The Lake Isle of Innisfree

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made

Nine bean-rows I will have there, a hive for the honey bee

And live alone in the bee; loud glade

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow

And evening full of the linnet’s wings

I will arise and go mow for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

W.B Yeats

Anne Frank (Part 2)

Anne Frank

Anne Frank, a German Jewish girl is well known for the diary she wrote while she was concealed from anti-Jewish persecution in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, during the World War II. Her diary describes with wisdom and humour the two arduous years she spent in seclusion before her tragic death at the age of fifteen years.

The Frank family left Germany in 1933 to escape the anti-Jewish movement led by Adolf Hitler. Her father Otto Frank took the family to Amsterdam where he established a small foo product business.

When Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, the Franks once again became subjected to anti-Semitic persecution. Therefore, Otto Frank arrange a home prison or hiding place by sealing off several rooms at the rear of his Amsterdam office building. The room Anne Frank was hidden on the first floor. It was a gloomy room where the entrance is shielded by a swinging bookcase. A very narrow staircase led to the upstairs. Anne spent three long years of the spring time of her life in this ‘home prison’.

In 1942, for her thirteenth birthday, Anne received a diary. She began to write about the bitter experiences of her life as well as her thoughts and expectations in this diary. She wrote about her fear and emotional agitation of her fellow people. And also mentioned about the little humour or pleasure she enjoyed in her isolation. She talks about her first love and also the beauty of life.

Later on, in 1944, Anne and others in her family were discovered by the Gestapo, Hitler’s Secret police. They were separated. Anne and her sister were sent to the Bergen Belson concentration camp. There, they lived only for a short time. Both of them died of ‘Typhus’.

Anne Frank became much recognised after her death. Her diary was published as a literary work in 1947. Its English translation, “Anne Frank The Diary of a young Girl” appeared in 1952. The story was made into a play and this play was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1956. It was made into a film in 1959.

Anne Frank Huis (part 1)

Anne Frank Huis

Even now, after twice her lifetime of grief

And anger in the very place, whoever comes

To climb these narrow stairs, discovers how

The bookcase slides aside, then walks through

Shadow into sunlit rooms, can never help

But break her secrecy again just listening

Is a kind of guilt: the Westerkirk repeats

Itself outside, as if all time worked round

Towards her fear, and made each stroke

Die down on guarded streets imagine it

Three years of whispering and loneliness

And plotting, day by day, the Allied line

In Europe with a yellow chalk what hope

She had for ordinary love and interest

Survives her here, displayed about the bed

As pictures of her family;  some actors,

Fashions chosen by princess Elizabeth

And those who stoop to see them find

Not only patience missing its reward

But one enduring for chances

Like my own; to eave as simply

As I do, walk at ease

Up dusty tree-lined avenues, or watch

A silent barge come clear of bridges

Settling their reflections in the blue canal.

Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion is an English poet, novelist and a biographer who was honoured with Poet Laureate. His poems are known for the insightful way in which they explore loss and desolation.

He was born in 1952 in Essex. His mother died when he was 17 years old. He studied in University college, Oxford and studied the poetry of Edward Thomas.

In 1975, he won the Newdigate prize for Oxford undergraduate poetry. Later, he worked as an English teacher. He taught in University of Hull. In 1989, he worked as the professor of Creative writing at the University of East Anglia, and later in the University of London.

Motion published a number of poetry which brought him much credit and reputation. Some of them are “The Pleasure Streamers”(1978), “Independence” (1981), “Natural Causes” (1987), “Salt Water” (1997). In 2005, he wrote the famous “Spring wedding” to celebrate the wedding, of prince of Wales. In 2003, he wrote another poem, a milestone in his poetry, “Regime change” to protest the invasion of Iraq.

Review of the poem 'The Pigtail'

Review of the poem 'The Pigtail'

The poem ‘Pigtail’ written by William Makepeace Thackeray is a humorous poem which throws sarcasm at the sage taking the wise man as a clown. The story is based on a pigtail which the sage wanted to get rid of. The way he tries to change the position of the pigtail and his effort for that make the whole story very funny and humorous. The poet does not mention anything about the wisdom or the presence of mind of the sage but confines to the pigtail how it becomes a wet blanket to him. It is quiet funny why such a wise man maintained the plaited hair and why it became a nuisance.

The poet vividly describes the displeasure the sage developed in his mind over the troublesome pigtail.

“But wondered much and sorrowed more”

“He mused upon his curious case”

“And swore he’d change the pigtail’s place”

The poet also describes the attempt the sage made incessantly to get rid of the pigtail.

“…….he turned him round”

“…….the puzzled sage did spin; in vain….”

“And right, and lift and round about, And up, and down, and in, and out

He turned”

The poet creates a picture of the pigtail using the words, ‘handsome’, ‘this curious case’, ‘hanging’, ‘dangling’. The poet creates much mock, irony and sarcasm towards this character. A sage is a person who is wise, discreet and judicious, having the wisdom of experience of or indicating profound wisdom. However the sage in the poem is entirely different. It is the natural order that a pigtail always falls down behind the head. So, in the whole story the sage is in an absurd effort to change this position.

However the poet Thackeray presents the concept of the pigtail as a metaphor. It challenges the wisdom of the sage. It can be taken as an obstacle to prove the intelligence of the sage. The sage struggles in vain. As the episodes of sages are heard from the East, the poet perhaps reflects on them in a sarcastic and satirical manner.

The Pigtail

The Pigtail

There lived a sage in days of yore,

And he a handsome pigtail wore

But wondered much and sorrowed more

Because it hung behind him

He mused upon this curious case

And swore he’d change the pigtail’s place

And have it hanging at his face

Not dangling there behind him

Says he “The mystery I’ve found

I’ll turn me round” he turned him round

But still it hung behind him

Then round, and round, and out and in,

All day the puzzled sage did spin

In vain – it mattered not a pin

The pigtail hung behind him

And right, and left, and round about,

And up, and down, and in, and out,

He turned: but still the pigtail stout

Hung steadily behind him

And though his efforts never slack

And though he twists, and twirl, and tack

Alas! Still faithful to his back

The pigtail hangs behind him

William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray

Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19^th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly “Vanity fair”. He was also famous for his poetic creations.

Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India. His father was working as the secretary to the board of revenue in the British East Indian company. He studied in Trinity College, Cambridge, but left  the school in 1829, and after that he was never keen on academic studies. Then he studied law but even that, he gave up on the way. In 836, Isabella Shaw became the life partner of Thackeray. They had three daughters in their marriage.

Thackeray wrote number of novels from which he became reputed. Among them, one could well remember ‘Catherin’ his first novel, the luck of Barry Lyndon ‘Pendennis’ and ‘The history of Henry Esmond’.

He was an expert in creating sarcasm in his literary works. He also wrote some poetry which was based on humour and sarcasm. In his poem ‘pigtail’ Thackeray laughs at a sage.

In his fiction- writing, he followed realistic tradition, therefore, very often; he was distinguished as ‘the second Charles Dickens’.

Review of the poem 'Mid- term Break'

Review of the poem 'Mid- term Break'

“Mid-term break” written by Seamus Heaney is an elegy, a lamentation on an untimely death of a beloved person. The narrator could be a small child. So the whole scene is presented in the eye-corner of him. The poet has been able to visualise the emotional side of this sudden death. In addition, he takes the members of the family, how they have been bereaved over this loss.

The flow of the situations have been fabricated excellently in order to construct a very story live-experience of the reader. A bereaved occasion of a family could be the sole objective of the poet. It is quite evident that the poet has been able to achieve that particular goal.

For this purpose, the poet uses a diction which derives a sense of sorrow and remorse. For example such as,

    “father crying…..”

    “taken funerals in his stride”

    “a hard blow”

    “In hers and coughed out angry tear less sighs”

   “the corpse, stanched and bandaged…….”

   “lay in the four foot box”

These expressions also contribute to build up the mental picture of the dead body. The poet also brings the imagery of father and mother, into the scene. Both have been stricken by the death.

   “In the porch, I met my father crying”

   “….as my mother held my hand in hers and coughed out angry tear less sighs”

The poet also focuses at the incident of narrator. The poet very carefully presents the incident to the extent the little boy has access to it.  For example,

“counting bells knelling”

This shows how anxious he was until the school was over. On the other hand, the narrator is too small to pose himself as a man who is directed by some of responsibility. When the narrator brings the image of the dead body, he is quite euphemistic.

 “He lay in the four foot box as in his cot”

This shows the narrator’s love and affection towards his departed brother. Nowhere in the poem, the poet uses the word ‘death’ even though he talks about the death of a child. Only in one instance, he uses the word corpse while mainly uses other words and phrases such as, ‘funerals’, ’hard blow’, ‘trouble’, ‘ambulance’ and ‘snowdrops’ and ‘ candles’.

 

Mid-term Break

Mid-term Break

I sat all morning in the college sick bay

Counting bells knelling classes to a close

At two o’ clock our neighbours drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying-

He had always taken funerals in his stride

And big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram

When I came in, and I was embarrassed

By old men standing up to shake my hand.

And tell me they were sorry for my trouble

Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest

Away at school, as my mother held my hand.

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs

At ten o’ clock the ambulance arrived

With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up to the room, Snowdrops

And candles soothed the beside; I saw him

For the first time in six weeks. Paler now

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple

He lay in the four foot box as in his cot

No gaudy scares, the bumper knocked him clear

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney 

Seamus Heaney was born in a small agricultural town in Northern Ireland. Heaney is an Irish poet and he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. In 1957, he went to Belfast to study literature at queen’s University. Then, he worked as a lecturer in 1965, but he was highly worried over the continuous clashes between the Roman Catholic and protestants. So Heaney moved to the Republic of Ireland in 1972. Later he worked as a lecturer in Harvard University and the University of Oxford.

In his poetry, he mainly focuses at the physical and rural surroundings of his childhood in Northern  Ireland. His poems are often short, punctuated by the intensity silence of the people he describes.

Among the collection of his poetry, the most significant are

·         Strom on the Island

·         Perch

·         Blackberry-picking

·         Death of a Naturalist

·         Digging

·         At a potato Digging

·         Follower

·         Mid term break

Heaney’s latest was the English translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ‘Beowulf”. It became the best seller in United states and United Kingdom in 2000.