English With Syedah

Modern Literature (Modern Poetry)  In Praise of Limestone by Famous Modern Poet W.H Auden Summary & Critical Analysis : This poem is very philosophical and was written in May 1948. Auden visited Naples, a coastal city of Mediterranean sea in Italy. For Auden nothing else matters except the limestone. It can dissolve in water but over billions of years when it gets deposited, it hardens. Though the dissolving property remains there, but because it has hardened through ages, so it has rounded shapes and very creamy surface. Also because the water and the limestone keeps on reacting with each other. When the chemical reaction happens between water and limestone, there is a kind of aroma, a kind of fragrance, a good smell that comes from the place. A very subtle but still healing smell comes from the place where there are limestone rocks and water. This poem is a kind of description of a landscape that was actually visited by poet. But as it comes from a modern poet, it is n...

  Modern Poetry by Famous Modern Poet: Ambulances by Philip Larkin Summary & Critical Analysis: ·        Stanza 1: Closed like. . . . are visited. Philip Larkin says that ambulance is a closed little box like confessional. The very first simile he used for ambulances is a sacred thing i.e. closed like confessionals.     Then he uses the word thread because ambulances are able to move into the narrow lanes of a city just like the thread can move anywhere. There is no place that is out of reach from these ambulances. They can reach every corner, every place in the city. Noise is a sign of life in poetry and noon, the middle of the day, when life is at its full bloom, death comes. Ambulances reach loud noons, here noons mean the time when life activity is at its peak. When an ambulance would pass, I people would look at it but ambulance doesn’t   give back any of the glances. Here ambulances are personified. They are aware th...

Modern Literature in English Literature: Full Moon and Little Frieda by Ted Hughes Short Summary & Critical Analysis: Frieda is the daughter of Ted Hughes. Ted Hughes is a modern poet who uses modernist writing in his poetry. The poet was living in his countryside home with two children after the death of his wife, Sylvia, when he wrote this poem. The poem is not regular, lines have not same length and is written in free verse. It’s a kind of conversation, between two people,   probably a monologue. We also see internal monologue is described through three words by little Frieda at the end when poet writes, 'Moon!' you cry suddenly, 'Moon!  Moon!' This structure is interior monologue as poet is thinking something in his head. Poet describes a non significant evening when dog is barking, someone is milking the cow and there is noise of the bucket. Here the word you is for poet’s daughter Frieda who is listening all these noises. The spider’s web is basical...

  Modern Literature ( Modern Poetry) That Morning by Ted Hughes Short Summary & Critical Analysis: Ted Hughes was junior of Ezra pound and was inspired by him. He did experimentation with the poetic structure throughout the poem. The lines are not regular, there is no rhyme scheme, no regular rhythm but still the poem is rhythmical. The poem is written by famous modern poet so we see modernist writing in his poetry.  One morning the poet goes to a river side with his son. In this poem he describes the experience he had that morning. The poet shows us two worlds in juxtaposition. First one is the world of salmon where there is fullness and abundance. It is peaceful and harmonious. Then there is our world, human world, the world that is sinking because of the negative destructive activities. Our world is dark and destructive. In the third stanza poet tells us that he and his son are standing on the river side where there is green pollen light. The kind of greennes...

Modern Literature by Famous Modern Poets:  Among School Children by William Butler Yeats Short Summary & Analysis: This poem is written in Ottawa Rima rhyme scheme. There are total 8 stanzas and each stanza has 8 lines where first 6 lines are rhymed and last two lines are a couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABABABCC. ·         Stanza 1 to 4: William Butler Yeats visited this school in 1926 when he was a 60 year old man. He was constantly reminded of his lover, youth and age. We see a reflection between two phases and the gradual change. Youth represents beautiful round face, innocence, young days full of joy. Whereas age represents a scarecrow, dullness, a tattered coat upon a stick. He is constantly reminded of his own and his beloved Modgone’s childhood memories and he alludes to many mythical figures like the myth of Lida being visited by Zeus in the form of Swan. The tension between conflicting realities of youth and age is the sub...

Modern Poetry by famous Modern Poet: Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes Short Summary & Critical Analysis: Animals is not a new subject for Ted Hughes. He would connect with nature through animals. Animals are like more than animals for him and their imagery is very important as it is his signature quality. ·        Stanza 1: I sit in. . . . and eat. Hawks would choose the top most part of the trees where there is calm and composure. Inaction   here is not for laziness,   it’s just a lull before the storm, before the bird takes action. There is no distraction in his thinking. If he is sitting with closed eyes, doesn’t mean he is dreaming or unaware. The word OR tells you that if he is thinking something, he is doing some kind of rehearsal how to kill, or even if you think he is sleeping, he is thinking about killing. Perfect means, with perfection, no error or mistake in killing he would do. ·        Stanz...

                  The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes Short Summary & Critical Analysis: This is a modern poem so we see modern concepts in it. Romantics would have one rhyme scheme in one stanza and carry out this in the whole poem but modern poets did experimentation. The stanzas are rhymed but every stanza has a different rhyming pattern. Ted Hughes   didn’t care about the musical quality of the poem. For example, star and near in the second stanza are not homophones, but are still used together. If we talk generally about the poem, it is a creative process. There are two terms production and   procedure which are   different from the term creative process. Procedure is the active experience step by step, of reaching somewhere or creating something. This poem is not a procedure or a production rather it is about creative process. Poem is a creative step by step journey. ·  ...

  Modern Poetry by Famous Modern Poets: Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H Auden ( The Museum of Fine Arts)                         Short Summary & Critical Analysis This modern poem is about a Renaissance painting. The translation of Musee des Beaux Arts is The Museum of Fine Arts. Auden visited this museum and he was particularly enchanted by this painting "The Fall of Icarus". It is a Renaissance painting and was painted in 16th century by an Italian Renaissance painter. This painting particularly intrigued Auden and he tried to relate his present society to the idea or message he found in that painting. ·        About suffering…they understood. The word they in the first line is for the Old Masters because he is looking at their painting. These Old Masters are the great painters of the past especially the Renaissance time e.g...