From THE PRINCESS - Alfred Tennyson

From THE PRINCESS - Alfred Tennyson

A.  THE SPLENDOR FALLS

       

The Splendor Falls is a beautiful song that occurs at the end of Canto III of The Princess. All readers of Tennyson have noticed the music and melody of the lyric, enhanced by the use of double rhymes.

As is the case with the other songs, this song also is closely connected with the main theme of the poem. Princess Ida founded the Female Academy to which no male was allowed entrance. She had been betrothed to a neighbouring Prince who loved her and longed for her. So he disguised himself as a lady and with two other similarly disguised friends entered the college. The princess proposed one day to have a scientific expedition "to take the dip of a certain strata to the north", and she invited the disguised Prince and his friends to accompany her and her maidens. There, a rich velvet pavillion was erected and the ladies moved to and fro, triumphant with joy.

In the evening they saw the bright light of the sun falling on walls of the castle. When the bugle sounds, the echo resounds through hills and dales. But the air does not retain the sound, it grows thinner and thinner every moment, till it dies out and it is heard no more. But the response produced in the heart of the beloved is indelible and it lasts. There it is nursed and fed on thoughts and hopes, and watered with tears, till it transcends time and distance and becomes immortal.

B. TEARS, IDLE TEARS

Tears, Idle Tears is a song, which occurs in the beginning of the Canto IV of The Princess. After a day's hard work, the Princess Ida asks one of her maidens to sing a song and she sings the present song. The mood of the lyric is one of the wistful longings, and it harmonises well with the mood of the princess at the moment. It is a poignant lyric, which goes directly to the heart of readers. Its popularity has been a continuing one, and it is included in most anthologies of English lyrics.

The poet does not exactly know the cause of the tears that gathers up in his eyes. The immediate cause of his sadness is the sight of the ripe autumn fields whose richness and golden hues stand in contrast to the poet's present misery and his own regret for the past. They remind him of his own happiness.

The memory of his past happiness is as fresh as the hope which is kindled at the sight of a ship on the eastern horizon, bringing our friends back to home and lit up by the early rays of the sun. But the very next moment the unreal nature of this hope produces a regret, which is as poignant as that which one feels at the last glimpse of the ship carrying away one's dear friends.

Due to the passage of time, the memory of the past happiness becomes blurred and dim; just as for a dying person the sight of a window lit up by the beautiful morning light on a summer day becomes dim due to failing vision and once favourite and spontaneous songs of birds, singing in the morning, assume an unfamiliar sound. This naturally causes a poignant sadness in the heart of the poets, and he is inclined to weep.

The memory of past happiness in itself is as dear to the poet as the memory of the kisses enjoyed in the past and as sweet as those, which we enjoy in our imagination, even though their actual enjoyment may be an impossibility owing to the death of the beloved or her marriage with another.  It is as overpowering as the first moments of love;  yet it fills the poet with a sense of intense sorrow because he cannot call it back. Without the happiness which, the poet knew in the past, his life is no better than death; if the pleasure and joy for which this life is meant is absent, the life becomes dull and as good as death. It is life in death; the poet is living. But he suffers the pain of death. He weeps, even though his tears are futile.

C.  NOW SLEEPS THE CRIMSON PETAL

The sweet lyric occurs in Canto VII of The princess. One night, the prince awoke from a sound sleep, and found the Princess Ida, whom he loved, reading in low tones a song form, " a volume of the poets of her land". It was the present song, which she was reading.

The lyric is an appeal to the beloved to surrender herself and join the lover. It is a common device in songs, especially in love-songs, to enshrine a passionate purport in the midst of illustrative references to Nature, animate or inanimate. In the present case the lover makes his appeal by drawing attention to the subtle spiritual magnetism that exists between the restful earth and the palpitating sky. The earth is influenced by the stars overhead, and so she must also be influenced by his love. Just as the meteor leaves a streak of light in the sky, so thoughts of his beloved have caused a furrow in his heart. In the end, the lover exhorts the beloved to fold herself in his bosom and be lost in him, just as the lily sinks into the bosom of the lake.

The lyric is an appeal to the beloved to surrender herself completely to her lover, and become one with him. The unusual form of this lyric appears to be Tennyson's personal adaptation of the, 'ghazal', a type of Persian love-ode. Examples of such ghazals he had been reading in the original and in translation with the help of Fitz-Gerald. The imagery of roses, lilies, peacocks, stars and cypress is common to Persian Poetry. 

D. COME DOWN, O MAID

This exquisite lyric occurs in Canto VII  of Tennyson's The Princess. And it is closely integrated with its context. Late in the night, Princess Ida, unable to sleep, reads a volume of poems. First she sings to herself the song "Now sleeps the crimson petal, and now the white", and then the present one.She sings it to herself unaware of the fact that the Prince, who loves her, and sleeping nearby, is not really sleep but is watching her, and listening to her.

In this love-lyric, remarkable for its fervour and intensity, a shepherd lover asks his beloved to come down from the mountain peak where she stands to the valley below where he himself stands. On the mountain she might be nearer to heaven, but she is farther from the earth and from the pleasures of love. The mountain symbolizes isolation and separation -- a life barren and futile given to intellectual pursuits -- while life in the valley represents and fruitful life full of love and happiness, a life guided by emotions, by the heart and not the head. Princess Ida is very much moved by the song. She realizes the barrenness of her own life, which is like a life lived on a mountaintop. Her heart is touched and she decides to give up her ambitious plans, which result in emotional sterility, and to surrender herself to her lover.

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INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP – ROBERT BROWNING

INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP – ROBERT BROWNING

Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, a suburb of London on 7 May 1812. He was educated mainly at home, but he attended a short course in Greek at London University. In 1846 he married Elizabeth Barret, six years his senior, and lived in Florence for the next fifteen years. After his wife’s death in 1861, he came back to England and settled in London. By 1881 his fame as a poet was so much that a literary society called Browning Society was established by some of the scholars of the time. Ever since he settled in England it was his practice to spend the winter every year in Italy. During one such visit, he died in Venice on 12 December 1889. The body was brought to England and buried in the Poet’s corner of Westminster Abbey. He lies buried near his great rival, Tennyson.

Browning is famous for his dramatic monologues. He is more famous for his obscurity which is the outcome of his using too many compressed expressions. But the most noteworthy thing about him as a poet is his faith in God and the resultant optimism.

Poem:

You know, we French stormed Ratisbon:

A mile or so away,

On a little mound, Napoleon

Stood on our storming-day;

With neck out-thrust, you fancy how,

Legs wide, arms locked behind,

As if to balance the prone brow

Oppressive with its mind.

Just as perhaps he mused, ‘My plans

That soar, to earth may fall,

Let once my army-leader Lannes

Waver at yonder wall’, –

Out ’twixt the battery-smokes there flew

A rider, bound on bound

Full-galloping: nor bridle drew

Until he reached the mound.

Then off there flung in smiling joy,

And held himself erect

By just his horse’s mane, a boy:

You hardly could suspect –

(So tight he kept his lips compressed,

Scarce any blood came through)

You looked twice ere you saw his breast

Was all but shot in two.

‘Well’, cried he, ‘Emperor, by God’s grace

We’ve got you Ratisbon!

The Marshal’s in the market-place

And you’ll be there anon,

To see your flag-bird flap his vans

Where I, to heart’s desire,

Perched him!’ The Chief’s eye flashed; his plans

Soared up again like fire.

The Chief’s eye flashed; but presently

Softened itself, as sheathes

A film the mother-eagle’s eye

When her bruised eaglet breathes:

‘You’re wounded!’ ‘Nay’, his soldier’s pride

Touched to the quick, he said:

‘I’m killed, Sire!’And, his Chief beside,

Smiling, the boy fell dead.

This was an incident in Napoleon’s war with Austria. Marshal Lannes Stormed Ratisbon in Bavaria in 1809. The story is true, but the actual hero was a man and not a boy, as represented to this poem.

Napoleon: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was originally an Officer in the French army, but he became the army chief. In 1804 he proclaimed himself emperor. But within a decade the tide turned against him. In 1814 Napoleon abdicated and was sent to Elba. He returned in 1815 and assumed power. However in the very same year he was defeated by Lord Wellington at Waterloo. He was to St. Helena where he died in 1821.

Napoleon was standing on a little mound, eagerly looking towards Ratisbon. His mind was oppressed with anxious thoughts and he said to himself that all his ambitious plans would come to nothing if Lannes failed to storm Ratisbon. As he was thinking like this, suddenly he saw a thick smoke going up in the air. Soon a rider on horse back was found galloping at full speed. The young rider was mortally wounded, but he kept his lips tight in order to prevent blood from the mouth coming out. At last he reached the mound where Napoleon was standing. The boy informed him that Ratisbon had been taken and his flag was fluttering there.

On hearing the news Napoleon was very happy and his eyes looked bright with joy. But when he found that the boy was wounded his eyes were filled with tears. He said with sorrow that the boy was wounded. But at first the boy denied it. In the next moment he admitted that he was killed and fell down dead by the side of the emperor.

The incident brings out the character of both Napoleon and the boy. Though a mighty emperor, Napoleon is tender hearted. This is evident from the fact that he is overcome with grief when he finds that the young boy is wounded. The boy is very brave, dutiful, and has a strong will power. Though he is mortally wounded he tries his best to hide the fact. Having done his duty he falls down dead.

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EPISODE OF THE SPIDER AND THE BEE - Jonathan swift

EPISODE OF THE SPIDER AND THE BEE -  Jonathan swift

The episode of the Spider and the Bee is one of the most interesting incidents of The Battle of Books. Technically it is an episode because it is introduced as an interlude at a time when the ancients and the Moderns are hurling hot words at one another and are preparing to launch the offensive. In terms of its dramatic quality and intrinsic worth it is more than an episode.

The incident of the spider and the bee took place at a time when the Ancients and the Moderns were exchanging hot words and were fast moving towards a serious crisis. When the two parties were well-set for measuring their strength, the interesting incident of the spider and the bee occurred. A spider lived in his cobweb upon the highest corner of a large window in St. James's Library. A wandering bee entered into the library through a broken glass pane. He flew into the spider's web. With great difficulty he extracted himself unharmed and paused at a safe distance to cleanse his wings. The spider, whose web had been ruined, saw the culprit and shouted insults at him. He called the bee a rogue, a vagabond without hearth or home of his own living upon universal plunder of nature. The spider maintained his superiority by saying that he was a domestic animal living in a castle, which he had himself built. Moreover, he was furnished with a native stock within his own body. To all this, the bee replied courteously that though he wandered far and wide, he collected honey from flowers without harming them in any way. On the other hand, the spider could only gather dirt and poison by remaining at home. The bee said tat the spider turned everything, with which he came in contact, into poison.  The bee ridiculed the spider for his vaunted skill in Mathematics. The bee claimed that he had nature's choicest gifts -- wings and musical voice. The arrogant spider was on the verge of bursting with rage and pride, but the bee disdained further argumentation and flew away to a bed of flowers.

The episode of Spider and the Bee is a significant aside to the main battle between the books. The spider stands for modern innovators and scientists who thought that only mechanical inventions could help the mankind. The spider is an architect. He builds his castle out of material spun out by himself without depending on nature to assist him. The bee depends on the help from flowers, wings and voice. The spider for modern scientists who believe that science is a powerful instrument of progress. But swift was against the inventions of science and later on made fun of scientists in The Gulliver's Travels. He was of the view that the path of progress is not the spider's way but of the bee. The moderns live on controversies and personal animosities. Whereas the ancients did not indulge in poisonous polemics. The ancients writers like Homer and Virgil brought out sweetness and light, collecting the two after ranging widely over the realms of matter and mind.

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Tenses for First Semester

INTERCHANGE OF VERBS IN TENSES

Tenses	Positive verb	Negative verb
Simple present tense	write / writes	do / does not write
Present continuous tense	am / is / are writing	am / is / are not writing
Present perfect tense	have / has written	have / has not written
Present perfect continuous tense	have / has been writing	Have / has not been writing
Simple past tense	wrote	did not write
Past continuous tense	was / were writing	was / were not writing
Past perfect tense	had written	had not written
Past perfect continuous tense	had been writing	had not been writing
Simple future tense	will / shall write	will / shall not write
Future continuous tense	will / shall be writing	will / shall not be writing
Future perfect tense	will / shall have written	will / shall have not written
Future perfect continuous tense	will / shall have been writing	Will / shall have not been writing

SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT (present tense)

First person singular	present	continuous	perfect	perfect continuous
I	write	am writing	have written	have been writing
First person plural
We	write	are writing	have written	have been writing
Second person
You	write	are writing	have written	have been writing
Third person singular
He, she, it, any name of a person	writes	is writing	has written	has been writing
Third person plural
They	write	are writing	have written	have been writing

SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT (past tense)

First person singular	past	continuous	perfect	Perfect continuous
I	wrote	was writing	had written	had been writing
First person plural
We	wrote	were writing	had written	had been writing
Second person
You	wrote	were writing	have written	had been writing
Third person singular
He, she, it, any name of a person	wrote	was writing	had written	had been writing
Third person plural
They	wrote	were writing	had written	had been writing

SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT (future tense)

First person singular	past	continuous	perfect	Perfect continuous
I	shall / will write	will / shall be writing	will / shall have written	will / shall have been writing
First person plural
We	shall / will write	will / shall writing	will / shall have written	will / shall have been writing
Second person
You	will write	will be writing	will have written	will have been writing
Third person singular
He, she, it, any name of a person	will write	will be writing	will have written	will have been writing
Third person plural
They	will write	will be writing	will have written	will have have been writing

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