ‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’ and how nature has always influ- enced and inspired him. 2.5 Review Questions 1. Write a critical note on ‘The Solitary Reaper.’ 2. Critically appreciate Wordsworth love for nature in ‘The World is too much with us.’ 2.6 Bibliography 1. Francis Austin, The Language of Wordsworth and Coleridge (1989) 2. Basil Willey, The Eighteenth Century Background (1940) 3. Jonathan Wordsworth, Michael C. Jaya, Robert Woof, William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism, (New Brunswick and London, 1987) 4. Cazamian, Louis, “The Romantic Period.” A History of English Literature, Part II, Book V,1947. _______________ 25 3.3 The Poem : Froast at Midnight The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry Came loud, -and hark, again! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude, which suits Abstruser musings: save that at my side My cradled infant slumbers peacefully. ’Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood, With all the numberless goings-on of life, Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not; Only that film, which fluttered on the grate, Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing. Methinks its motion in this hush of nature Gives it dim sympathies with me who live, Making it a companionable form, Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit By its own moods interprets, every where Echo or mirror seeking of itself, And makes a toy of Thought. But O! how oft, How oft, at school, with most believing mind, Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, To watch that fluttering stranger! and as oft 26 With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt Of my sweet birthplace, and the old church-tower, Whose bells, the poor man’s only music, rang From morn to evening, all the hot Fair-day, So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear Most like articulate sounds of things to come! So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt, Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams! And so I brooded all the following morn, Awed by the stern preceptor’s face, mine eye Fixed with mock study on my swimming book: Save if the door half opened, and I snatched A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up, For still I hoped to see the stranger’s face, Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, My playmate when we both were clothed alike! Dear Babe, that sleepest cradled by my side, Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm, Fill up the interspersed vacancies And momentary pauses of the thought! My babe so beautiful! it thrills my heart With tender gladness, thus to look at thee, And think that thou shalt learn far other lore, And in far other scenes! For I was reared In the great city, pent mid cloisters dim, And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars. 27 But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds, Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hear The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible Of that eternal language, which thy God Utters, who from eternity doth teach Himself in all, and all things in himself. Great universal Teacher! he shall mould Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask. Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee, Whether the summer clothe the general earth With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall Heard only in the trances of the blast, Or if the secret ministry of frost Shall hang them up in silent icicles, Quietly shining to the quiet Moon. 3.4 Explanation and Critical Notes Ministry- function, to do or accomplish one’s work Presageful- Expectant or anticipation. Stranger-The word is used for that film. There was a superstition that whoever saw this film at night would receive a visit from a friend or a relative in the course of the next day. Whose bells, the poor man’s only music ………………all the hot Fair day—The bells 30 my ‘mind used to be elsewhere. The words in the book used to be only dimly visible to me through my tears. Every time somebody half opened the door of the class- room, I looked hastily, and wit1 a hopeful heart, for some visitor—a townsman, an aunt or a beloved sister, a play-mate of my younger days, when both she and I were clothed in similar garments. ‘ Lines 44-53. My dear child, sleeping in the cradle by my side! the sound of your gentle breathing is clearly audible to me in this deep silence, and it fills up the short intervals between the various thoughts that are coming into my mind. You are a lovely little child and as I look at you, my heart is filled with deep love and joy. Your education and your bringing will be of a different kind from mine. I was brought up in the great city of London in the midst of congested houses and buildings where I could see nothing beautiful except the sky and stars. Lines 54-64. But you, my little son, will wander freely like the wind along lakes and sandy sea-shores, under the immemorial rocks and mountains, and below the clouds which in their immensity represent or symbolize the vast lakes, oceans and mountains. In this way you will see the beautiful objects of Nature and hear the meaningful sounds of the everlasting language of God who from the beginning of the universe has always revealed himself in all objects of Nature. Nature is the supreme teacher of mankind and will give the right shape to your character and personality, and you will be so influenced by Nature as to seek her company still more.- Lines 65-74. (As a result of your constant contact with Nature) you will love all seasons. You will love the summer when the earth is all covered with green verdure. And you will love the winter when the red-breast sits and sings among the snow-flakes on the leafless branches of an apple-tree all overgrown with moss, while vapours are seen rising from the roof of’ a nearby cottage when the snow on it is melting in the heat of the sun; You all also love the time when rain-drops fall from the eaves and their sound is heard only in the silent intervals and pauses of the storm, and when, as a result of frost invisibly forming itself, the water-drops become frozen and are seen shining silently in the light of the silent moon. 3.6 Critical Summary The poem is a picture of an evening spent by the poet by his fireside on a frosty night. The first stanza builds up the atmosphere of the night when complete silence prevails, broken only by the occasional cries of the owlet. The frost is settling invisibly and there is no breeze. The poet sits alone by the side of his little son sleeping peacefully in a cradle. As he was sitting beside the fire, at the low-burnt fire, he sees a fluttering film on the ‘grill’. He feels that there is a bond of sympathy between him and that film. He interprets the movements and fluttering of the film according to his own changing thoughts and fancies. The poet is here indirectly expressing the belief that outward objects merely reflect or mirror our own thoughts and moods. 31 The sight of the fluttering film reminds the poet of his school-days and he becomes reminiscent. He recalls that whenever at school he saw that film on the grate, he superstitiously believed that a friend or a relative would come to see him from his native place. The thought of his native village with the bells ringing all the hot fair-day was sweet to him. He also remembers that, when he sat in the class-room pretending to study his book, he was all the time expecting some dear relative or friend to arrive. There is an element of autobiographical sense which gives us a glimpse into the school-life of Coleridge at Christ’s Hospital where he had been a student. In the next passage the poet addresses his son, Hartley Coleridge. He makes a plan about his baby’s future. While he was himself brought up in the suffocating atmosphere of London, he would put this baby into close contact with Nature. The baby will wander like a breeze in natural surroundings and will see the lovely objects, as well as hear the sweet sounds, of Nature. The boy will grow up under the benevolent and educative influence of Nature. He will learn a lot in the company of Nature. His believes that God reveals himself through Nature and thus God will mould the character of the baby through the medium of Nature. These lines contain the belief that is called pantheism, namely the belief that the Divine Spirit pervades all objects of Nature and that God reveals himself through Nature. These lines were written under the influence of Wordsworth. The poem ends with striking pictures of summer and winter. The child will grow to love all seasons—whether summer covers the whole earth with green grass and green plants, or the redbreast sits on an apple-tree singing its wintry song in the midst of snow-flakes, or the drops of water falling from the roofs of cottages freeze into icicles shining quietly in the light of the quiet moon. 3.7 Humphry House on Frost at Midnight The Unity and Design of the poem Frost at Midnight is one of the finest short poems in the language. I think it is much loved; it is certainly much praised: but even so I doubt whether it is adequately appreciated as the perfectly achieved work of art which it is. It has suffered even more than other poems from piecemeal handling; it is so exceedingly quotable for extraneous reasons. Either for biographical purposes- to illustrate Coleridge’s boyhood at Christ’s Hospital, where he “saw nought lovely but the sky and stars” ; or to illustrate his life in the little cottage on the street Nether Stowey, where it was written ; or to illustrate Hartley’s life because of the prophecies about him contained in it : or else for expository purposes—to show the development of Coleridge’s attitude to Nature or his skill in describing its details— the poem has been lovingly dissected, and for many readers lost. What makes Frost at Midnight an achieved artistic whole is the design and the organization in the movement of the thought. The centre is the Ego, the “1”—the seeing, remembering, projecting mind - man 32 sitting in a cottage-room at night. From the room the mind moves out, by stages, first to the physical context of weather and sound, then to the village, then to the world—”all the numberless goings-on of life”. Next with a swift contracting transition, unexplained, in the middle of a line (1.13) it comes again to the fire. The movement of the film on the grate suggests the very kind of movement which the mind itself is here making—”the idling spirit by its own moods interprets”. But the film, the “fluttering stranger” sets the mind oft again outside, now backwards in time, through memory. And in the schoolboy reminiscence the same process happens again that has already happened in the cottage. From Christ’s Hospital the boy’s mind goes back and outwards to Ottery; then forwards and outwards to.: the possible visitor who might come to take him out from school. Just as the poem as a whole is anchored to the original cottage room with the “low burnt” fire—a phrase which comes centrally in the first paragraph—so the Christ’s Hospital paragraph is anchored in the central phrase which produces the image of the schoolboy Awed by the stern preceptor’s face, mine eye Fixed mock study on my swimming book. From the memory of school the mind next comes back to the cottage room, by comparison between the two childhoods— the London schoolboy (Coleridge) seeing “nought lovely but the sky and stars” and Hartley (the poet’s son) to see everything that Nature has to give. This leads into the short passage of six lines on the Theistic Metaphysics (Pantheism) of Nature. More is not necessary for this includes and justifies the whole poem. God is Himself in all, and all things in himself. The quiet transition to the last passage is one of the most beautifully effective things in the whole poem. It returns to the opening context of seasons, and sounds through the imagining of Hartley’s future, and comes round fully at the end to the “secret mimicry of frost” and the quietness of the winter night with which it began. Not only do the movements of the mind give the poem its design and unity, but the poem as a whole leaves us with a quite extraordinary sense of mind’s very being in suspense, above time and space; the mind with all its power of affection and memory, and its power of reading “Nature as the language of God.” The predominant emotion is the deep, tender affection for the child…. Not only is the ending one of the finest pieces of short descriptive writing in the language, intricate yet at the same time sparsely clear, compressing so much of the moods of various weathers; but it is also perfectly rounds the movement of the mind which has been the poem’s theme. 35 UNIT - 4 COLERIDGE: DEJECTION: AN ODE Structure 4.0. Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 About the Poet 4.3 The Poem: Dejection: An Ode 4.4 Paraphrase of the Poem. 4.5 Critical Summary 4.6 Self Assessment Questions 4.7 Answers to SAQs 4.8 Let Us Sum Up 4.9 Review Questions 4.10 Bibliography 4.0 Objectives In this Unit you will study:-  about one of the famous romantic poets, Coleridge;  the main characteristics of a romantic poem;  the interpretation and appreciation of the poem; and  various figures of speech used in the poem. 4.1 Introduction In the winter of 1801-02, the two causes of Coleridge’s unhappiness, opium and domestic discord, worked havoc with him and brought him to despair. The wings of poesy were broken, as he realized. Meanwhile, Wordsworth was in high poetic activity, health forward- looking and happy. On April 4, 1802 when William and Dorothy were on a visit to Keswick, and could judge for themselves of Coleridge’s misery, he composed, in part at least, the poem Dejection, which is a confession of his own failure, and one of the saddest of all human utterances. But it is a glorious thing, too ; its attitude is that of a stricken runner who sinks in the race but who lifts up his head and cheers the friend who strides onwards •and his generosity is 36 itself a triumph. On October 4, 1802, the poem was printed in the Morning Post. It is an ode in form only; in contents it is a conversation. It is not an address to Dejection, but to William Wordsworth. As printed in the newspaper, it purports to be directed to someone named Edmund in Coleridge’s editions of his collected works this name is changed Lo Lady; but in the three extant early manuscripts the word is sometimes William and sometimes Wordsworth. In this sublime and heart-rending poem, Coleridge gives expression to an experience of double consciousness. His sense perceptions are vivid and in part agreeable; his inner state is faint, blurred, and unhappy. He sees, but cannot feel. The power of feeling has been paralyzed by chemically-induced excitement of his brain. The seeing power, less dependent upon bodily health, stands aloof, individual, critical and very mournful. By “seeing” he means perceiving and judging; by “feeling” he means that which impels action. He suffers, but the pain is dull, and he wishes it were keen, for so he should awake from lethargy and recover unity at least. But nothing from outside can restore him. The sources of soul’s life are within. Even from the depth of his humiliation and self- loathing, he ventures to rebuke his friend for thinking it can be otherwise; William, with his belief in the divinity of Nature, his confidence that all knowledge comes from sensation, his semi-atheism, as Coleridge had called this philosophy O William! we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does Nature live. In every other respect, Coleridge venerates him and humbles himself before him. Wordsworth, pure at heart, that is to say, still a child of Nature, and free, has not lost the birthright of joy, which is the life-breath of poetry. But oh! groans Coleridge,1 have lost my gift of song, for each affliction: 4.2 About the Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), English lyrical poet, critic, and philosopher, whose Lyrical Ballads,(1798) written with William -Wordsworth, started the English Romantic Movement. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Ottery St Mary, Devonshire, as the youngest son of the Vicar of Ottery St Mary. After his father’s death Coleridge was sent away to Christ’s Hospital School in London. He also studied at Jesus College. In Cambridge Coleridge met the radical, future poet laureate Robert Southey. He moved with Southey to Bristol to establish a community, but the plan failed. In 1795 he married the sister of Southey’s fiancée Sara Fricker, whom he did not really love. Coleridge’s collection Poems On Various Subjects was published in 1796, and in 1797 appeared Poems. In the same year he began the publication of a short-lived liberal political periodical The Watchman. He started a close friendship with Dorothy and William Wordsworth, one of the most fruitful creative relationships in English literature. From it resulted Lyrical Ballads, which opened with Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and ended 37 with Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”. These poems set a new style by using everyday language and fresh ways of looking at nature. The brothers Josiah and Thomas Wedgewood granted Coleridge an annuity of 150 pounds, thus enabling him to pursue his literary career. Disenchanted with political developments in France, Coleridge visited Germany in 1798-99 with Dorothy and William Wordsworth, and became interested in the works of Immanuel Kant. He studied philosophy at Göttingen University and mastered the German language. At the end of 1799 Coleridge fell in love with Sara Hutchinson, the sister of Wordsworth’s future wife, to whom he devoted his work “Dejection: An Ode” (1802). During these years Coleridge also began to compile his Notebooks, recording the daily meditations of his life. In 1809-10 he wrote and edited with Sara Hutchinson the literary and political magazine The Friend. From 1808 to 1818 he gave several lectures, chiefly in London, and was considered the greatest of Shakespearean critics. In 1810 Coleridge’s friendship with Wordsworth came to a crisis, and the two poets never fully returned to the relationship they had earlier. Suffering from neuralgic and rheumatic pains, Coleridge had become addicted to taking opium. During the following years he lived in London, on the verge of committingsuicide. He found a permanent shelter in Highgate in the household of Dr. James Gillman, and enjoyed an almost legendary reputation among the younger Romantics. During this time he rarely left the house. In 1816 the unfinished poems “Christabel” and “Kubla Khan” were published, and next year appeared “Sibylline Leaves”. According to the poet, “Kubla Khan” was inspired by a dream vision. His most important production during this period was the Biographia Literaria(1817). After 1817 Coleridge devoted himself to theological and politico-sociological works. Coleridge was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1824. He died in Highgate, near London on July 25, 1834. 4.3 The Poem: DEJECTION: AN ODE I Well! If the Bard was weather-wise, who made The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence, This night, so tranquil now, will not go hence Unroused by winds, that ply a busier trade Than those which mould yon cloud in lazy flakes, Or the dull sobbing draft, that moans and rakes Upon the strings of this Aeolian lute, 40 V O pure of heart! thou need’st not ask of me What this strong music in the soul may be! What, and wherein it doth exist, This light, this glory, this fair luminous mist, This beautiful and beauty-making power. Joy, virtuous Lady! Joy that ne’er was given, Save to the pure, and in their purest hour, Life, and Life’s effluence, cloud at once and shower, Joy, Lady! is the spirit and the power, Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower, A new Earth and new Heaven, Undreamt of by the sensual and the proud - Joy is the sweet voice, Joy the luminous cloud - We in ourselves rejoice! And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight, All melodies the echoes of that voice, All colours a suffusion from that light. VI There was a time when, though my path was rough, This joy within me dallied with distress, And all misfortunes were but as the stuff Whence Fancy made me dreams of happiness: For hope grew round me, like the twining vine, And fruits, and foliage, not my own, seemed mine. But now afflictions bow me down to earth: Nor care I that they rob me of my mirth; But oh! each visitation 41 Suspends what Nature gave me at my birth, My shaping spirit of Imagination. For not to think of what I needs must feel, But to be still and patient, all I can; And haply by abstruse research to steal From my own nature all the natural man - This was my sole resource, my only plan: Till that which suits a part infects the whole, And now is almost grown the habit of my soul. VII Hence, viper thoughts, that coil around my mind, Reality’s dark dream! I turn from you, and listen to the wind, Which long has raved unnoticed. What a scream Of agony by torture lengthened out That lute sent forth! Thou Wind, that rav’st without, Bare crag, or mountain-tairn, or blasted tree, Or pine-grove whither woodman never clomb, Or lonely house, long held the witches’ home, Methinks were fitter instruments for thee, Mad Lutanist! who in this month of showers, Of dark-brown gardens, and of peeping flowers, Mak’st Devils’ yule, with worse than wintry song, The blossoms, buds, and timorous leaves among. Thou actor, perfect in all tragic sounds! Thou mighty poet, e’en to frenzy bold! What tell’st thou now about? ’Tis of the rushing of an host in rout, 42 With groans, of trampled men, with smarting wounds - At once they groan with pain, and shudder with the cold! But hush! there is a pause of deepest silence! And all that noise, as of a rushing crowd, With groans, and tremulous shudderings -all is over - It tells another tale, with sounds less deep and loud! A tale of less affright, And tempered with delight, As Otway’s self had framed the tender lay - ’Tis of a little child Upon a lonesome wild, Not far from home, but she hath lost her way: And now moans low in bitter grief and fear, And now screams loud, and hopes to make her mother hear. VIII ’Tis midnight, but small thoughts have I of sleep: Full seldom may my friend such vigils keep! Visit her, gentle Sleep! with wings of healing, And may this storm be but a mountain-birth, May all the stars hang bright above her dwelling, Silent as though they watched the sleeping Earth! With light heart may she rise, Gay fancy, cheerful eyes, Joy lift her spirit, joy attune her voice; To her may all things live, from pole to pole, Their life the eddying of her living soul! O simple spirit, guided from above, Dear Lady! friend devoutest of my choice, 45 of the creative power of imagination inoperative. All that I can do now is to remain silent and patient ‘under the stress of my incapacity to give poetic expression to my , deepest feelings. The gift of poetic imagination with which I was endowed by Nature is .being suppressed by my Philosophical and metaphysical tendencies. The gift of poetic ‘imagination was my only treasure in life, the only quality on which my, life was based But ‘my metaphysical tendencies’ which’ were only a part of my mental make-up have weakened and crushed my real nature which was poetically constituted. Now metaphysical thinking has taken almost complete possession of my soul and become ‘a habit of the land. Stanza 7 (Lines 94-125) 0 poisonous thoughts which have enveloped my mind and ‘which are like a fearful dream reality! I dismiss you. I turn my ‘attention from you and listen to the wind which has been raging without my having taken any notice of it. The sound produced by the wind striking the strings of the lute is like the prolonged scream of a human being who is being tortured and who cries in. his agony. You wind, who are blowing furiously outside, it would be, much better if you, instead of playing upon the. lute, were to blow against bare rock, ‘a’ mountain lake, alighting-struck ‘tree, ‘a high .pine grove where no woodman has ever set foot, or a lonely house which’ has long been believe&tc be haunted by evil sprits. You’re a reckless musician playing upon the lute. The sounds that you are producing are worse than those which are heard during the bleak months ‘of winter. It seems as if you are celebrating a devil’s Christmas among the blossoms, buds, and tremulous leaves in this rainy season when the gardens look dark-brown and the flower peep from behind the leaves. You are an actor, able to reproduce fully all Sounds of pain and suffering. You are like a powerful poet. You can blow with great fury, thus emulating a frenzied poet. What sounds are you producing now? You are producing sounds similar to those produced by the panicky retreat of a defeated army, with cries of pain of trampled men with painful wounds, groaning in pain and at the same time shuddering with cold. But now there is a pause. There is a brief interval of the deepest possible silence. All that noise, similar to the sounds of a retreating army, with the groans, trembling and shuddering of trampled soldiers, has ended: Now the wind produces different sounds, sounds which are less deep and less loud, and which express less of fear and something of delight. These sounds are like the pathetic poem written by Thomas Otway about a lost girl roaming about on a lonely stretch of territory, not far from home. The wind produces sometimes sounds of bitter grief and fear and sometimes it screams aloud like that lost girl who hoped that her mother would hear her cries and come to her rescue. Stanza 8 (Lines 126-139) It is mid-night, but I have almost no thought of sleeping. May my friend have such experiences of sleeplessness only rarely’! May soothing sleep descend upon her and make her forget her worries! May this storm be only a kind of mountain-birth! 46 May all the stars shine brightly above her house and continue shining in silence as if they were ‘watching the sleeping earth! May she get up from bed with a care-free heart! May she feel happy and bright and may her eyes express a cheerful mood! May her spirits be raised by joy and may her voice be ‘sweetened with happiness! May all living creatures from one end of the world to the other dedicate their existence to her! May their existence become a vital force to add to the energy of her spirit 0 dear and simple-hearted Lady! May you be guided by heaven! You are the most faithful friend of my choice. May you feel happy for ever and ever! 4.5 Critical Summary The poet sees the old moon in the lap of the new and this, according to an old belief, foretells the coming, of rain and a furious storm. In a few moments the wind actually develop into a storm and rain starts falling with a loud sound, The sounds of rain and storm have often in the past raised the poet’s spirits, though at the same time they filled him with awe. He welcomes the rain and the storm now because it is possible that their sounds might awaken his dull pain and make it move and live. The poet then describes the kind of grief that has been weighing upon his heart. It is a dark, dear, drowsy and unimpassioned grief. Although the poet has been gazing at the western sky and ‘its peculiar hue of yellow green throughout the peaceful and balmy evening, he has been in a cheerless and spiritless mood. He has watched the beauty of the clouds and the stars but he has not been able to feel that beauty because of the grief that has taken a firm hold on his mind. The poet laments of all happiness and joy in his life. His spirits are drooping. All the beautiful objects of Nature are unable to remove the weight of this grief from-his heart. Indeed, it is not from external objects that happiness can flow to a man’s heart. The heart itself is the real source of animation and excitement. When this inner source of animation and excitement, had dried up, a man cannot expect to experience these feelings by gazing at the’ beauty of external objects. Addressing his wife Sara’, the poet says that we get from Nature what we give to Nature. Nature seems to be full of life because we ourselves endow it with life. In our life alone does Nature live? If we find Nature to be in a joyful or festive mood, it is because we are ourselves in that mood. If we find Nature in a mood of mourning, it is because we are ourselves in that mood. The objects of Nature themselves are cold and lifeless. If we want to see anything noble or sublime in Nature, our own souls must send forth a light, a lustre, or a radiance to envelop the objects of Nature. Our own souls must send forth a sweet and potent voice which will endow the sounds of Nature with sweetness and power. This light or this glory which our souls can send forth is not only beautiful in itself but it enables us to create beautiful things also. The Source of this light or glory is joy in the heart. This joy is given by Nature to pure-hearted persons only. All the sweet sounds that delight the ear, and all the beautiful sights that delight the eyes, flow from the joy in our hearts. All music is an echo of that sweet voice, the source of 47 which is the joy in our hearts, and all beautiful paintings are the reflection of the light which flows from the joy in our hearts. The poet then recalls the time in his past life when, though there were difficulties in his way, the joy in his heart enabled him to make light of his distress. In those days even his misfortunes served as material for his fancy to weave Visions of delight. That was the time of hopefulness. But now the sorrows of life have crushed him. But it is not the loss of his joy that makes him sad. What grieves him is the decline and the weakening of his inborn gift of the creative power of imagination. His mind is now chiefly occupied with metaphysical speculation which tends to suppress his poetic imagination. Metaphysical thinking has taken almost complete possession of his soul and is crushing his poetical powers. The poet then dismisses the depressing thoughts that have been haunting his mind, and turns his attention to the storm that has been raging outside. Hearing the sound produced by the wind blowing against the strings of the lute, he feels that it is like the prolonged scream of a human being who is being tortured and who cries in his agony. He thinks that it would have been much better if the wind, instead of playing upon the lute, were to blow against a bare rock, a mountain lake, a lightning-struck tree, a high Pine-grove, or a lonely house haunted by evil spirits. It seems - to him that the wind is celebrating a devils’ Christmas. He addresses the wind as an actor and as a mighty poet who can reproduce kinds of tragic sounds. The sounds that the wind is producing are compared by the poet to those produced ‘by the panicky retreat a defeated army and to the cries of pain uttered by trampled men groaning in their pain and shuddering with cold. Then there is a pause, a brief interval at deep silence. This pause is followed again by sounds which are this time less deep and less loud than before. These sounds are compared by the poet to the pathetic poem written by Thomas Otway about a lost child some-times crying in bitter grief and fear and sometimes screaming aloud in the hope that its mother would come to its rescue. It is midnight, says the poet, but there seems to be little possibility of his falling asleep. He would not like his beloved wife to have such an experience of sleeplessness. He would like her to enjoy a sound sleep and to forget her worries. He ends the poem with a prayer for her happiness, and joy. 4.6 Self Assessment Questions 1. What does the appearance of the new moon in the lap of old moon signify? ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 50 “Sadder lines than these were never perhaps written by any poet in description of his own feelings.” It is much sadder and more tragic than Shelley’s Stanzas Written in a Near Naples. Attitude to Nature- A very important point about this poem is that Coleridge here contradicts his own previous view of Nature, thus challenging Wordsworth’s Nature- creed also. In The Eolian Harp and Frost at Midnight, Coleridge had expressed a belief in pantheism—the view that Nature is a living whole, that a Divine Spirit passes through all objects of Nature, that man can establish a spiritual intercourse with Nature, and that Nature exercises an ennobling and educative influence upon man. But in this poem, Coleridge completely denies this belief. Here he asserts that Nature has no life of her own—that it is we who attribute life to her 0 Lady! We receive but what we give And in our life alone does Nature live Ours is her wedding garment, ours her shroud. No longer can Coleridge gain from Nature the- joy used to give him because he has no joy in his heart to meet half-way. He has discovered that Nature can give no joy to these who have no joy already in their hearts. Joy, Lady ! is the spirit and the power Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower Imagery- The ode contains some very vivid and concrete imagery. The poet sees the new-moon winter bright with the old moon in her lap ; the swelling storm with night- shower falling loud and fast ; the stars gliding behind or between the stars ‘I see the old Moon in her lap, foretelling The coming-on of rain and squally blast. And oh! that even now the gusts were swelling, And the slant night-shower driving loud and fast! More vigorous and forceful are the lines where the sounds of the storm are compared first to the rushing of a defeated army, with groans of trampled and wounded men and then to the alternate moaning and screaming of a frightened child who has lost its way home: What tell’st thou now about? ‘Tis of the rushing of an host in rout, With groans of trampled men, with smarting 51 At once they groan with pain, and shudder cold Here in these lines also he has used beautiful imagery- Tis of a little child Upon a lonesome wild, Not far from home, but she hath lost her way; And now moans low in bitter grief and fear, And now screams loud, and hopes ‘to make her mother hear. Nor are these the only pictures in the poem. We have also the images of the storm raging over a rock or a tree, a pine-grove or a haunted house, and of its celebrating the Devil’s Christmas in the “month of showers, of dark-brown gardens, and of peeping flowers.” Note of Tenderness- The poet ends on a note of tenderness for his wife. He prays to sleep to visit his beloved. May she rise with light heart, gay fancy, cheerful eyes! These are the only lines which to some extent lighten the heavy gloom of the whole poem. Interesting points of comparison and contrast at once occur to us between this ode and Wordsworth’s Ode on the Intimations of Immortality. As in Wordsworth’s poem, we have here the poet’s reference to his past joy and a description of his present mood of grief. There was a time when even misfortunes an aspect of happiness, but now had “afflictions bow me down ‘to earth.” These lines also remind us of similar lines in Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind- If even I were as in my boyhood, and could be The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed In Wordsworth’s ode, grief finds relief and ends in joy ; in Coleridge’s poem grief finds no relief and ends in dejection. It is morning in Wordsworth’s Ode, midnight in Coleridge’s. In the former and it is May and the sun shines warm ; in the latter it is the month of showers. 4.8 Let Us Sum Up In this unit we have studied  about one of the pioneer poets of the Romantic Age  the main characteristics of romantic poem, and 52  the critical appreciation of the poem prescribed. 4.9 Review Questions 1. Trace the autobiographical elements in ‘Dejection : an Ode.’ 2. What attitude to Nature does Coleridge express in The de to Dejection. Give reasons for your answer. 4.10 Bibliography 1. Humphry House: Coleridge (The Clark Lectures, 1951-1952) 2. J.R.de.J.Jackson (Ed.) Coleridge: The Critical Heritage 3. Legouis and Cazamian: A History of English Literature _________________ 55 Byron was very much influenced by Scott’s works. Both Byron and Shelley (1792-1822) had a low view of public applause and they had a distaste for the British Establishment. John Keats (1795-1921) was much influenced by poets both living and dead. This period also saw the birth of some famous essayists. One such essayist was Wil- liam Hazlitt (1780-1830) who along with Coleridge is one of the famous literary critics of this age. Hazlitt won fame also as a critic of Shakespeare and Elizabethan Drama. Hazlitt’s friend ‘Elia’ Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was also an essayist of great repute. Lamb enjoyed Eliza- bethan and Jacobean drama. His essays (written under the name of Elia) reveal a Londoner’s pleasure with the streets and institutions of London and the attachment to a countryside situ- ated at a distance from the town. Another famous writer of this age was Thomas De Quineey (1785-1859) whose most celebrated work was The Confessions of an English Opium Eater. The Romantics Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Keats, Shelley and Byron defy defi- nition. Their poetry has imaginative spontaneity, and elements of wonder. They reacted against classical standards of balance, order, restraint, proportion and objectivity. The polished wit of the Augustans appeared to the Romantics as shallow and artificial. The Romantics heightened in their works the dignity and simplicity of rural life. Emotions like joy, dejection, rapture, horror were heighlighted by the Romantics. 5.3 About The Author George Gorden, Lord Byron was born in 1788 in London. He became the sixth Baron of Rochdale in 1798. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1805 and left it in 1807. His first collection of poems Hovr of Idleness was published in 1807. This work was bitterly criticized by Henry Poter, Baron Brougham (1778-1868) and this provoked Byron into writ- ing English Bards and Scotch Reviewers in 1809. In 1809 Byron took his seat in the House of Lords and between 1809 and 1811 he visited Portugal, Spain, Malta, Greece and the Levant, he wrote a number of poems and a couple of dramas. Byron’s first successful literary production was Childe Harold published in two can- tos in 1812. In 1813 The Bride of Abydos and The Giaour were published. In 1814 he wrote two other literary pieces The Corsair and Lara. In 1815 Hebrew Melodies ap- peared. In 1816 Byron and his wife were separated and Byron went to Geneva where he stayed with Shelley. Byron’s works Parisina, Childe Harold Cantos III and IV and The Prisoner of Chillon were published in 1816. In 1817 he wrote Manfred and the Lament of Tasso after seeing Tasso’s call in Rome. Between 1818 and 1819 Byron wrote Don Juan Cantos I,II and III. In 1820 The Prophecy of Dante was written and in 1821 the Vision of Judgement was published. It is interesting to note that Byron had a revolutionary zeal within him. He formed the ‘Byron Brigade’ at Missolonghi and gave large sums of money to the Greeks in their war for independence. In 1824 Byron died at Missolongh. 56 Byron had a number of affairs with women. Therefore his poetry was condemned on moral grounds. “Byron was unique among Romantic poets in that he respected the neoclassi- cal poets and sought to some degree, to emulate them. Most Romantic poets sought to over- turn the old conventions and create new poetry based on creativity and individualism. Byron used diverse verse structrures, but he, like Pope and Dryden, wrote satires about society and other poets.” 5.4 The Poem : All For Love O TALK not1 to me a name great2 in story; The days of our youth3 are the days of our glory, And the myrtle4 and ivy5 of sweet two-and-twenty 6 Are worth all your laurels 7 though ever so plenty. What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled ?8 ’ Tis 9 but as a dead flower with May-dew 10 besprinkled:11 Then away with all such from the head that is hoary 12 What care for the wreaths 13 that can only give glory ? O Fame14 ! -if I e’er 15 took delight in thy 16 praises, ’Twas less for the sake of they high-sounding phrases, Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover She thought that I was not unworthy 17 to love her, There chiefly 18 I sought 19 thee,20 there only I found thee; Her glance was the best of the rays that surround 21 thee; When it sparkled 22 o’er 23 aught 24 that was bright in my story, I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory.25 5.4.1 Glossary 1. Do not tell me 2. famous 3. being young early poet of life 4. kinds of plant 5. climbing evergree plant with shining leaves 57 6. at the age of twentytwo 7. praises leaves as symbol of victory or poetic merit 8. a slight line or fold in something, especially fabric or the skin of the face 9. It is 10. dew drops in the month of May 11. sprinkle all over with small drops or amounts of a substance 12. having grey or white hair (an old person) 13. flowers, leaves woven together into ring for weaving or head 14. Personifies Fame (as if Fame is a living being) 15. ever 16. your 17. not worthy (but here the use of double nagetive means that he was fit to love her, worthy to love her) 18. mainly 19. looked for 20. you 21. all round or on all sides 22. glowed 23. over 24. anything 25. beauty 5.4.2 Explanation Lord Byron addresses this poem to beauty and love. The best days of a person’s life are the days of his youth. A young man does not wish to hear of names famous in stories. The young man feels proud and happy to be young. He feels that laurels, garlands and crowns that are given to famous people are like dead flowers on which dew drops have fallen. He does not attach importance to these things, these crowns which can only give fame, but which fail to understand the joy and love that is there in the hearts of the youth. The poet has personified fame and has directly addressed fame. Young men take delight in becoming famous not because of being praised in high sounding words. Young men 60 9. hand over, commit 10. wet 11. cellar, a large room especially an underground one to keep prisoners in 12. where daylight does not enter 13. dark, not cheery 14. wins 15. death 16. name 17. Chillon-name of a castle (Chateau) in Switzerland. Prisoners who were supporters of Liberty were kept here in the damp vaults. These vaults or cellars or dungeons were at a semi-sub-lake level: that is why these cellars were always damp/wet. 18. a place of worship: prisoners fighting for liberty died here. 19. unhappy ground because freedom fighters died here. 20. a flat table like block to make offerings to god. 21. it was 22. past participle of tread; walked upon in a specified way. 23. Bonnivard 24. mark 25. exhausted, damaged, weakened, wasted in strength due to being chained 26. wet ground 27. surface of the ground, with the grass growing on it. 28. A great man who fought for the freedom of his country. In the castle of Chillon, Bonnivard was chained to a pillar for six years in the 1530s. The place he was chained was a semi-sub-lake level dungeon. In 1816 Lord Byron came to the Castle of Chillon and saw the place where Bonnivard was imprisoned. 29. wipe out 30. Cruelty, unreasonable behaviour 5.5.2 Explanation In this poem Byron personifies Liberty. Liberty will live forever and people will die or 61 give up their lives fighting for liberty. Liberty cannot be chained; liberty resides in the hearts and minds of freedom fighters. Liberty shines brightly even in the dungeons, the dungeons where prisoners fighting for liberty were kept. No tyrannical chains can bind the hearts of prisoners; their heart can only be chained by liberty. Oh liberty when your sons are bound by chains and locked in damp, dark, gloomy vaults, their country wins battles in their names and with their sacrifices. Lord Byron wishes to emphasize that the sacrifices of these martyrs are much appreciated by their countrymen. Even the wind helps to spread the names of the martyrs who gave up their lives fighting for freedom. Byron personifies Chillon: the prison where prisoners were kept is indeed a holy place. People will come from far and near to worship the very floor on which prisoners ceaselesely walked. Bonnivard, the great freedom fighter, walked on these floors for six years. He become feeble and weak because he was chained to a pillar for six years. He walked on these wet floors and his very steps seemed to have left a mark on the floors. The floors have become holy due to the sacrifies of prisoners like Bonnivard. Lord Byron, the poet hopes that no one wipes out the marks of these prisoners. for these marks will remind the viewer (who goes to visit the castle) and the reader (one who will read this poem) of the cruel and unreasonable imprisonment of these men. God alone was a witness to their sufferings. 5.5.3 Self Assessment Questions 1. Where is Chillon situated ? ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 2. Name the Eternal Spirit. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 3. Who was Bonnivard ? ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 4. For how many years was Bonnivard imprisoned ? ............................................................................................................................. 62 ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 5. Why is Chillon called a “holy place”? ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 5.5.4 Answers to SAQs 1. Chillon is situated in Switzerland. Here there is a big castle and prisoners were kept in this castle. 2. Liberty. 3. Bonnivard was a freedom fighter. He was chained and kept in the dungeon of the castle of Chillon for six years in the 1530s. 4. Bonnivard was imprisoned for six years in the 1530s in the castle of Chillon. 5. Chillon is called a ‘holy place’ because a number of men died here fighting for the cause of liberty and freedom. Since these men became martyrs,this is a holy place. 5.6 The Poem : There be None of Beauty’s Daughters There be none of Beauty’s1 daughters With a magic2 like thee3; And like music on the waters Is thy4 sweet voice to me: When as if its sound were causing The charmed ocean’s5 pausing,6 The waves lie still and gleaming, And the lull’d winds7 seem dreaming:8 And the midnight moon is weaving Her bright chain o’er the deep,9 Whose breast is gently heaving10 As an infant’s asleep: 65 5.6.4 Answers to SAQs 1. The ocean appears to be under some magical spell (bewitched) on hearing the musical voice of the poet’s beloved. The musical sound seems to make the ocean pause. The beloved’s voice has this hypnotic effect. 2. Even the wind, on hearing the musical voice of the beloved, is lulled sleep. The wind then begins to dream. 3. The moon seems to be weaving a chain round the ocean. The moon’s light seems to fall in such a way that one gets the impression that the moon is making or forming a chain round the ocean. 4. The ocean’s sleep has been compared with that of a baby. Just as a baby breathes gently when it is fast asleep, similarly, is the ocean breathing gently while sleeping. (The ocean has been personified, as if it is a living being. 5.7 Let Us Sum Up In this unit you have read three poems written by Lord Byron. One poem is about love, about the joy in a young man’s heart when he sees the glow of love in his beloved’s eyes. The second poem is about the love for liberty and freedom. Men will willingly die for liberty. They will give up their lives so that their country may gain freedom.In the third poem he eulo- gizes the beauty of his half sister Augusta Leigh.These poems give you an idea of Byron’s style. Byron was a great supporter of liberty. The poems have been explained for you. Word mean- ing have also been given. After going through this unit, you have become familiar with the age of Byron and finer aspects of Byron’s poetry. 5.8 Review Questions 1. Discuss the Poem ‘On the Castle of Chillon’ as representative of Byron’s genius. 2. Give an account of Byron’s view of liberty and freedom as revealed in his poems. 3. Write a short appreciative note on ‘There be none of Beauty’s Daughters.’ 5.9 Bibliography 1. A.Rutterford. Byron: A Critical Study. Edinburgh, 1961. 2. Boris Ford (ed.) From Blake to Byron. Penguin,1982. 3. M.K.Joseph. Byron the Poet. London,1964. 4. http://www.literature classic.com _______________ 66 UNIT – 6 P.B. SHELLEY : (I) OZYMANDIAS (II) TO A SKYLARK Structure 6.0 Objectives 6.1 Introduction 6.2 About the Poet 6.2.1 Shelley : His Life and Personality 6.2.2 Literary Background 6.2.3 The Principal Poetic Works of Shelley 6.3. Reading the Poems (Texts) 6.3.1 Ozymandias 6.3.2 To A Skylark 6.3.3 Notes and Explanations 6.3.3 (a) Ozymandias 6.3.3 (b) To A Skylark 6.3.4 Critical Appreciation 6.3.4 (a) Ozymandias 6.3.4 (b) To A Skylark 6.4 Self Assessment Questions 6.5 Answers to SAQs 6.6 Let Us Sum Up 6.7 Review Questions 6.8 Bibliography 6.0 Objectives In this unit we intend to acquaint you with the Romantic traits of English poetry asso- ciated with Shelley by presenting to you a detailed analysis of the poems – Ozymandias and 67 To a Skylark. Our purpose is also to give you clues so that you may be able to distinguish between the earlier (adopted by Wordsworth and Coleridge) and the later (adopted by Shelley and Keats) romantic traits. 6.1 Introduction a Ozymandias illustrates the vanity of human greatness and the failure of all attempts to immortalize human grandeur. Ozymandias was a great Egyptian king, a life-statue of whom was made to immortalize him. But now the statue lies broken and disfigured, and all around it is a barren desert. The Ode to a Skylark is one of the most famous poems in the English language. Shelley in this ode idealises the singing of the skylark. In the singing of the skylark, Shelley finds an ecstasy and rapture which are unattainable by human beings. The poet contrasts the sorrow of human life with the joy of the skylark. The skylark, among other things, serves as a symbol of the poetic spirit, which sings songs unbidden and with an unpremeditated art. The poem shows the superb lyrical genius of Shelley at its best. It is remarkable for its exquisite music, its wonderful similes, its sensuous beauty, its spontaneity and melody. Written in early 1820 and published in the same year with Prometheus Unbound, it is the most anthologized of all Shelley’s poems. Although a lovely poem, it has had its detractors who have regarded it “as the typically slight work of a typically slight poet.” 6.2 About the Poet 6.2.1 Shelley : Life and Personality Percy Bysshe Shelley, a son of a baronet of Sussex, was educated at Eton and Ox- ford. After a year at the University he was expelled (1811) for having published a pamphlet on The Necessity of Atheism. Soon afterwards he eloped with Harriet Westbrook, a daughter of a coffee-house owner whom he married at Edinburgh, English law not permitting the mar- riage of minors. Expulsion from the University and marrying much below his rank alienated his family. For three years (1811-14) he led with Harriet a wandering life, engaging in reformist propaganda in Ireland and Wales. In 1813 he privately printed for circulation among his friends Queen Mab his first notable work. After a love affair with a school mistress, he left Harriet (1814) and eloped with Mary Godwin, daughter of the anarchical philosopher, to Switzerland. He married her after Harriet’s suicide (1816). On his return he published his first great poem Alastor (1816) and The Revolt of Islam (1817). At the suit of Harriet’s father he was de- prived of the custody of his children by his first wife. This as well as the public hostility aroused by his conduct and opinions drove him abroad to Italy in 1818. Here he spent the remaining four years of his life, living at Venice, Rome, Naples and Pisa. As in the case of Byron, Shelley’s greatest works were produced during these years of exile in Italy; lyrical dramas Prometheus Unbound and Hellas, a tragedy, The Cenci , a love poem, Epipsychidion, an elegy on the 70 England to “rise like lion after slumber in un-vanquishable number”, and its true Shelleyan quality lies in the fact that though it calls for rebellion it does not call for blood. The same belief, the same ultimate trust that the only way to conquer evil is by good, runs through The Revolt of Islam. (ii) Song to the Men of England (1819) – Based on the notion that Liberty, England’s erstwhile queen, had been done to death in the course of recent months, and could be revived only through the concerted efforts of her bereaved subjects, this poem was written to be sung to the tune of England’s national anthem : “God Save the King”. (iii) Ode to Liberty (1820) – It is among the best of Shelley’s political poems in the grand style. The voice of liberty, coming out of the depth of thought, charges with mighty the wings of his song, says Shelley, and he provides an idealized history, first of the rise of Athenian liberty out of chaos, and then of liberty’s long decline under the Roman empire and the oppres- sive forces of institutional Christianity. This poem was inspired by the Spanish Revolution. (iv) Ode to Naples (1820) – This poem was written by Shelley to greet the proclama- tion of a constitutional government at Naples in 1820. The poem is a tribute to the Neapoli- tans as the latest enemies of the league of tyrants. D. Occasional Poems : (i) Julian and Maddalo – It is a conversation between Julian (Shelley) and Maddalo (Byron). The poem contains an important portrait of Byron’s puzzling personality. This poem gave to Shelley’s friends a taste of verse which was, for once, both earthly and human, those parts of it, that is, which do not concern the story of the madman. (The story of the madman is a dreadful one which reads like veiled and nightmare autobiogra- phy, of frightful projection of some inward canker of the mind). The tone of the verse in those parts is that of man talking amongst friends. The poem shows that Shelley could talk as well as sing. (ii) Epipsychidion – It is an idealized history of Shelley’s life and feelings. It is ad- dressed to Emilia Viviani, an Italian girl, whose wronged life produced a rapturous outburst in favour of free love. It is a strange poem. The movement of Shelley’s verse is habitually swift, but the couplets of Epipsychidion seem to flow with an almost breathless speed. The pulse of the poem beats at fever pitch, between waking and sleeping. After the veiled autobiography of the opening passages, in which he describes the failure of a search to find a living embodiment of that “Being whom my spirit oft met on its visioned wandering”, he declares that he has found it at last; and the rest of the poem, beautiful as only Shelley’s poetry can be, described as the island “beautiful as a wreck of Paradise” whither he wishes to take his beloved. (iii) Adonais – It is an elegy on the death of John Keats, and one of the greates elegies in the English language. It is a most noble tribute not only to the dead poet but to poetry itself, and the life beyond life of which poets are assured : “He is a portion of the loveliness which once he made more lovely..” That life beyond life was becoming more and more the subject of Shelley’s brooding. Keats had spoken of death as “life’s high mead”, and had found it “rich to 71 die”, when the nightingale was singing ; for him death had appeared as fulfilment, but for Shelley it appeared as an escape and a liberation, more and more desired. The concluding lines of Adonais, with their exultant sense of the melting away of the mortal body under the fire of Love which created and sustains the universe and is itself the only reality, are at once an inspiration and a prophecy. E. Poems chiefly Lyrical – These include the following : Mutability; Ozymandias; The Cloud; To a Skylark; The Indian Serenade; Stanzas Written in Dejection Near Napels; Ode to the West Wind; The Sensitive Plant; To Night; O World ! O Life ! O Time ! The Witch of Atlas ; The Triumph of Life. Some of these lyrics are among the most glorious and the most celebrated ones in the English language. 6.3 Reading the Poems (Text) Now read the poems carefully. 6.3.1 Ozymandia I met a traveler from an antique land Who said : Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert …. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed : And on the pedestal these words appear : ‘My name is Ozymandias, kind of kings : Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair !’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. 6.3.2 To a Skylark Hail to thee, blithe Spirit ! Bird thou never wert, 72 That from Heaven or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. In the golden lighting Of the sunken sun, O’er which clouds are bright’ning, Thou dost float and run; Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. The pale purple even Melts around thy flight; Like a star of Heaven, In the broad daylight Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight, Keen as are the arrows Of that silver sphere, Whose intense lamp narrows In the white dawn clear Until we hardly see – we feel that it is there. All the earth and air, With thy voice is loud, As, when night is bare, From one lonely cloud The moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is overflowed. 75 And pine for what is not : Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught : Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. Yes if we could scorn Hate, and pride, and fear; If we were things born Not to shed a tear, I know not how thy joy we ever should come near. Better than all measures Of delightful sound, Better than all treasures That in books are found, Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground ! Teach me half the gladness That thy brain must know. Such harmonious madness From my lips would flow The world should listen then – as I am listening now. 6.3.3 Notes and Explanations 6.3.3 (a) Ozymandias An antique land –ancient country; here;Egypt. The Egyptian civilization is one of the oldest in the history of the world. Who said – the traveler said. Two vast and trunkless legs of stone /stand in the desert- The two huge legs of a broken statue stand in the desert. The trunk or the upper portion of the statue is severed from the legs, and lies nearby. (This is a common sight in Egypt. Many broken and half buried statues of ancient kings of Egypt exist in various parts of the land and remind a traveller of the ancient glory of those kings). a shattered visage – the broken face of the statue. Whose frown-And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command – On the face of the statue is an expression of anger, contempt, haughtiness, and sternness. The face shows a hardened sense of authority and power. 76 Tell that its sculptor well those passions read – It is clear that the sculptor who made the statue correctly understood the passions or feelings of the king and, therefore, suc- cessfully reproduced them on stone. Which yet survive…. That fed (Lines 7-8) – The passions or feelings of the kind still exist on the face of the statue, while the sculptor who carved those passions or feelings on stone, and the king who experienced those passions or feeling, are dead and gone. (The hand that mocked them – The sculptor’s hand which reproduced or represented the king’s feelings on stone. “Mocked” is here used in the sense of “imitated them without feeling any admiration for them”. “Them” refers to those passions. And the heart that fed – and the kings’s heart which nourhised or experienced those passions). Note : To be able to get the meaning, you should read these lines thus : “whose frown and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, tell that its sculptor well read those passions which, stamped on these life-less things, yet survive the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed”. The idea is that the king’s passions still remain depicted on stone, while the sculptor’s hand and the king’s heart are no more, both the sculptor and the king having died long ago. Pedestal – base ; foot, these words appear – there is an inscription on the pedestal. My name is Ozymandias – King Ozymandias flourished about 2100 B.C. He was the first soldier-king to invade Asia. Note : The inscription on the foot of the pedestal reveals the name of the king, and gives us an idea of how great and powerful he was. Nothing beside remains ….. stretch far away (Lines 12-14) – There is nothing else to be seen near the statue. A vast, desolate and barren desert surrounds the remains of that huge statue which lies broken. (colossal – huge. “Colossal” is from Colossus. “Colossus” was a huge statue bestriding the harbour of Rhodes so that ships could pass under its legs. “Colos- sal” therefore means huge). Note : The last three lines describing the present ruined state of the statue present a vivid and pathetic contrast with the preceding two lines which convey the glory and greatness of Ozymandias. 6.3.3. (b) To a Skylark Hail to thee, …….. unpremeditated are (Lines 1-5) – The poet calls the skylark a cheerful and happy spirit. The skylark is not a bird but a spirit because, flying at a great height, it is not visible. The poet offers a warm welcome to the skylark. He joyfully greets the skylark. The skylark sings spontaneous songs from somewhere near the sky. It sings sweet melodies which express the feelings and emotions of its heart. A continuous stream of rich music flows naturally from the skylark. The skylark sings effortlessly and without any previous preparation. Higher still and higher….. ever singed (Lines 6-10) – The sky-lark leaps upward from the earth and flies higher and higher into the blue sky. It flies up into the blue sky like a 77 cloud of fire rising upward. It keeps singing while flying, and it keeps flying while singing. It keeps flying and singing simultaneously. In the golden lightning …… is just begun (Lines 11-15) - The sun is just rising. It is still below the horizon, and it shoots its arrows as if they were flashes of lightning. The clouds in the eastern sky look bright and radiant because of the light of the rising sun. It is at this time that the skylark begins its upward flight. The skylark is a happy soul that has shaken off its earthly coil and has set out on a journey toward heaven. (The skylark leaving the earth and soaring upward is like a soul that has shed its mortal body and is on its way to heaven. The expression “unbodied joy” means a happy soul that has shaken off its mortal body). The pale purple even … thy shrill delight (Lines 16-20) – As the skylark flies upwards, the pale and purple twilight of the morning seems to melt away, giving place to the white light of the rising sun. The skylark becomes invisible as it flies higher and higher. For this reason it is like a star which shines in the sky invisibly during the day – time. The flight of the skylark becomes known to us by its loud and joyous singing. (even – actually the word “even” means evening. But here it has been used to mean twilight, the twilight of the morning. Shrill delight – happiness expressed in a loud voice). Keen as are the …. it is there (Lines 21-25) – During the night, the moon sheds its white light upon the earth. But this bright light begins to fade with the coming of the morning. In the light of the morning, the moonlight fades away. Although the moon now becomes almost invisible, yet we are aware that the moon is still in the sky. In the same way, the skylark is invisible to our eyes, but listening to its music, we are aware of its presence in the sky. All the earth …. Is overflowed (Lines 26-30) – The whole earth and the whole atmosphere above seem to be filled to overflowing with the song of the skylark. When the moon emerges from behind a single cloud in the sky, the moonlight fills the whole earth as well as the sky. The earth and the sky are flooded with the music of the skylark in the same way as they are flooded with the bright light of the moon. What thou ……. A rain of melody (Lines 31-35) – The real nature of the skylark is not known to us. It is not even possible for us to think of anything that closely resembles the skylark. As it flies up and up, it sends a shower of rich music to us on the earth. The music flowing from the skylark is much more pleasant and delightful even than the bright and lustrous rain-drops falling from the clouds. Like a Poet …. it heeded on (Lines 36-40) – The invisible skylark may be compared to a poet who is hidden from the public gaze by the originality and obscurity of his ideas. The poet’s message to mankind is so original and new that people cannot understand it. But the poet is not discouraged. He goes on singing his songs and expressing his ideas through those songs. Ultimately his songs do begin to produce an effect upon the people. The poet, by his perseverance and persistence, compels people to listen to him and to try to understand him. At last, the world is moved to sympathy with the poet’s hopes and fears which were previously 80 by feeling of hatred, pride, fear, etc. Human beings are born to suffer sorrows and griefs and to shed tears over their misery. Suppose that it were possible for human beings to cast off hatred, pride and fear from their hearts, and suppose that there were no sorrows in the life of human beings to make them weep. Even then they would not be able to enjoy that supreme happiness which the skylark enjoys. Better than all measures…. Of the ground (Lines 96-100) – The skylark is scornful of the earth. That is why it flies in the higher regions above. If a poet could acquire the skylark’s musical skill he would be able to produce rapturous songs like the skylark. All joyful songs known to mankind and all the available musical knowledge and instructions contained in books would be inadequate for a poet to produce songs of pure and perfect joy. Only by acquiring the skylark’s musical skill can any poet equal the joyful singing of the skylark. Teach me half of …..… as I am listening now (Lines 101-15) – If the skylark could communicate to Shelley even half of its joy, Shelley would feel inspired to write poems that would compete with the songs of the skylark. The world would then listen attentively to Shelley’s poems just as Shelley is now listening to the songs of the skylark. All that Shelley needs is the feeling of ecstasy which the skylark experiences. (What he means to say is that his awareness of the tragedy of human life makes it impossible for him to write poems expressive of a raptur- ous joy). 6.3.4 Critical Appreciation 6.3.4 (a) Ozymandias This poem relates an experience of a traveller from Egypt. This traveller saw two huge and trunkless legs of a statue in the desert. Near them lay, half-buried, the broken face of the statue. On this face can still be seen the expression of haughtiness and a sense of authority which had skillfully been depicted by the sculptor, and which survives the sculptor. On the pedestal the following words were inscribed : “My name is Ozymandias and I am a great king. Look at the great deeds which I have accomplished and which nobody can equal.” Round the broken statue stretched a vast desert. In form this poem is a sonnet. The sonnet-form was not really suited to Shelley’s genius because the sonnet imposes restraints and restrictions under which Shelley must have felt impatient. For this reason, Shelley wrote very few sonnets, and failed to achieve distinc- tion in them. This poem, for instance, does not rigidly obey the accepted conventions of the form of the sonnet. The rhyme-scheme does not follow any of the recognized patterns, and some of the rhymes are faulty (for instance, stone and frown; appear and despair). But though not flawless, it is the best of the few sonnets that Shelley wrote. It has earned high praise from critics and is considered a most powerful, imaginative and suggestive poem. Its moral goes home to our hearts with force and vigour. Human glory and pomp are not everlasting. Hammers of decay quickly follow the hammers of construction. Time works 81 havoc with buildings and monument. But the moral is not directly stated. The poet only pre- sents a picture to our minds and we have ourselves to draw the moral. It is a didactic poem, but its moral is not thrust upon us directly. Shelley said that didacticism was his abhorrence and he did not, therefore, directly preach moral lessons. There is a touch of melancholy about the poem because it makes us reflect over the vanity of human wishes and the failure of all our efforts to keep our memory alive for ever. The contrast between the past glory of the king and the present condition of the statue is very striking to the mind and emphasizes the moral of the poem. The concluding lines of the poem are particularly remarkable for their suggestiveness. The sonnet contains two note-worthy pictures. One is the picture of the broken statue, a huge wreck, the face of which still wears the picture of the lone and level desert, boundless and bare, stretching far away (Lines 12-14). 6.3.4 (b) To a Skylark In this poem, Shelley dwells upon the sweet and rapturous singing of the skylark. The music of the skylark has been idealized by Shelley. The poet wants to know what it is that inspires the skylark to sing such melodious and ecstatic strains. He contrasts the sorrows and sufferings of mankind with the unspeakable joy of the bird. If it were possible for the poet to experience the gladness of the skylark, he would be able to sing songs as sweet and delightful as those of the bird itself. The poem is remarkable for its abundance of similes, each of which is a picture in itself. The skylark climbs higher and higher in the sky “like a cloud of fire” (Line 8). The skylark floats and runs “like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun” (Line 15). The skylark is unseen “like a star of heaven/In the broad daylight” (Lines 18-19). The skylark is like a poet hidden in the light of thought, like a high-born maiden singing love-songs in a palace tower, like a golden glow-worm invisibly scattering its light among the flowers and grass, like a rose hidden by its own green leaves and filling the air with its scent. The similes in this poem are unsurpassed for their romantic charm and beauty. Each simile brings a separate picture before the mind. These similes constitute a rich feast for the senses. We gloat over each simile with an epicurean delight. This poem is a marvel of music and melody. The sweetness of the poem, combined with its other qualities makes it a lyrical masterpiece. The music of the poem is simply irresist- ible. The following stanza may be quoted not only for its musical quality but for the truth that it contains : We look before and after And pine for what is not : Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; 82 Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. There is an intensity of feeling throughout the poem. It is a passionate utterance. The poet’s heart is overflowing with the flood of emotion. The note of longing and yearning, so characteristic of many of Shelley’s poems, is to be found in this poem also. The following stanza in which the poet makes an appeal to the skylark, is an illustration : Teach me half the gladness That thy brain must know, Such harmonious madness From my lips would flow The world should listen then as I am listening now. All Shelley’s lyrics possess a spontaneous quality. This poem is no exception. It seems to have come directly from the writer’s heart. It appears to have been written naturally and effortlessly. It is a pure effusion. It is a superb example of Shelley’s lyrical gift. 6.4 Self Assessment Questions (a) The answer to the following questions should not exceed 20 words each : (i) Who are known as younger Romantics ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (ii) Why was Shelley expelled from the University ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (iii) What was the first notable work of Shelley ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (iv) Name the two lyrical dramas written by Shelley. …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (v) Name the Elegy on the death of Keats, written by P.B . Shelley. …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… 85 Ozymandias and To A Skylark. The unit also presents a brief description of Shelley’s life and literary career. To enable you understand the poems critically, you have also been given de- tailed explanatory notes followed by a critical appreciation on both the poems. 6.7 Review Questions 1. Give an account of Shelley’s views of nature as revealed in his poems. 2. Justify with examples that Shelley is the greatest lyric poet that England has produced. 6.8 Bibliogaphy 1. Desmond King – Hele : Shelley, His Thought and Works (OUP). 2. J.A. Symonds : Shelley. 3. R.D. Trivedi : A Compedious History of English Literature, Vikas. 4. Stopford A. Brooke : Studies in Poetry, (OUP). ___________________ 86 UNIT – 7 P.B. SHELLEY : (I) TO The NIGHT (II) HYMN TO THE SPIRIT OF NATURE Structure 7.0 Objectives 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Reading the Poems (Texts) 7.2.1 To The Night 7.2.2 Hymn to the Spirit of Nature 7.2.3 Explanatory Notes 7.2.3. (a) To The Night 7.2.3 (b) Hymn to the Spirit of Nature 7.2.4 Critical Appreciation 7.2.4 (a) To The Night 7.2.4 (b) Hymn to the Spirit of Nature 7.3 Self Assessment Questions 7.4 Answers to SAQs 7.5 Let Us Sum Up 7.6 Review Questions 7.7 Bibliography 7.0 Objectives In continuation with the previous unit we intend to discuss in detail the two poems To Night and Hymn to the Spirit of Nature (an extract from Prometheus Unbound) composed by P.B. Shelley. We shall also familiarize you with Shelley’s myth making power, of which the poem To The Night is a good example. Through the poem Hymn to the Spirit of Nature we intend to tell you that the story of Prometheus offered to Shelley an opening for his doctrine of love as the central principle of things and the key to the ideal future of humanity. 87 7.1 Introduction To The Night is a remarkable lyric by Shelley. It is full of the passion and the yearning so typical of much of Shelley’s poetry. The poem expresses Shelley’ intense desire for Night, which he has personified. The poem is a wonderful illustration of Shelley’s power of making his own myths. Not only has night been personified and made to live before us, but Day, Sleep, and Death are also treated in the same manner. Furthermore, relationships have been estab- lished between Night, Sleep and Death. This poem expresses the writer’s intense love of Night and contains an invitation to her to come soon. The poem is a sort of address of welcome to Night. The poet asks Night to spread herself rapidly over the sky. The whole day, Night has been weaving dreams of joy and fear in her cave. These dreams are to be seen by human beings in their sleep. Those who see joyous dreams love Night, while those who see fearful dreams regard Night as terrible. The poet wants Night to come without delay. Let Night establish her supremacy over the world. Let her wrap herself in a gray cloak decorated with stars, and let her wipe out the light of the day with her darkness. Let her sleepy influence be felt over city, sea, and land. The poet then gives expression to his passionate delight in Night. When he arose and saw the dawn, he felt unhappy at the departure of Night. At all hours of the day he felt miserable because of the absence for Night and sighed for her coming. Death and Sleep offered to come to the poet but he rejected their offers because he did not feel attracted by them. Let Sleep and Death come to him when there is no more Night for him. But at present he is fascinated only by Night and appeals to her to come soon : Swift be thine approaching flight, Come soon, soon ! ‘Hymn to the Spirit of Nature’s is a delightful lyric taken from Shelley’s poetic drama Prometheus Unbound (Act II, scene v). It is a song sung by a voice in the air and addressed to Asia who, in the play, represents Intellectual Beauty, or the Soul of the world, or as the title above indicates, the Spirit of Nature. Prometheus is the spirit of love in mankind, while Asia is the spirit of love in Nature. The union of Prometheus and Asia in Shelley’s play is the union of the spirit of love in man with the spirit of love in Nature. Their union marks the regeneration or redemption of the world of man and the world of Nature, and signifies the end of evil in the universe. This song in praise of Asia is sung by an unknown voice in the air. Perhaps it is the voice of Prometheus who loves Asia. In any case, it is a glowing tribute to Asia. Asia is the Life (that is, the essence of life, or the source of life in Nature). Her lips brighten with their love, the breath passing between them. Her smiles, before they disappear, warm up the cold air. She ought to hide her smiles in her eyes which are so deep and so labyrinthine (that is, bewildering) that whoever looks into them will faint with intoxication. Asia is the child of light (that is, made of light or brightness). Her body seems to burn through her clothes in the same way as the 90 Faints, entangled in their mazes. Child of Light ! thy limbs are burning Through the vest which seems to hide them, As the radiant lines of morning Through the clouds, ere they divide them : And this atmosphere divinest Shrouds thee wheresoe’er thou shinest. Fair are others; none beholds thee; But thy voice sounds low and tender Like the fairest, for if folds thee From the sight, that liquid spendour; And all feel, yet see thee never, — As I feel now, lost for ever ! Lamp of Earth ! where’er thou movest Its dim shapes are clad with brightness. And the souls of whom thou lovest Walk upon the winds with lightness Till they fail, as I am failing, Dizzy, lost, yet unbewailing ! 7.2.3 Explanatory Notes 7.2.3 (a) To The Night Swiftly walk over the western wave.. thy flight ! (Stanza I). The poet here makes an appeal to Night which has been personified. Night seems to the poet to be a living being, capable of acting in accordance with its own will and capable of listening to the poet. Shelley has, therefore, created a myth here. He appeals to Night to spread itself over the western sky where the sun sets. He imagines that Night spends the hours of daylight in some misty eastern cave, all alone, and that it keeps busy during that time, manufacturing or weaving dreams of joys and fear for human beings. These dreams are seen by human beings during their sleep. Sweet dreams, which human beings see, make Night dear to them; but the frightening dreams, which they see, make Night terrible to them. Thus human beings are in love with Night and yet, at the same time, they are afraid of Night. The poet is in love with Night without being afraid of 91 it. He wants Night to come swiftly and without delay. Wrap thy form in a mantle gray, star-inwrought. The poet calls upon Night to wrap itself in a gray coloured cloak which has stars woven in its texture. The dark sky is regarded here as the mantle of Night, and the stars that shine in the sky are supposed to be woven in the texture of that mantle. Blind with thine hair … wearied out. (Lines 10-11). Here Day is also personified. The poet asks Night to come and spread its black hair over the eyes of Day, so that Day may no longer be able to see. Then the poet asks Night to overwhelm Day with kisses. Let Day be kissed so vehemently and repeatedly that Day feels tired of these kisses and flees from the world. This is poetic fancy. What the poet means is that, with the coming of Night, Day withdraws from this world. Touching all with thine opiate wand. We are to imagine that Night carries in its hand a magic staff which as the power of sending everyone, who is touched with it, to sleep. When Night comes, all creatures fall asleep. And the wearied Day....... an unloved quest (Lines 19-20). When Day was tired of its stay on the earth, it felt like resting. And yet Day stayed on for some time more, just as a guest might prolong his stay in a house where he is no longer welcome. (The simile is very appropriate). Thy brother Death came……. No, not thee ! (Lines 22-28). The poet is interested neither in Death nor in Sleep. He looks upon Death as the brother of Night, and he calls Sleep a child of Night. Death is the brother of Night because Night stands for darkness, and Death takes human beings into the unknown dark regions. Sleep is the child of Night because it is during night that human beings are overcome by Sleep. Both Death and Sleep offer to come to him. Death is prepared to take him away from this world in case he is sick of life. Sleep, which makes the eyelids close, speaks to the poet very sweetly and softly like the murmuring of a bee at noon-time. Sleep offer to creep close to the poet and to send him into a state of temporary forgetfulness. But the poet rejects both these offers, because he is attracted only by Night. (Sleep, the filmy – eyed – Sleep is called filmy-eyed because the eyes of person whe feels sleepy look dim or filmy). Death will come when thou art dead – Death would come to the poet in its own time. Soon, to soon – Death would not take long in coming to the poet. (Here is an uncon- scious prophecy of Shelley’s premature death. It was at the age of thirty that he was drowned in the sea). Sleep will come when thou art fled – The poet does not accept the offer of Sleep, because Sleep can come to him when Night is gone. He would not like to waste his time in 92 sleeping. He can sleep permanently after death. 7.2.3 (b) Hymn to the Spirit of Nature Life of Life – essence of life. they thy lips enkindle… between them—There is such love in Asia’s lips that it lights up the breath which passes through her lips. (This is poetical language, and the words here are not to be taken literally). And thy smiles….cold are fire — There is such heat in her smiles that, before, fading away, they warm the cold air. The cold air becomes warm in the fire of Asia’s smiles. Then screen them…in their mazes —- Asia’s smiles are so bright and lovely that nobody can endure their brightness and loveliness. There- fore, she is asked to screen or conceal her smiles in her eyes. Her eyes are like intricate and bewildering paths. By looking into her eyes, a man would get lost and feel dazed. (maze - labyrinth). Child of Light – Asia is now called the Child of Light because she is so bright and shining. Thy limbs are burning … thou shinest (Lines 7-12) – Asia is so bright that rays of light seem to be emanating from her body. Her body seems to be burning . Even her clothes cannot hide the radiance of her body which appears to be on fire. The brightness of her body is visible through her clothes just as the brightness of dawn becomes visible through clouds before the clouds are parted by the sun. Wherever bright Asia may go, she is surrounded by this heavenly atmosphere. In other words, she is a divine Spirit enveloped in heavenly light. Fair are other….. lost for ever (Lines 13-18) – There are other fair spirits in the universe, but Asia surpasses them all in beauty. Nobody can see Asia, because her splendour is dazzling to the eyes. Her voice is sweet, soft and gentle like the voice of the fairest of spirits. The glorious melody of her voice seems to be screening her from the sight of others. Every- body becomes dimly aware of her presence but nobody can actually see her, just as the speaker (Prometheus) feels aware of her presence and is forever completely lost in her glory, splendour and divine beauty. Lamp of Earth ……... Unbewailing (Lines 19-24) – Asia is now regarded as the lamp that sheds its light on the earth. Wherever she goes, her beauty and brightness illumine the dark objects on the earth. Those whom Asia loves are very fortunate. Because of the power of her love, their souls are enabled to walk lightly upon the breezes. Those souls can walk upon the breezes till in the end they collapse just as the speaker (Prometheus) is about to collapse. The speaker is feeling giddy or confused because of the dazzling beauty of Aisa and because of the intoxication of his love for her. In spite of that, to be in love with Asia is in itself a matter of pride, and that, though the lover is lost owing to his profound love for her, he does not complain or grumble. You will be disappointed if you look minutely for the meaning of words and lines in this poem. It is the music of the poem that you must be able to feel. Therefore, the poem should be read for its sound, not for its sense; for its melody and sweetness, not for its meaning. 95 which appears through the clouds in the east. A wonderful metaphor is employed when the voice of Asia is called a “liquid splendour”. Another metaphor is used when Asia is addressed as the “Lamp of Earth”. This song or hymn has all the spontaneity for which Shelley’s lyrics are known. As we read it, we feel that it must have come from the poet’s imagination naturally and effortlessly, just as a nightingale’s song comes naturally from her throat. The mood of the poem is rapturous because of the fascinating and dazzling beauty, charm and radiance of Asia. The two closing lines, however are tinged with sadness because there the speaker describes himself as “failing dizzy, lost”. 7.3 Self Assessment Questions (a) The answer to the following questions should not exceed 20 words each :- (i) What does Asia represent in ‘Hymn to the Spirit of Nature’? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (ii) Why is it not possible to look at Asia ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (iii) What does the union of Prometheus and Asia symbolize ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (iv) What is the voice of Asia called ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (v) Where has the song ‘Hymn to the Spirit of Nature’been extracted from ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (vi) What is the main idea of the poem To Night ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (vii) How is the Day depicted in To Night ? 96 …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (viii) What does the Night do to the Day ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (b) Answer the following questions in 500 words each :- (i) Critically analyse the Poem To Night. …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… (ii) Critically appreciate the poem Hymn to the Spirit of Nature. …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… 7.4 Answers to SAQs (A) (i) Intellectual Beauty, Soul of the World or the Spirit of Nature. (ii) Because her beauty is dazzling and unbearable. (iii) The union of Prometheus and Asia symbolize the union of the spirit of love in 97 man with the spirit of love in Nature. (iv) Liquid splendour. (v) From Shelley’s poetic drama Prometheus Unbound. (vi) It tells us about Shelley’s intense love of Night and is an invitation to her to come soon. (vii) The weary Day is depicted as lingering like an unloved guest. (viii) The Night blinds with her dark hair the eyes of Day and kisses till day is exhausted and retires from the scene. (B) (i) See the Critical Appreciation. (ii) See the Critical Appreciation. 7.5 Let Us Sum Up In this unit we have presented a detailed analysis of shelley’s two poems – ‘To The Night’ and ‘Hymn to the Spirit of Nature. Both the poems are remarkable for their lyrical quality, spontaneity and richness of imagery. The detailed explanatory notes have been given to enable you to comprehend and enjoy the poems. At the end are given the self-assessment questions to enable you check your understanding. 7.6 Review Questions 1. Discuss the use of images in ‘To The Night’. 2. Elucidate the poem ‘Hymn to The Spirit of Nature’ as remarkable example of Shelley’s lyrical richness. 7.7 Bibliography 1. Desmond King – Hele : Shelley, His Thought and Work (OUP). 2. J.A. Symonds : Shelley. 3. R.D. Trivedi : A Compedious History of English Literature, Vikas. 4. Stopford A. Brooke : Studies in Poetry, (OUP). ____________________