18Jul, 2023
    John Milton

    Milton’s lifespan is 1608 to 1674. He was born in London. Milton studied at St. Paul’sSchool,London, and at Cambridge. He died and was buried in London.

    Prose-Most of Milton’s prose was written during the middle period of his life(1640-1660). His prose works amounts to 25 pamphlets- 21 are in English and 4 in Latin.

    He wrote “Of Education”(1644).

    He composed 2 pamphlets on divorce(1643 and 1644).

    He wrote “Areopagitica”(1644).

    He partly completed “History of Britain”.

    Poetry-Milton’s poetry was written during 2 periods-

    a)the period of his University career and his stay at Horton, from 1629 to 1640

    b)the last years of his life, from about 1660 to 1674.

    The years between were filled by few sonnets.

    a)”Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”(1629)

    “On Shakespeare”(1630)

    “On Arriving at the Age of Twenty-three”(1631)

    “L’Allegro” & “Il Penseroso”(probably in 1632)

    “Comus”(1634)

    “Lycidas”(1637)

    b)Best of Milton’s sonnets-

    “On his Blindness” and “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont”

    “Paradise Lost”(beagn in 1656, & issued in 1667)

    “Paradise Regained” and “Samson Agonistes”(last volume of his poetry issued in 1674).

    29Jun, 2023
    William Wordsworth

    William Wordsworth’s lifespan is 1770 to 1850. Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth. His father’s name is John Wordsworth and his mother’s name is Ann Cookson Wordsworth. His sister’s name is Dorothy Wordsworth. His wife’s name is Mary Hutchinson. His daughter Dora was a frequent inspiration for Wordswoth’s poetry.
    In Somersetshire, Wordsworth along with Coleridge, produced “Lyrical Ballads”. The residenceof Royal Mount was Wordsworth’s home from 1813 till his death.
    In 1839 Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L
    In 1842, the Crown conferred upon him a pension of 300 pound a year.
    On the death of Southey in 1843, he(Wordsworth) became Poet Laureate.

    Poetry – Wordsworth records that his earliest verses were written at school, and that they were “a tame imitation of Pope’s versification”.
    He composed some poetry at University.

    They are – An Evening Walk(1793), Descriptive Sketches(1793).
    Style of these poems – Little originality.
    Shows Wordsworth’s interest towards nature.

    His genius can be seen in “Lyrical Ballads”(1798). It was a joint production by Coleridge and Wordsworth himself. It was published at Bristol. Some of Wordsworth’s poems in it are – “The Thorn”, “The Idiot Boy”(condemned as being trivial and childish in style); “Simon Lee”, “Expostulation and Reply”(more adequate in their expression); “Tintern Abbey”(triumphs of his genius).

    His other works were, “She dwelt among the untrodden ways, Strange fits of passion have I known”, and “Nutting”.
    “Michael ” and “The Old Cumberland Beggar” – Uneven in quality.
    The new poems shows Wordsworth less preoccupied with his theories of poetic diction. The lyrics are striking in their moving restraint and delicacy of touch.
    “The Prelude” was completed in 1805 and published in 1850. It is the recoed of Wordsworth’s development as a poet. He descriebes his experiences with a fullness, closeness, and laborious anxiety that are unique in our literature. This poem consists of 14 books. It is often dull and prosy.
    “The Prelude” was intended to form part of a vast philosophical work called “The Recluse” which was never completed. Another section of this same work was “The Excursion”. It consisted of nine long books. His 2 volumes of poems to be published in 1807 represent his genius. The success of this volume is seen in the lyric – “The Solitary Reaper”, “The Green Linnet”, “I Wandered lonely as a cloud; in the philosophical – “Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, Resolution and Independence, Ode to Duty; Sonnets dedicated to National Independence and Liberty are of quality which led many critics to hail them as the finest sonnets in the language.
    His late volumes are “The White Doe of Rylstone(1815), “The Waggoner”(1819), “Peter Bell”(1819), “Yarrow Revisited”(1835), and “The Borderers”(1842), a drama.

    29Jun, 2023
    William Shakespeare

    His full name is William Shakespeare. His lifespan is 1566 to 1616. 23rd of April is generally accepted as the poet’s birthday. His father’s name is John Shakespeare. He(John Shakespeare) was a farmer’s son from the neighbouring village of Snitterfield, who came to Stratford about 1551, and began to prosper as a trader in corn, meat,leather, and other agricultural products. His(William Shakespeare’s) mother name is Mary Arden. She was the daughter of a prosperous farmer descended from an old Warwickshire family of mixed Anglo-Saxon and Norman blood. He probably attended the endowed grammar school at Stratford, where he picked up the “small Latin and less Greek” to which his learned friend Ben Jonson refers.

    His Poems –

    1)Venus Adonis(1593) – This poem is composed in six-line stanzas.

    It shows signs of immaturity.

    Its Subject – in accordance with popular taste.

    Its Description – heavily ornamented and conventional.

    It contains individual lines and expressions of great beauty.

    2)The Rape of Lucrece(1594) – Rhyme royal stanzas.

    The action was retarded with long speeches, but there was Shakespearean touches all through.

    3)The Passionate Pilgrim(1599) – It is a collection of verse.

    Shakespeare’s name appeared on the title page of the collection.

    4)Shakespeare’s sonnets – The sonnets are 154 in numbers. The sonnets are composed in the English form of the sonnet i.e., of 3 quatrains clenched with a couplet.

    Shakespeare used popular songs as the basis of many of his lyrics.

    His Plays –

    1591-92 – 1 Henry vi

    2 Henry vi

    3 Henry vi

    1593 – Richard iii

    The Comedy of Errors

    1594 – Titus Andronicus

    The Taming of the Shrew

    Love’s Labour’s Lost

    Romeo and Juliet

    1595 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

    The Two Gentleman of Verona

    King John

    1596 – Richard II

    The Merchant of Venice

    1597 – 1 Henry IV

    1598 – 2 Henry IV

    Much Ado About Nothing

    1599 – Henry V

    Julius Caesar

    1600 – The Merry Wives of Windsor

    As You Like It

    1601 – Hamlet

    Twelfth Night

    1602 – Troilus and Cressida

    All’s Well that Ends Well

    1603 – (Theatres Closed)

    1604 – Measure for Measure

    Othello

    1605 – Macbeth

    King Lear

    1606 – Antony and Cleopatra

    Coriolanus

    1607 – Timon of Athens(Unfinished)

    1608 – Pericles(in part)

    1609 – Cymbeline

    1610 – The Winter’s Tale

    1611 – The Tempest

    1613 – Henry VIII(in part)

    The dates of his plays can be approximate estimates of the dates of the plays. His Prose – Shakespeare’s prose appears all through his plays. In his comedies, prose is the common vehicle for his comic scenes, though used in serious passages also as in “Hamlet”.

    29Jun, 2023
    Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    His lifespan is 1772 to 1834. He was born in Devonshire. He was the youngest of the 13 children of the vicar of Ottery St Mary. His father’s name is Anne Bowden.
    The best of his poems were composed within two years, 1797-98.
    His Poems – Poems on Various Subjects(1796)
    Lyrical Ballads(1798) – It contains 4 poems by Coleridge and among the 4 most noteworthy is “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.
    Christabel – (1st part-1797, 2nd part – 1800)
    Kubla Khan(1798)
    Frost at Midnight
    France : An Ode
    Dejection(the great ode)
    Remorse
    Prose – “The Watchman” – a periodical
    “The Friend” – 1809
    “Biographia Literaria” & “Sibylline Leaves” – 1817
    Aids to Reflection – 1825
    Table Talk – (1835, published)

    29Jun, 2023
    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    His lifespan is 1792-1822. He was born in Sussex. He was educated at Eton and Oxford. His father’s name is Sir Timothy Shelley.

    Poetry – His poetry includes”

    1. Queen Mab(1813) – It is immature, lengthy, contains much of Shelley’s cruder atheism.

    Meter – Irregular unrhymed metre.

    • Alsator, or The Spirit of Solitude(1816) – It is a kind of spiritual autobiography. The poem is long. It is remembered chiefly for its lyrical passages and striking, typically Shelleyan imagery.
    • Laon and Cythna – It was afterward called “The Revolt of Islam”. It lacks grip and coherence. It is richer in descriptive passages.
    • Prometheus Unbound(1818-1819, published in 1820) – The firstfruits of his new life were apparent in this work. This work is a combination of the lyric and the drama.
    • The Cenci(1819) – Here, Shelley started to write formal drama.
    • Julian and Maddalo(1818) – It is a longer poem.
    • The Masque of Anarchy(1819, published 1832) – This poem was inspired by the news of the massacre of Peterloo, expresses Shelley’s revolutionary political views.
    • The Witch of Atlas(1820, published 1824) – It is the lightest and most delicate of all Shelley’s fantasies. It is rich in music and imagery.
    • Epipsychidion(1821) – It contains some of his fervent writing.
    • Adonais(1821) – This poem is a lament for the death of keats. It is modeled on the classical elegy.

    Prose – His prose work include:

    1. Zastrozzi
    2. St. Irvyne

    The above 2 books were written when he was at school.

    3.The Defence of Poetry(1821, published 1840) – This work is a short essay.

    29Jun, 2023
    Lord Byron

    His lifespan is 1788 to 1824. He was born in London. His early years were passed in Aberdeen, which was his mother’s native place. He married an heiress in 1815. He died of fever at Missolonghi and his body was given a grand funeral in England.

    Poetry – His poetry includes:
    1) Hours of Idleness(1807) – This work was his juvenile effort.
    2) English Bards and Scotch Reviewers(1809) – Byron composed this satire in the style of Pope.
    3) Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage(1812) – This poem is on his two years of travel. The hero of the poem is a romantic youth, and is very clearly Byron himself. The poem is diffuse, but sometimes it can be terse and energetic. The style is half-heartedly old-fashioned, in deference to the stanza. This poem brought the author a dower of fame.
    4) His poetic tales : “The Giaour”, The Bride of Abydos(1813), “The Corsair” and “Lara”(1814), “The Siege of Corinth” and “Parisina” in 1815(published 1816).
    These tales deal with the romantic scenes of the East. They almost uniformly reproduce the young Byronic hero of “Childe Harold”. They are mannered and stagy. It is written in couplet form.

    His longer poems – “The Prisoner of Chillon”(1816), “Mazeppa”(1819)

    His satirical poems – “Beppo”(1818, published 1819), “The Vision of Judgement”(1822), “Don Juan”(the longest of all).

    5) “The Vision of Judgement” – It is one of the finest English political satires. The poem is written in ottava rima. This poem shows a mastery of satirical portraiture.
    6) “Don Juan” – In range; in vigour and in effectiveness, “Don Juan” ranks as one of the greatest of satirical poems. This poem was issued in portions during the years 1819-24.
    It is a kind of picaresque novel cast into verse.
    Here, Byron expresses the wrath that consumes him.
    The stanzas are written in ottava rima.

    His Drama : Byron’s dramas are all blank-verse tragedies. They were composed in the later stages of his career.
    His dramas include :
    1) Manfred(1817)
    2) Marino Faliero(1821)
    3) “The Two Foscari” and “Cain”(1821)
    4) The Deformed Transformed(1824)
    In nearly all, the hero is Byronic type. Ex- In “Cain”, we have the outcast who defies the censure of the world.
    In “The Deformed Transformed”, there are thinly screened references to Byron’s own deformity.
    The blank verse has power and dignity, but it lacks the higher poetic
    inspiration. His Lyrics : His lyrics include:
    1) She Walks in Beauty
    2) To Thyrza

    29Jun, 2023
    John Keats

    His lifespan is 1795 to 1821. John Keats was born in London. He was educated at a private school at Enfield.

    Poetry – His poetry includes:
    1) Poems (1817) – It is his first volume of verse. Some of the sonnets in this book are of outstanding merit. His sonnets include, “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer”.
    2) “Sleep and Poetry” and “I Stood tip-toe upon a little hill” – These poems shows the influence of Spenser and Leigh Hunt. The whole volume was dedicated to them.
    3) Endymion (1818) – This volume is probably based partly on Drayton’s “The Man in the Moon” and Fletcher’s, “The Faithful Shepherdess”. It professe to tell the story of the lovely youth who was kissed by the moon-goddess on the summit of Mount Latmos.
    4) Isabella, or The Pot of Basil (1818) – This poem is written in ottava rima.
    5) Hyperion (begun 1818, abandoned 1819) – In this work, Keats took up the epic theme. The epic theme is of the primeval struggle between the older race of gods and the younger divinities. Both in style and structure, the poem is modeled on “Paradise Lost”.
    6) The Eve of St Agnes (1819) – This work is regarded by others as his finest narrative poem.
    Here, in this poem, Spenser’s influence is seen in the chivalric tone, the stanza form and the occasional archaisms.
    The style of the poem is Keats’ own.
    This poem is full of beauties of description, imagery, color. It is sensuous, highly decorative.
    7) The Eve of Saint Mark – It was written in 1819. It remained unfinished.
    8) Lamia(1819) – It’s story is taken from Burton’s, “The Anatomy of Melancholy”.
    The style of the poem is modeled on the fables of Dryden.
    The poem is full of Keatsian pictorial richness.

    His shorter pieces include his odes –
    To a Nightingale
    On a Grecian Urn
    To Psyche
    On Melancholy
    To Autumn
    The above odes were all written nearly in 1819.

    Keats ranks with greatest English poets as a sonneteer. He has written 61 sonnets and of them 10, including, On first looking into Chapman’s Homer, When I have fears that I may cease to be, and Bright Star, would I were stedfast as thou art.

    9) La Belle Dame sans Merci – It is a lyrical ballad.
    10) King Stephen – It remained unfinished.
    11) The Cap and Bells – It also remained unfinished.

    29Jun, 2023
    JOHN DONNE

    His lifespan is 1573 to 1631. He was the son of a wealth merchant. He was born in London. His parents were Roman Catholics. He was educated in his parent’s faith before going to Oxford and Cambridge.

    In 1615, he entered the Anglican Church, after a severe personal struggle, and in 1621 became Dean of St. Paul’s, which position he held until his death in 1631. He was the 1st great Anglican preacher.

    His Poetry –
    John Donne was the most independent of the Elizabethan poets. He revolted against the easy, fluent style, stock imagery, and pastoral conventions of the followers of Spenser. He aimed at reality of thought and vividness of expression. His poetry is forceful, vigorous and in spite of faults of rhythm, often strangely harmonious.

    Satire –
    1)”Of the Progress of the Soule”(1610) – It show clearly Donne’s dissatisfaction with the world around him.

    Love Poems –
    1)”Songs and Sonnets” – It is also written in 1601. There are intense and subtle analyses of all the moods of a lover, expressed in vivid and startling language, which is colloquial rather than conventional.
    A vein of satire runs through these also.
    The rhythm is dramatic and gives the illusion of excited talk.
    He prefers to arrest attention rather than to lull the senses. His great variety of pace, his fondness for echoing sounds, his deliberate use of shortened lines and unusual stress contribute also to this effect of vivid speech, swift thought, and delicate emotional responses.
    He is essentially a psychological poet whose primary concern is feeling. His poems are all intensely personal and reveal a powerful and complex being. The best known and most typical poems of this group are – “Aire and Angels”, “A Nocturnal upon S. Lucies day”, “A Valediction : forbidding mourning” and “The Extasie”.

    His religious poetry was written after 1610. The greatest, the 19 “Holy Sonnets” and the lyrics such as “A Hymn to GOD THE FATHER”, written in 1617.

    They are intense, personal and have a force unique in this class of literature. They reveal the struggle in his mind before taking orders in the Anglican Church, his horror of death, and the fascination which it had for him, his dread of the wrath of God, and his longing for God’s love. They are the expression of a deep and troubled soul. In them are found the intellectual subtlety, the scholastic learning, and the ‘wit’ and ‘conceits’ of the love poems.

    Dryden said of Donne, “He affects the metaphysics”. The word ‘metaphysics’ means, ‘based on abstract general reasoning’. But the poetry of Donne shows more than this. The poetry of Donne reveals a depth of philosophy, a subtlety of reasoning, a blend of thought and devotion, a mingling of the homely and the sublime, the light and the serious, which make it full of variety and surprise.

    It is to the many characteristics, so widely different yet often brought together in a startling fusion, that the general term ‘wit’ is applied.

    Imagery is a distinctive feature of the metaphysical. In Donne, this feature is unusual and striking, often breath-taking, but sometimes far-fetched and fantastic. He has made remarkable comparisons – parted lovers are like the legs of a pair of compasses, love is a spider “which transubstantiates all, his sick body is a map, his physicians cosmographers, and Death his “South-west discoverie”.

    His Prose –

    1)”The Pseudo-Martyr”(1610) – It was a defence of the oath of allegiance.
    2)”Ignatius His Conclave”(1611) – It was a satire upon Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits.

    3)”Devotions”(1614) – The best introduction to Donne’s prose. The strong power of his imagination and the mask of learning are the features of his work.

    4)”Sermons” – They are his finest prose works. They are 160 in numbers.

    5)”Death’s Duell”(1630) – The finest of his sermons. It contain many of the features of his poetry. His Influence –
    Donne’s influence is strongly felt in both the courtly and religious poetry of the following generation.

    29Jun, 2023
    EDMUND SPENSER

    Edmund Spenser was born in 1552 and this was clear from one of his sonnets. From another passage, in his “Prothalamion”, it is deduced that he was born in London. His parentage is unknown. He was educated at the Merchant Taylor’s School(founded in 1560) and at Cambridge. He left Cambridge in 1576. He probably spent the time in the North of England. He comes into view in London during 1579 as a member of famous literary circle surrounding Sir Philip Sidney and his uncle the Earl of Leicester. Sidney patronized Spenser. He introduced Spenser to the Queen, encouraging him in his imitation of the classical meters. In 1580, Sidney’s patronage bore fruit. Spenser was appointed secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton. He remained in London for 18 years, serving the English Govt. In 1589, he visited London to publish the first 3 books of, “The Faerie Queene”. He married an Irish woman in 1594. He died in London in 1599, “for lack of bread”, according to the statement of Ben Jonson.

    Poems – His poems include:

    1)”The Shepheards Calendar”(1579) – The title of the poem is adopted from a popular compilation of the day.
    The content of the poem is a series of 12 eclogues, one for each month of the year. Each eclogue is in dialogue form in which the stock pastoral characters, such as Cuddie, Colin Clout and Perigot, take part.
    The style of the poem is deliberately archaic, in keeping with the rustic characters, Spenser adopting the dialect and alliteration of the Midlands and North.
    2)”The Ruins of Time”, “The Tears of the Muses”, “Mother Hubberd’s Tale” and “The Ruins of Rome” – This is a volume of miscellaneous poems. They appeared in 1591.
    3)”Amoretti” – It was published in 1595. It consists of 88 petrarchan sonnets celebrating the progress of his love.
    4)”Epithalamion” – It is a magnificient ode, rapturously jubilant, written in honor of his marriage.
    5)”Colin Clout’s come home Again” – It is somewhat wordy. It contained some interesting personal details.
    6)”Four Hymns” and “Prothalamion” – It appeared in 1596.
    Spenser’s shorter poems illustrate his lyrical ability. His style is too diffuse and ornate to be intensely passionate. Especially in the odes, he can build up sonorous and commanding measures which by their weight and splendor delight both mind and ear.

    Prose –
    1)”A View of the Present State of Ireland”(1594) – It is a longish prose work. It is a kind of State paper done in the form of a dialogue. It gives Spenser’s views on the settlement of the Irish question.
    The style of the pamphlet is quite and undistinguished.
    2)”The Faerie Queene” – It is by far the most important of Spenser’s works.
    a)Dates of Composition –
    This work appeared in installments.
    In 1589, Spenser crossed to London and published the first 3 books.
    In 1596, the second 3 followed.
    After his death, 2 cantos and 2 old stanzas of Book VII appeared.
    It was reported that more of the work perished in manuscript during the fire at Kilkolman, but it is not certain.
    b)The Plot –
    The construction of the plot is so obscure that he was compelled to write a preface, in the form of a letter to his friend Sir Walter Ralegh, explaining the scheme underlying the whole. There were to be 12 books, each book to deal with the adventures of a particular knight, who was to represent some virtue.
    The plot is exceedingly leisurely and elaborate; it contains incident and digression; and by 5th book it is palpably weakening. As far as plot is concerned, only half of the story is finished.
    c)Allegory –
    With its 12 divisions, each of which bears many smaller branches, the allegory is the most complex in the language.
    Through the story, 3 strands keep running, twisting and untwisting in a manner both baffling and delightful.
    1) There are the usual characters, poorly developed, of the Arthurian and classical romance, such as Arthur, Merlin, Saracens, fauns, and satyrs.
    2) There are the allegorized moral and religious virtues, with their counterparts in the vices: Una(Truth), Guyon(Temperance), Duessa(Deceit), Orgoglio(Pride).
    3) Lastly, there is the strongly Elizabethan political-historical-reigiouselement, also strongly allegorized.
    Ex- Gloriana is Elizabeth, Duessa may be Mary, Queen of Scots, Archimago may be the Pope, and Artegal(Justice) is said to be Lord Grey.

    d)Style –
    The style has its weakness : it is diffuse, and in sharpness of attack; and it is misty and unsubstantial. But for beautylong and richly wrought, for subtle and substantial melody, for graphic word-pictures, and for depth and magical colour of atmosphere the poem stands supreme in English. Its imitators, good and bad, are legion. Milton, Keats, and Tennyson are among the best of them, and its influence is still powerful.
    e) The Technique – To the formal part of the poem, Spenser devoted the intelligence and care of the great artist.
    1) First, he elaborated an archaic diction. When the occasion demanded it, he invented words or word-forms.
    Ex- he uses ‘blend’ for blind
    he uses ‘kest’ for cast
    he uses ‘vilde’ fro vile
    2)He introduced the Spenserian stanza and it had ever since has been one of the most important measures in the language. Longer than the usual stanza, but shorter than the sonnet, as a unit it is just long enough to give an easy pace to the slowly pacing narrative.
    3)The alliteration, vowel-music, and cadence are cunningly fashioned, adroitly developed, and sumptuously appropriate.

    29Jun, 2023
    CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

    His lifespan is 1564 to 1593. He was the greatest of the pre-Shakespearian dramatist. He was born in Canterbury. He was educated at Canterbury and at Cambridge. He adopted literature as a profession.

    His plays, all tragedies, were written within 5 years(1587-92).

    He had no bent for comedy. The comic parts found in some of his plays are always inferior and may be by other writers.

    As a dramatist, he had serious limitations. It was traces that there was a growing sense of theater through his plays.

    Only in Edward II, Marlowe has shown sense of plot construction. His characterization is of the simplest and lacks the warm humanity of Shakespeare’s.

    Except Edward II, all his plays revolve around one figure drawn in bold outlines. That character shows no complexity or subtlety of development. The character is the embodiment of a single idea.

    Marlowe’s plays are the representation of a poetic vision, the typically Renaissance quest for power combined with the quest for beauty. For example, in his play, “Tamburlaine the Great”, the Shepherd seeks the “sweet fruition of an earthly crown”, in the play, “The Jew of Malta” Barabbas seeks “infinite riches in a little room”, while the quest of “Doctor Faustus” is for more than human knowledge.

    Marlowe excels as a poet. He was the first to exploit the possibilities of blank verse and make it supreme. His blank verse is notable for its burning energy, its splendor of diction, its sensuous richness, its variety of pace, and its responsiveness to the demands of varying emotions. His blank verse is unequaled by any of his contemporaries except Shakespeare.

    His poetry is crammed with imagery from the classics, astronomy and from geography, an imagery barbaric in its wealth and splendor. Its resonance and power led Ben Jonson to coin the phrase “Marlowe’s mighty line”, but its might has often obscured its technical precision and its admirable lucidity and finish.