Write a note on the imagery and symbolism in Blake's 'London'

Blakes work shows a constant awareness of the ironies of publishing songs in written form
publishing poems that lay claim to an oral culture in a series of elaborately visual engravings.
This awareness reflects the general Romantic preoccupation with the possibility of capturing in
writing the rhythms, immediacy, and spontaneity of the spoken human voice. Blake seems, if not
pessimistic, at least dubious about such a possibility, as can be seen in his Introduction to Songs
of Innocence. Here, a child gives a wandering bard three command: first to play his pipe, second
to sing his songs, and third to write them. This progression may imply a decline, from the purity
of music (without linguistic meaning), to orality (bound by meaning but still spontaneous and
fleeting), to literacy (without need for human presence and perhaps less personal). The speakers
pen, ambiguously, stain[s] the water clear; thus the image simultaneously implies both a
purification (to stain it clear) and a corruption (to stain the clear water). On which
process does the emphasis lie? Is writing part of the descent into experience?
Blake wrote in an era of great social and political upheaval. The democratic ideals of the French
Revolution of 1789 the year of the first publication of Songs of Innocenceundoubtedly
influenced him. But in politics Blake aligned with no particular system or idealism; he speaks
always for the primacy of the individual and the imagination. Blake did attach importance to
particular social reforms: one might extrapolate some of these from a poem such as London,
The opening image of wandering, the focus on sound, and the images of stains in this poems
first lines recall the Introduction toSongs of Innocence, but with a twist; we are now quite far
from the piping, pastoral bard of the earlier poem: we are in the city. The poems title denotes a
specific geographic space, not the archetypal locales in which many of the other Songs are set.
Everything in this urban spaceeven the natural River Thamessubmits to being charterd, a
term which combines mapping and legalism. Blakes repetition of this word (which he then tops
with two repetitions of mark in the next two lines) reinforces the sense of stricture the speaker
feels upon entering the city. It is as if language itself, the poets medium, experiences a
hemming-in, a restriction of resources. Blakes repetition, thudding and oppressive, reflects the
suffocating atmosphere of the city. But words also undergo transformation within this repetition:
thus mark, between the third and fourth lines, changes from a verb to a pair of nounsfrom an
act of observation which leaves some room for imaginative elaboration, to an indelible imprint,
branding the peoples bodies regardless of the speakers actions.

Ironically, the speakers meeting with these marks represents the experience closest to a human
encounter that the poem will offer the speaker. All the speakers subjectsmen, infants,
chimney-sweeper, soldier, harlotare known only through the traces they leave behind: the
ubiquitous cries, the blood on the palace walls. Signs of human suffering abound, but a complete
human formthe human form that Blake has used repeatedly in the Songs to personify and
render natural phenomenais lacking. In the third stanza the cry of the chimney-sweep and the
sigh of the soldier metamorphose (almost mystically) into soot on church walls and blood on
palace wallsbut we never see the chimney-sweep or the soldier themselves. Likewise,
institutions of powerthe clergy, the governmentare rendered by synecdoche, by mention of
the places in which they reside. Indeed, it is crucial to Blakes commentary that neither the citys
victims nor their oppressors ever appear in body: Blake does not simply blame a set of
institutions or a system of enslavement for the citys woes; rather, the victims help to make their
own mind-forgd manacles, more powerful than material chains could ever be.
The poem climaxes at the moment when the cycle of misery recommences, in the form of a new
human being starting life: a baby is born into poverty, to a cursing, prostitute mother. Sexual and
marital unionthe place of possible regeneration and rebirthare tainted by the blight of
venereal disease. Thus Blakes final image is the Marriage hearse, a vehicle in which love and
desire combine with death and destruction.

Describe any two epic similes in 'Paradise Lost' (Book 1)

Epic simile is an extended simile, in some cases running to fifteen or twenty lines, in which the
comparisons made, are elaborated in considerable detail. It is a common feature of epic poetry,
but is found in other kinds as well. In an epic poem similes are used for the purpose of
illustration, but they serve also to decorate the epic theme or character. Epic similes are also
given the name of Homeric similes because Homer elaborated his similes in such a way that a
particular kind of dignity and beauty was created in his poetry and since then it became the
tradition of epic poetry.
Milton has brought in a number of such similes in the Book I of Paradise Lost.
Epic simile is, in simple words, an elaborate comparison that travels beyond the point of
comparison and gives a complete poetic picture of some scene or incident suggested to the mind
of the poet. They are used for illustration and ornamentation. They add dignity to the style. Such
long-tailed similes stand by itself illuminating and beautifying much more than the ordinary
narrative.

No doubt similes are a vital epic part but a group of critics of epic similes as used by Homer,
Virgil or Milton points out that epic similes are elaborate comparisons extended beyond the
original point of similarity and developed into independent pictures often irrelevant and moved a
far-away from the initial connection. Thus, it is generally regarded as excursions of the
imagination beyond the needs of narrative. However, such criticism does not do justice to the
epic similes used by Milton, particularly in Paradise Lost Book I. In this context, one should
remember Addisons famous observation about the essential characteristic of Miltons epic
similes:
When Milton eludes either to things or persons he never quits his similes until it rises to some
very great idea, which is often foreign to the occasions that gave birth to. He runs on with the
idea till he has raised out of it some glorious image to inflame the mind of the readers and to give
it that sublime kind of entertainment which is suitable to the nature of a heroic poem.
There can be no doubt that the variety of scene and incident introduced through these similes is
one of their charms. Miltons similes answer the demands of the narrative; their images stuffed
with poetic scenes, characters and events that compose the poem. They release certain
imaginative forces that have controlled and directed like any other factor of the story. An analysis
of some of the important similes in Paradise Lost BookI should show the validity of the above
observation.
The first simile is the one in which Milton compares the huge bulk of Satan with that of the
monstrous size of the mythical Titans or giants who are fabled to be of the greatest in size ever
born. Milton extends the simile into a comparison of Satan with Leviathan. It serves to build up
the suggestion of awe and mystery that Milton intends to accumulate round Satan. The
suggestion of Satans huge dimensions is emphasized by another simile in which Satans
massive, ponderous, round shield is compared to the moon
The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon.
Immediately onwards Milton digresses by referring to Galileo viewing the moon through his
telescope. This reference to Galileo though not related to the Original object of analogy, serves to
add a super terrestrial dimension to the poem.
Another significant simile is the one which compares the innumerable angels fallen and
groveling in the lake of fire to the cloud of locusts. Miltons comparisons of angels with locusts
are significant because the locusts are messengers of disasters and their association with the
angel serves to suggest the evil nature of the fallen angel. Milton in another simile compares the
fallen angels with the autumnal leaves thickly strewn on the streams in vallambrosa. The
reference of fallen leaves is very appropriate since it suggests and reinforces the fallen nature and
diminished glory of the angels in hell.
Finally, one should also mention another very significant simile in which the thick airy could of
angels in pandemonium is compared to bees:
As bees
In springtime, when the sun with Taurus rides.

Pour forth their populous youth above the hire

In clusters;
The diminutive size of the bees and the angels is a clear painter to the fact that in spiritual
essence the angels in hell are funny.
Miltons similes, it is fair to say in the conclusion serve to suggest dipper realities and do not
merely exist as grand images and rich decorative embellishments. Altogether, Miltons similes
testify to the wide range of his knowledge, observation, memory and classical scholarship and
familiarity with the course of ancient histories. These add to the pomp and magnificence of his
narrative, breaking into them pleasantly and preventing us from feeling a sense of monotony.

What is a metaphysical poem? Consider the canonization as a metaphysical

poem
The term "metaphysical" when applied to poetry has a long and interesting history. You should
know this, but the information in Helen Gardner's Introduction to The Metaphysical
Poets (Penguin) is more than adequate.
Metaphysical poetry is concerned with the whole experience of man, but the intelligence,
learning and seriousness of the poets means that the poetry is about the profound areas of
experience especially - about love, romantic and sensual; about man's relationship with God - the
eternal perspective, and, to a less extent, about pleasure, learning and art.
Metaphysical poems are lyric poems. They are brief but intense meditations, characterized by
striking use of wit, irony and wordplay. Beneath the formal structure (of rhyme, metre and
stanza) is the underlying (and often hardly less formal) structure of the poem's argument. Note
that there may be two (or more) kinds of argument in a poem. In To His Coy
Mistress the explicit argument (Marvell's request that the coy lady yield to his passion) is a
stalking horse for the more serious argument about the transitoriness of pleasure. The outward
levity conceals (barely) a deep seriousness of intent. You would be able to show how this theme
of carpe diem (seize the day) is made clear in the third section of the poem.
Reflections on love or God should not be too hard for you. Writing about a poet's technique is
more challenging but will please any examiner. Giving some time to each (where the task invites
this), while ending on technique would be ideal.
John Donne is one of the most genius and versatile English poets. He is admired for his colossal
contribution in metaphysical poetry. In his numerous writings he has added lots of witty
approaches full of satire, passionate feelings, striking conceits etc. to highlight the nature and
reality revolving around human lives. The new era of writing in the form of metaphysical poetry
starkly attracted the readers through ages although many eminent writers like Dryden, Dr.
Johnson strongly discarded his writings on the plea that Donne unnecessarily used metaphysical
aspects to perplex the natural phenomena of love, sex etc. Although Andrew Marvell, Henry

Vaughan, George Herbert and others have evinced their astuteness and sharpness in representing
common subject matters like love, religion etc. with a new-fangled approach, John Donne shines
amongst them like a luminous star for his stunning and unrivaled genius in rationalizing his
daring imagination. It is Donne who blows the trumpet of change in the clichd pattern of poetry,
teeming with emotion, by inaugurating intellectualized poetry the metaphysical poetry. At
the same time, scarcely can one deny how Donnes immense contribution to this domain of
poetry facilitates and felicitates the meteoric rise and development of metaphysical poetry.
Irrespective of time and age, John Donne is highly appraised all over the globe for his fantastic
intellectual aptitude in describing the varied states of emotion and action of human beings.

The word 'Canonization' means the act or process of changing an ordinary religious person into a
saint in Catholic Christian religion. This title suggests that the poet and his beloved will become
'saints of love' in the future: and they will be regarded as saints of true love by the whole world
in the future.

The speaker of the poem is an old man who has just got the good luck of having a young
beloved! But, unluckily, he is being disturbed by a man who comes to a place where he is
making love. This intruder (one who disturbs) seems to have told him not to do like this. The old
lover gives an energy reply to him. Donne's "Canonization" is an example of metaphysical
poetry. It uses conceits, allusions from the medieval philosophy of metaphysics, a dramatic
situation and an impassioned monologue, a speech-like rhythm, and colloquial language, all of
which make it a typical "metaphysical" poem.
The personal in the poem speaks about the transformation of worldly lovers into holy saints as
in the Catholic Christian custom of 'canonization'. The speaker in the poem claims that he and his
beloved will be canonized when poet immortalizes there love, and that lovers of the future will
invoke to them to give them the strength of spiritual love. The physical passion is to unite them
into one soul and transform them into saints of love.
The poem takes the form of a drama where the speaker is speaking back with angry
arguments against a third person who seems to have told him not to indulge in such love affair in
old age! The speaker argues with the intruding stranger so as to justify his metaphysical logic of
love. As the argument develops, the comparison for the relation between lovers develops with
other metaphors of myth, religion and so on. The speaker equates worldly human love with the
ascetic life of unworldly saints. The whole poem can be seen as an extension of the central

unusual comparison of canonization of lover! The poem makes an impressive beginning with an
abrupt jump into the situation: 'Hold your tongue and let me love.' The lines are highly dramatic.
They illustrate the shock tactic used in most of Donne's metaphysical poems.
The argument in the poem is forceful, suggestive and witty. The speaker use colloquial
words, rough idioms and broken rhythm, all of which characterize metaphysical poems. The very
beginning "For God's sake....." is a good example. The whole poem is in such shockingly new
language and rhythm. Though the rhythm is rough and conversational, the poem is written
mainly in iambic pentameter. Each of five stanzas is of nine lines, and a rhyming scheme such
as: abbacccaa. But the word loves is, for some reason, always used in slant rhyming as in love/
approve, love/ improve, etc.
Use of surprising registers (words) is another feature of the poem. The speaker uses words
from the register of trade, commerce, medicine and myth so as to elaborate his concept of
metaphysical love. 'Palsy' and 'gout' for instance belong to the register of medicine while
'merchant' and 'ship' signify the realm of trade and commerce. While 'Phoenix' relates to myth,
'hymns' concerns religion and 'chronicles' means 'history'.
'Canonization' links together disharmonious images. In other words, there is 'a yoking
together of heterogeneous images by violence'. As the speaker faces an intruder and argues with
him, he links 'lover's sigh' with 'merchant's ships','colds' with 'spring', 'heat' with 'plague' and
'love songs' with divine hymns. As the argument proceeds, the comparison for the relation
between lovers moves from the register of trade and myth to a climax where true lovers are
equated with canonized saints.
Fusion of emotion and intellect is another important feature of the poem. The fusion is
observed in the comparison of the lovers to the mysterious phoenix and the divine saints. The
speaker assumes that like the phoenix, the lovers would 'die and rise at the same time' and prove
'mysterious by their love'. Reference to this mythical being well sums up Donne's theory of
sexual metaphysics; a real and complete relation between a man and a woman fuses their soul
into one whole. The poet is both sensuous and realistic in his treatment of love. The romantic
affair and the moral status of the worldly lovers are compared to the ascetic life of unworldly
saints.
The poem uses an elaborate conceit. In the beginning the speaker expresses his commitment
to love. He addresses an intruding stranger and warns him to keep out of the lover's way. Next,
he discusses love in terms of 'sighs', 'cold' and 'heat'. In the lines that follow, the poet uses more

and more of disharmonious associations. He equates lovers to 'flies' and 'tapers', 'Eagle' and
'Dove', 'Phoenix' and 'saints'.
Thus, 'canonization' is in many ways a typical metaphysical poem where complexity of
substance is expressed with simplicity of expression. The general argument and its development
are clear like its dramatic situations. The allusions are sometimes too forced, but that is a part of
such poetry.

Posted by Jahirul Islam at 11/15/2013 10:06:00 am No comments: Links to this post

Attempt a critical analysis of Spenser's sonnet ' one day I wrote her name upon
the strand'

In this poem Edmund Spenser uses the poetic elements of quatrains, couplets, and a sestet at the
end. In the poem the quatrains transition into couplets. The first stanza is a quatrain. The rhyme
scheme is ABAB. The speaker uses imagery to convey his feelings for his wife. The speaker is
on a beach writing the name of his lover on the sand. It was washed away by the tide. Then he
attempted to write it again, but the tide washed it away. He feels that the ocean is taunting him
and making him suffer. The water is personified as someone who inflicts pain on the speaker. His
wife steps in to tell the speaker that he needs to stop what he is doing and is vain for his efforts.
The second stanza is a quatrain with the rhyme scheme of ABAB. His wife says that it is that of
mortals to attempt to immortalize that which isnt in existence any longer. His wife compares
herself to the vain attempt of immortality and says that she will wash away just like her name
was washed away by the tide. The last stanza is a sestet. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC. The
speaker doesnt believe that to be true. He feels that others things should die but she should be
able to live forever. Even if death occurs and she does die, she will live forever in infamy. The
fame will live on forever in place of her demise. He thinks that what he feels about her and that
her values shall live for eternity. Even if his wife dies he feels that she is up in heaven where she
belongs. Everyone in the world will eventually have to die. The love between the speaker and his
lover shall flourish and begin anew when he comes and meets her in heaven. In this poem it
exemplifies the hero journey stage of The Return. In the poem the main character has to return
to a place where he feels closest to his wife. The beach is a symbol of where the speaker feels
most comfortable and at peace. The speaker can let his feelings out and truly express himself.
Posted by Jahirul Islam at 11/15/2013 09:15:00 am No comments: Links to this post

what are the themes and ideas presented in the opening line of the "Prologue'

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote . . .
The narrator opens the General Prologue with a description of the return of spring. He describes
the April rains, the burgeoning flowers and leaves, and the chirping birds. Around this time of
year, the narrator says, people begin to feel the desire to go on a pilgrimage. Many devout
English pilgrims set off to visit shrines in distant holy lands, but even more choose to travel to
Canterbury to visit the relics of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, where they thank
the martyr for having helped them when they were in need. The narrator tells us that as he
prepared to go on such a pilgrimage, staying at a tavern in Southwark called the Tabard Inn, a
great company of twenty-nine travelers entered. The travelers were a diverse group who, like the
narrator, were on their way to Canterbury. They happily agreed to let him join them. That night,
the group slept at the Tabard, and woke up early the next morning to set off on their journey.
Before continuing the tale, the narrator declares his intent to list and describe each of the
members of the group.
The invocation of spring with which the General Prologue begins is lengthy and formal
compared to the language of the rest of the Prologue. The first lines situate the story in a
particular time and place, but the speaker does this in cosmic and cyclical terms, celebrating the
vitality and richness of spring. This approach gives the opening lines a dreamy, timeless,
unfocused quality, and it is therefore surprising when the narrator reveals that hes going to
describe a pilgrimage that he himself took rather than telling a love story. A pilgrimage is a
religious journey undertaken for penance and grace. As pilgrimages went, Canterbury was not a
very difficult destination for an English person to reach. It was, therefore, very popular in
fourteenth-century England, as the narrator mentions. Pilgrims traveled to visit the remains of
Saint Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered in 1170 by knights of King
Henry II. Soon after his death, he became the most popular saint in England. The pilgrimage
in The Canterbury Tales should not be thought of as an entirely solemn occasion, because it also
offered the pilgrims an opportunity to abandon work and take a vacation.
In line 20, the narrator abandons his unfocused, all-knowing point of view, identifying himself as
an actual person for the first time by inserting the first personIas he relates how he met
the group of pilgrims while staying at the Tabard Inn. He emphasizes that this group, which he
encountered by accident, was itself formed quite by chance (2526). He then shifts into the firstperson plural, referring to the pilgrims as we beginning in line 29, asserting his status as a
member of the group.
The narrator ends the introductory portion of his prologue by noting that he has tyme and
space to tell his narrative. His comments underscore the fact that he is writing some time after
the events of his story, and that he is describing the characters from memory. He has spoken and

met with these people, but he has waited a certain length of time before sitting down and
describing them. His intention to describe each pilgrim as he or she seemed to him is also
important, for it emphasizes that his descriptions are not only subject to his memory but are also
shaped by his individual perceptions and opinions regarding each of the characters. He positions
himself as a mediator between two groups: the group of pilgrims, of which he was a member,
and us, the audience, whom the narrator explicitly addresses as you in lines 34 and 38.
On the other hand, the narrators declaration that he will tell us about the condicioun, degree,
and array (dress) of each of the pilgrims suggests that his portraits will be based on objective
facts as well as his own opinions. He spends considerable time characterizing the group members
according to their social positions. The pilgrims represent a diverse cross section of fourteenthcentury English society. Medieval social theory divided society into three broad classes, called
estates: the military, the clergy, and the laity. (The nobility, not represented in the General
Prologue, traditionally derives its title and privileges from military duties and service, so it is
considered part of the military estate.) In the portraits that we will see in the rest of the General
Prologue, the Knight and Squire represent the military estate. The clergy is represented by the
Prioress (and her nun and three priests), the Monk, the Friar, and the Parson. The other
characters, from the wealthy Franklin to the poor Plowman, are the members of the laity. These
lay characters can be further subdivided into landowners (the Franklin), professionals (the Clerk,
the Man of Law, the Guildsmen, the Physician, and the Shipman), laborers (the Cook and the
Plowman), stewards (the Miller, the Manciple, and the Reeve), and church officers (the
Summoner and the Pardoner). As we will see, Chaucers descriptions of the various characters
and their social roles reveal the influence of the medieval genre of estates satire.