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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Tintern Abbey - William Wordsworth

Tintern Abbey - William Wordsworth

When Wordsworth has first visited the Wye In 1793, the sights and sounds of Nature intoxicated him. Nature was then a passion with him and the spontaneous joy of senses thrilled him. On his second visit to the place, he finds that the earlier delight is lost to him. The beautiful sights of nature no more throw him into that rapture, that ecstasy which he had known five years back. This change in his attitude towards Nature is to be traced in the sad events of the French Revolution, which left Wordsworth a thoroughly disillusioned and sad man. Wordsworth in his early life was an ardent supporter of liberty and republican principles. When French revolutionaries tried to overthrow the crushing yoke of monarchy, Wordsworth greeted the new movement with great enthusiasm and fervour. To Him the Revolution symbolized the regeneration of the suffering humanity. He identified himself completely with the cause of the Revolution as is evident from these lines.

Europe at that time was thrilled with joy,

Franca standing on the top of golden hours,

And human nature seeming born again.

But bitter disillusionment was in store for him. The Revolution, which had started as a cry for liberty, equality, and fraternity, for recognition of the innate dignity of man, was soon turned into an instrument for annihilating these very ideals. From a fight for liberty it was turned into a war of conquest. This pained Wordsworth greatly and all his hopes were dashed to the ground. He lost his faith in humanity, Nature and even in God. Recoiling from this disappointment, he tried vanity to seek shelter in the dry intellectualism of Godwin, but it was not the balm he so badly needed to comfort his hurt soul. For a long time Wordsworth’s vision was obscured by this spiritual crisis which had brought inner darkness and despair in its train. However, he gradually recovered his confidence in Nature and human nature, thanks largely to the healing influence of Dorothy. He confesses his debt to her.

                      She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;

                      And humble tears, and delicate fears;

                      A heart, the fountain of sweet tears,

                      And love, and thought, and joy.

Therefore, when Wordsworth visits Tintern Abbey a second time he is not the same buoyant person who had come there five years ago. Now he is a sad person, one who has submitted himself to the chastening influence of suffering.

Thus Wordsworth is deprived of his early raptures, yet he is compensated by Nature in others ways. The impact of suffering on his mind has quickened his sensibilities and sharpened his insight into the life of things. He now discovers a spiritual life in Nature in contemplation of which he seeks his consolation. He realizes that truth which was to sustain him in his after life. It is the firm belief of Wordsworth that there is a preconceived harmony between Nature and the mind of Man. This mystical philosophy is the cornerstone of Wordsworth’s poetry.

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Tenses

Tenses

Simple Present Tense
I	go write drink	to Bangalore. a letter. tea / coffee.
We
He She It	goes writes drinks
They	go, write drink

 

Present Continuous Tenses
I	am	going writing drinking	to Bangalore. a letter. tea / coffee.
We	are
He She It	is
They	are

Present Perfect Tenses
I	have	gone written drunk	to Bangalore. a letter. tea / coffee.
We
He She It	has
They	have

Present Perfect Continuous Tenses
I	have	been	going writing drinking	to Bangalore. a letter. tea / coffee.
We
He She It	has
They	have

   

Simple Past Tenses
I	Went wrote drank	to Bangalore. a letter. tea / coffee.
We
He She It
They

Past Continuous Tenses
I	was	going writing drinking	to Bangalore. a letter. tea / coffee.
We	were
He She It	was
They	were

Past Perfect Tenses
I	had	gone written drunk	to Bangalore. a letter. tea / coffee.
We
He She It
They

Past Perfect Continuous Tenses
I	had	been	going writing drinking	to Bangalore. a letter. tea / coffee.
We
He She It
They

Simple Future Tense
I	will/shall	go write drink	to Bangalore. a letter. tea/coffee.
We
He She It
They

Future Continuous Tense
I	will/shall	be	going writing drinking	to Bangalore. a letter. tea/coffee.
We
He She It
They

Future Perfect Tense
I	will/shall	have	gone written drunk	to Bangalore. a letter. tea/coffee.
We
He She It
They

Future Perfect continuous
I	will/shall	have	been	going writing drinking	to Bangalore. a letter. tea/coffee.
We
He She It
They

Yamini - Chudamani Raghavan

Yamini - Chudamani Raghavan

Yamini a novel of social problem deals with child marriage. Despite the imposition of a ban on this problem, some of the traditional families of Tamil Nadu went ahead in performing such activities against to the will of their children. Chudamani Ragahvan scintillates the very idea of social problem in an unleashing story of Yamini. From childhood, Yamini loved nothing better than solitude. She did not seek friends, and avoided close physical contract with anybody, even her parents. She spent hours looking up at the night sky, drinking in its ineffable beauty. To her the blackness of night was not an absence of light, but the womb out of which all light springs. Yamini felt a deep oneness with Nature.

With unobtrusive ardour Chudamani expolres the mystery of the human mind, and its essential solitariness. Every individual has a core, an inner life. She suggests that to violate this core of privacy is to set off a kind of cataclysm within the mind. And because of the nature of human relationship, that cataclysm will raise relentless echoes in the lives of others.

The novel is set in Madras and spans a period of around twenty years between the 1950’s and the 1970’s. This was a time of transition for traditional Brahmin society. Despite the ban imposed on child marriage by the Sharada Act of the late 1920’s, conservative families continued to “marry off” their pre-pubescent and teenage girls until the 1950’s, convinced that to do otherwise was to disturb social stability. The prevailing belief was that every girl was born to get married and to bring forth children, and that it was her father’s duty to find a husband for her from within the strictly codified circle of caste, sub-caste, and religion.  A mother would look anxiously at her little daughter and say, “Who knows in which house your rice-pot will be set to boil?”

Often, marriages were arranged between the children of brother and a sister. This was a relatively easy way out of the formal and often oppressive conditions in which marriages were arranged and conducted. Usually the arrangement of marriage followed a time-honoured protocol. It began with the exchange of horoscopes and elaborate enquiries about the antecedents of each family. Once these hurdles were cleared and the parents of the bride and groom had agreed on the match, a formal “bride-viewing” followed. Although the groom had the privilege of rejecting the bride at this stage, the girl herself was not expected to express an opinion in the matter. The process culminated in a wedding rich in ritual and replete with customs, which strengthened social and familial bonds.

It was unthinkable for any girl to resist marriage. Those human beings, especially women, found happiness and fulfillment only through marriage was a fundamental belief. It was Nature’s way, the order of the universe as reflected in human society.  For Purundevi, Yamini’s mother, all this was common sense. A woman who rejected marriage and preferred to live a solitary life was denying herself life’s sweetest joys. She must be drawn back from the abyss of self-absorption --- even it had to be done by force.

Yamini is forced into marriage—a common enough event prevalent even today in sections of Indian society. For a girl still in her teens and brought up to obey and to conform, coercion by parents who are convinced that they are doing good by their daughter is difficult to resist.  Even a spirited girl like Yamini is quelled. But there is a cost. Yamini’s inner life has been laid waste. Nothing will grow in it, not even the feelings of a mother towards her own child. Perundevi thinks that motherhood will evoke tender human feelings in her, but the sight of her infant only intensifies Yamini’s feeling of having been violated.

Parallel to her story is the story of her daughter Geetha, who seems different from her in every way, until she too begins to act strangely. Perundevi goes through an agony of suspense—“Will the old story repeat itself” –until Geetha reveals what has been on her mind. Fortunately, Society is not as conservative now as it was dating her mother’s girlhood. Geetha’s grandparents too have suffered grief and have consequently changed their views on marriage.  Geetha is listened to, and her wishes respected.

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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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