Sonnet To Byron

 Sonnet To Byron – P. B. Shelley

 

(I am afraid these verses will not please you, but)

 

If I esteemed you less, Envy would kill

Pleasure, and leave to Wonder and Despair

The Ministration of the thoughts that fill

The mind which, like a warm whose life may share

A portion of the unapproachable,

Marks your creations rise as fast and fair

As perfect worlds at the Creator’s will.

 

But such is my regard that nor your power

To soar above the heights where others (climb),

Nor fame, that shadow of the unborn hour

Cast from the envious future on the time,

Move one regret for his unhonoured name

Who dares these words: — the worm beneath the sod

May lift itself in homage of the God.

 

 

Sonnet To Byron – John Keats

 

Byron! How sweetly sad thy melody!

Attuning still the soul to tenderness,

As if soft Pity, with unusual stress,

Had touch’d her plaintive lute, and thou, being by,

Hadst caught the tones, nor suffer’d them to die.

O’er shadowing sorrow doth not make thee loss

Delightful: thou thy griefs dost dress

With a bright halo, shining beamily,

As when a cloud the golden moon doth veil,

Its sides are ting’d with a resplendent glow,

Through the dark robe oft amber rays prevail,

And like fair veins in sable marble flow;

Still warble, dying swan! still tell the tale,

The enchanting tale, the tale of pleasing woe.

 

                       -----

 

Sonnet. On The Sea - John Keats

 Sonnet. On The Sea – John Keats

 

It keeps eternal whisperings around

Desolate[mp1]  shores, and with its mighty swell

Gluts[mp2]  twice ten thousand caverns[mp3] , till the spell

Of Hecate[mp4]  leaves them their old shadowy sound.

Often ’tis in such gentle temper found

That scarcely will the very smallest shell

Be mov’d for days from whence it sometime fell,

When last the winds of heaven were unbound

Oh ye! Who have your eye-balls vex’d and tir’d,

Feast them upon the wideness of the sea;

Oh ye! Whose ears are dinn’d[mp5]  with uproar rude,

Or fed too much with claying melody, — 

Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood

Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quir’d!  

 

---

 [mp1]Uninhabited and giving an impression of bleak emptiness

 [mp2]An excessively aboundant supply of something

 [mp3]A large cave or chamber in a cave

 [mp4]A goddess of dark places, often associated with ghosts and sorcery

 [mp5] A prolonged uproar

                                -----

Come Down, O Maid - Alfred Lord Tennyson

 Come Down, O Maid – Alfred Lord Tennyson

 

Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height:

What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang),

In height and cold, the splendour of the hills?

But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease

To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine,

To sit a star upon the spire,

And come, for Love is the valley, come,

For Love is of the valley, come thou down 

And find him; by the happy threshold, he,

Or hand in hand with plenty in the maize,

Or red with spirted purple of the vats,

Or foxlike in the vine; nor cares to walk

With Death and Morning on the silver horns,

Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine,

Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice,

That huddling slant in furrow-cloven falls

To roll the torrent out of dusky doors:

But follow; let the torrent dance thee down

To find him in the valley; let the wild 

Lean-headed Eagles yelp alone, and leave

The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill

Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke,

That like a broken purpose waste in air:

So waste not thou; but come; for all the vales

Await thee; azure pillars of the hearth

Arise to thee; the children call, and I 

 Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound,

Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;

Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro’ the lawn,

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees.

 

                           ----

I Give You Thanks My God / I Thank You God - Bernard Dadie

Here are two versions of translations Bernard Dadie's poem with similar titles  I Thank You God / I Give You Thanks My God  --- read and enjoy.

 I THANK YOU GOD – BERNARD DADIE

I thank you God for creating me black,

For making of me 

Porter of all sorrows,

Setting on my head

The world.

 

I wear the Centaur’s hide

And I have carried the World since the first morning.

 

White is a colour for special occasions

Black the colour for every day

And I have carried the World since the first evening. 

 

I am glad 

Of the shape of my head

Made to carry the World,

Content

With the shape of my nose

That must snuff every wind of the World

Pleased

With the shape of my legs

Ready to run all the heats of the World.

 

I thank you God for creating me black

For making of me

Porter of all sorrows.

 

Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart,

Thirty-six fires have burnt my body.

And my blood on all calvaries has reddened the snow,

And my blood at every dawn has reddened all nature.

 

Still, I am 

Glad to carry the World,

Glad of my short arms

of my long legs

of the thickness of my lips.

 

I thank you God for creating me black.

White is a colour for special occasions

Black the colour for every day

And I have carried the World since the dawn of time.

And my laugh over the World, through the night, creates

The Day.

 

I thank you God for creating me black.

 

-----

 

I GIVE YOU THANKS MY GOD – BERNARD DADIE

(translated by La Ronde des Jours)

 

I Give you thanks my God for having created me black

For having made of 

The total of all sorrows,

and set upon my head

the World.

 

I wear the livery of the Centaur

And I carry the World since the first morning.

 

 

White is colour improvised for an occasion

Black, the colour of all days

And I carry the World since the first night.

 

I am happy

With the shape of my head

fashioned to carry the World,

satisfied with the shape of my nose,

Which should breathe all the air of the World,

happy

with the form of my legs

prepared to run through all the stages of the World.

 

I give you my thanks my God, for having created me black,

for having made of 

the total of all sorrows.

Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart.

Thirty-six brands have burned my body,

And my blood on all the calvaries had reddened the snow

And my blood from all the east has reddened all nature.

And yet I am

Happy to carry the World,

Content with my short arms,

with my long legs,

with the thickness of my lips.

 

I give you thanks my God for having created me black,

White is colour for an occasion,

Black the colour of all days

And I carry the World since the morning of time.

And my laughter in the night brought forth day over

the world.

I give you thanks my God for having created me black.

 

                                 -----

 

I Give You Thanks My God / I Thank You God -- Bernard Dadie

 

Bernard Dadie’s poem “I Give You Thanks My God” / “I Thank You God” is a beautiful and thought-provoking anthem for black pride and their sufferings. The poem allegorically weaves around biblical, historical, and mythical tales.

 

Bernard Dadie is representing the entire black race to give his thanks to God for having made black men the bearers of the world’s sorrow. The poem is a symbolic assertion of the history of forced service / slavery and suppression that the black race has endured since “the first morning” and “the first night” of creation. 

 

“God called the light “day”, and the darkness He called “night”. And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day (Genesis 1:3)

 

From the origin of human race, the black men are made “the total of all sorrows” reveals that the biblical allusion to Jesus Christ as a man of all sufferings. 

 

“He was despised, and rejected by others; a man of suffering, and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem”. (Isaiah 53:3)

 

The poem “I Give You Thanks My God”/ “I Thank You god” is an apt and right way in comparing the black man to Jesus Christ bearing the weight of “The World” on his head in the livery of a Centaur, a mythological living being half-man, half-horse.

 

I am happy

with the shape of my head 

fashioned to carry the World,

satisfied with the shape of my nose,

which should breathe all the air of the world,

happy

with the form of my legs 

prepared to run through all the stages of the World

 

Bernard Dadie is pleased and proud to be a black man that they have been so formed to help him bear the total of all sorrows and sufferings and prepared to run through all the stages of the world. In all generations of human evolution, the black man has been a crucial role-player, leaving his footprints in the entire human history.

 

Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart.

Thirty-six brands have burned my body,

And my blood on all the calvaries has reddened the snow

And my blood from all the east has reddened nature. 

And yet I am

Happy to carry the World,

Content with my short arms, 

with my long legs,

with the thickness of my lips.

 

 Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart is very similar to the Christ on the cross where a spear thrust into his side. 

 

“But he was pierced for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5)

 

Thirty-six brands have burnt my body proved that he is a victim of all types of exploitations, a slave of more than one owner, eligible to be trampled by all. Like Christ whose blood reddened the snow of all calvary, the hill outside Jerusalem on which Christ was crucified, similarly the Blackman’s blood reddened the snow of the foreign lands in ruthless crimes of slavery and colonialism.  

 

Yet, Dadie is thankful to God for creating his race black because the white is only colour for an occasion but black is the colour of all days. He laughs in the night with his heart content hopefully that this laughter brings the strength to defeat the burden of his oppression.

 

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comments written by mastanappa puletipalli 

 

The Supreme Essence of Bhagavad Gita

 The Supreme Essence of Bhagavad Gita

 

The Bhagavad Gita is the most revered religious book in Hinduism, widely accepted by people of different religious sentiments for its philosophical and moral relevance. It is considered to be the ‘divine voice of God’ for it is said that one can be spiritually uplifted by contemplating and meditating on the Gita’s text. Having influenced many great thinkers over the years, the Gita is understood to be the ultimate guide with practical instructions, with its relevance understood even in these modern times.

 

The verses in Bhagavad Gita represent Lord Krishna’s speech to Arjuna was the best archer and a Pandava, fighting against the injustice caused by his evil relatives who had taken away his kingdom. Krishna’s words had inspired him as he prepared for the battle. It originally occurred in the Bhisma Parva of the Mahabharata, comprising ancient knowledge, it was first transferred from Surya to King Ishvaku, before disappearing from the sands of time. It later resurfaced in this speech by Lord Krishna 

 

The Gita, or the ‘Song of the God’, is a true scripture of the human race, with wisdom applicable across generations and races. It has inspired millions with its frankly mystical and emotional content and offers something of value to every seeker. It is considered to be a handbook for self-realization and a guide to action. Presented here is a summary of the speech, with the central messages that are universal in nature and touch everyone with their depth of meaning. 

 

When we started off  with the concept of this book, we began with acknowledging the Gita as the greatest speech ever. The lessons in context to its sheer significance in the awakening of humankind compelled us to begin from this speech. Including the entire text would have generated a huge volume, so we have collated the ten summarized teachings that are relevant in all times. Krishna, we believe, is our most revered orator, followed by the wonderful twenty who we have attempted to bring together. We hope each of you would find inspiration in these enriching words.

 

 

THE ESSENCE OF BHAGAVAD GITA

 

·      Why do you worry without cause? Whom do you fear without reason? Who can kill you? The soul is neither born, nor does it die. 

 

·      Whatever happened, happened for the good; whatever is happening, is happening for the good; whatever will happen, will also happen for the good only, You need not have any regrets for the past. You need not worry for the future. The present is happening. 

 

·      What did you lose that you cry about? What did you bring with you, which you think have lost? What did you produce, which you think got destroyed? You did not bring anything. Whatever you have, you received from here. Whatever you have given, you have given only here. Whatever you took, you took from God. Whatever you gave, you gave to him. You came empty handed, you will leave empty handed. What is yours today, belonged to someone else yesterday, and will belong to someone else the after tomorrow. You are mistakenly enjoying the thought that his is yours. It is this false happiness that is the cause of your sorrows.  

 

·      Change is the law of the universe. What you think of as death, is indeed life. In one instance you can be a millionaire, and in the other instance you can be steeped in poverty. Yours and mine, big and small – erse these ideas from your mind. Then everything is yours and you belong to everyone.

 

·      This body is not yours, neither are you of the body. The body is made of fire, water, air, earth and ether, and will disappear into these elements. But the soul is permanent – so who are you?

 

·      Dedicate your being to God. He is the one to be ultimately relied upon. Those who know of his support are forever free from fear, worry and sorrow.

 

·      Whatever you do, do it as a dedication to God. This will bring you the tremendous experience of joy and life-freedom forever. 

 

·      Whenever there will be evil, God will take over.

 

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Hunger -- Jayanth Mahapatra

 Hunger – Jayanth Mahapatra

 

It was hard to believe the flesh was heavy on my back.

The fisherman said: will you have her, carelessly,

trailing his nets and nerves, as though his words

sanctified the purpose with which he faced himself.

I saw his white bone thrash his eyes.

 

I followed him across the sprawling sands,

my mind thumping in the flesh’s sling.

Hope lay perhaps in burning the house I lived in.

Silence gripped my sleeves; his body clawed 

at the froth his old nets had dragged up from the seas.

 

In the flickering dark his lean-to opened like a wound.

The wind was I, and the days and nights before.

Palm fronds scratched my skin. Inside the shack

an oil lamp splayed the hours bunched to those walls.

Over and over the sticky soot crossed the space of my mind.

 

I heard him say: my daughter, she’s just turned fifteen…..

Feel her. I’ll be back soon, your bus leaves at nine.

The sky fell on me, and a father’s exhausted wile.

Long and lean, her years were cold as rubber.

She opened her wormy legs wide. I felt the hunger there,

The other one, the fish slithering, turning inside.

 

----

 

 Comments.

Jayanth Mahapatra’s poem “Hunger” is one of the best poems which depicts the true picture of poverty that prevails evidently everywhere in India even after seventy years of Independence. At the surface level ‘hunger’ is utter shortage of food in poor communities that leads to gross violation of values and morals that have been set by privileged people.  Jayanth Mahapatra’s poem ‘Hunger’ deals with two kinds of hunger, one is ‘hunger for food’ and another is ‘hunger for sexual gratification’.  

 

The quest for fulfilment of fisherman’s hunger for food leads to pimp his own daughter with gross violation of morals and traditional values to a person who is hunger for sexual desire. The values have no place in such an utterly degraded human plight. The father’s pimping of his own daughter is a condemnation not of the father but of the society where such tragedy takes place. The title of the poem “Hunger” has relevance to the existing predicament of the poverty in the society. When the agony and the suffering become intolerable to a weak spirited person such person tends to surrender to inhumanity. It could have happened on the poverty-ridden sands of any beach in India.

 

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Your Attention, Please -- Peter Porter

Your Attention, Please – Peter Porter

 

the polar DEW has just warned that 

A nuclear rocket strike of 

At least one thousand megatons

Has been launched by the enemy

Directly at our major cities.

This announcement will take

Two and a quarter minutes to make,

You therefore have a further

Eight and a quarter minutes

To comply with the shelter

Requirements published in the Civil

Defence Code— section Atomic Attach.

A specially shortened Mass

Will be broadcast at the end

Of this announcement—

Protestant and Jewish services

Will begin simultaneously—

Select your wavelength immediately

According to instructions

In the Defence Code. Do not

Take well-loved pets (including birds)

into your shelter— they will consume

Fresh air, Leave the old and bed-

ridden, you can do nothing for them.

Remember to press the sealing

Switch when everyone is in 

The shelter. Set the radiation

Aerial, turn on the Geiger barometer.

Turn off your Television now.

Turn off your radio immediately

The Services end. At the same time

Secure explosion plugs in the ears

Of each member of your family. Take 

Down your plasma flasks. Give your children

The pills marked one and two

In the C. D. green container, then put 

Them to bed. Do not break

The inside airlock seals until

The radiation all Clear shows

(Watch for the cuckoo in your

Perplex panel), or your district

Touring Doctor rings your bell.

If before this, your air becomes

Exhausted or if any of your family

Is critically injured, administer

The capsules marked ‘Valley Forge’

(Red pocket in No. 1 Survival Kit)

For painless death. (Catholics

Will have been instructed by their priests

What to do in this eventuality.)

This announcement is ending. Our President

Has already given orders for 

Massive retaliation— it will be 

Decisive. Some of us may die.

Remember, statistically

It is not likely to be you.

All flags are flying fully dressed 

On Government buildings— the sun is shining

We are all in the hands of God.

Whatever happens happens by His Will. 

Now go quickly to your shelters.

 

                   -----

  Your Attention, Please – Peter Porter

 

Peter Porter’s poem “Your Attention, Please” reflects the disarray and disastrous situation of  contemporary times. It echoes the theme of death, division and decline as does in the poems “An Exequy, “The Delegate”, “The Easiest Room in Hell” etc. Peter porter always juxtaposed the power of art against the degrading powers of applied science and technology. In the famous and often published “Two Minute warning”, the warning stands not as a forewarning for those people alone, rather it is a pointer for humanity in general. It is a reminder to man who is cutting of the branch on which he is sitting. Immersed in a world of money, material, and munitions, human values have shown a marked deterioration. In an era of competition, Time, and Destruction reign supreme. This becomes obvious when the poet repeats “two and a quarter minute” and “eight and quarter minute.” We are reminded of the futility of life as in Philip Larkin’s “Ambulances”. In an ironical stance, “a specially shortened mass in telecast” to signify the corrosion of spirituality. The announcement says that Protestant and Jewish services will begin simultaneously. It suggests, how in the face of death, all communal rivalries vanish into the thin air.    

 

However, only human life is valued at least slightly here, for, people are asked to abandon their pets as “they will consume fresh air”. The Homo Sapiens (human beings) are content with the assumption that the “fresh air” is solely theirs. The callousness of the contemporary generation is revealed in their disregard for the old and the bed-ridden— the rule is that they HAVE to be left behind. The capsules marked “Valley Forge” survival kit in red pocket No.1 is a medicine for painless death drives home the paranoiac sense of victimization, meaninglessness of life and pointlessness leads to a sense of nihilism. 

 

In a satiric tone, the poet ascertains that the President has already given orders for Mass retaliation. The decision is decisive”. The ordinary citizen has no say in this matter. Nor do the military personnel involved. This proves to be very significant in the modern-day context, where America plays Big Brother role to all the other nations. Under authoritative rule, “human beings have lost their individuality”. It is unlikely to be “you”. All flags are fully dressed on Government buildings where power reigns supreme. 

 

There is also the conflict between religiosity and self-love that the poet projects with pungent irony. The announcer asks them to administer pills to have a painless death and thereafter the Catholics will be instructed by the priest what to do in such an eventuality. However, this is suicide or the Eternal Sin for the Catholics, and the mention of a Catholic Priest seeing to their final rites in outright obnoxious.   

 

The superfluity of advanced science and technology is stressed here. The nuclear weapon is itself a child of science and technology. Nevertheless, the helplessness of science in the face of calamity caused by itself is made explicit here. The omnipresence of science is reinforced by devices like the Geiger Barometer, Radio, Valley Forges, Plasma flask, Television, Radiation Aerial. They enhance the theme of the victory of science over the Art and Life. The poem is therefore a harsh indictment on the race for power politics and amassing of weapons of mass-destruction in the modern times. The best way to win a war is to prevent it. Peter Porter asserts: “The truth is a story forcing me to tell it. It is not my story or my truth.” It is an eternal truth that has its foundation rooted in humanity.

 

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edited.

(we use the material for educational purpose only)