FULL FATHOM FIVE THY FATHER LIES

Unit Two

Lesson Two

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies                                      William Shakespeare

"Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies" is taken from Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

In this play a prince thinks that his father is dead by drowning into sea. So to inform and console the prince about his father's death, this song is sung by a spirit.

The speaker of the poem is the spirit Ariel. He tells the prince Ferdinand that his father had died and his body is under the sea. His bones have now become coral and his eyes have changed into pearls. He also says that no part of his body has disappeared. Rather they have been changed by the sea into something strange and rich. He further says that every hour sea creatures ring his funeral bell.

Shakespeare has presented death in an unusual manner. In the poem death has been presented as something beautiful. For example, the bones of the dead person have been changed into precious corals and the eyes have become pearls. The dead body has been changed into something beautiful and strange. Besides, the sea creatures are ringing the funeral bell from time to time. Thus the poem does not lament death but celebrates it. In this way, the poet has described death as a pleasant experience

TWO LONG-TERM PROBLEMS: TOO MANY PEOPLE, TWO FEW TREES

Unit Two

Lesson One

Two Long-Term Problems: Too Many People, Two Few Trees             Moti Nissani

The significant writer and processor Moti Nissani has raised the two long-term problems in his essay, they are: over population and deforestation. Because of industrialization, nutrition, sanitation and modern medicine, people are living longer and the world population is increasing rapidly. The writer is worried by the fact that over populating will have a bad impact to the natural world. To produce more food for more people, the trees will be cut down and forests will be cultivated. Moreover, the growing population will pollute rivers, lakes, air, drinking water, soil and the whole natural world. Such environmental pollution will cause different kinds of diseases such as cancer, asthma and respiratory diseases. Overpopulation causes deforestation. Deforestation will cause floods, landslides, soil-erosion, droughts, greenhouse effects and the loss of various species of plants, birds and animals.

Nissani further says that every year there are 80 million more people in the world. He presents the realistic pictures of Nepal.  In 1951, there were nine million people In Nepal. After less than 50 years, the Population grew to 23 million. As an average Nepalese woman gives birth to five ·children, Nepal’s population growth rate is high. If this high birth rate continues, Nissani says that Nepal’s population will reach 368 million after 140 years. If such overpopulation .is not checked, Nepal will have to face various devastating problems in the near future.

In the essay, Moti Nissani encourages us to protect trees for the future generation. He has recommended few steps from where we can prevent chopping down of the trees and restore healthy atmosphere. We need wisdom, courage and compassion (concerns) to control the problems of overpopulation and deforestation. We can control deforestation by controlling population and by educating them about the bad impacts of deforestation. We can solve this problem by starting afforestation and using smokeless stove. Effective family planning is the main remedy (treatment) of controlling over population. People should be encouraged to plant trees and they should be discouraged to cut trees. Concluding the essay; Nissani stresses that we should have willingness and passion to reduce population and plant trees which will help us to live healthier and our future will also be bright and safe.

             1.     Are most living Nobel Prize winner optimistic about the future of humanity? Why or Why not?

ANS:   Yes, most of the Nobel Prize winners are optimistic about the future of humanity. They have warned us about our ill treatment of Nature and they say that we are destroying our planet ourselves. We are polluting and destroying our environment so if we go like this, the world will be spoilt soon. If we stop such wrong doings, the world will become a good and healthier place to live in again. They suggest that if we change our fundamental attitude towards the earth, surely, it will be a safer place for human society and for all living beings.

               2.     What leads Nissani to the belief that the world is facing an over-population crisis?

ANS:  Industrialization helped the population to be increased because people used to live longer and death rate of children was also lower. 10,000 people are being added per hour by us. Nissani is worried by this fact because overpopulation forces us for deforestation , greenhouse effect, acid rain, desertification, soil erosion, landslide etc. So, he thinks, the world is facing really great problems.

            

     

3. What prime (main) problems does the writer discuss in his

essay?

OR

What remedial measures does the writer suggest to overcome

(solve) them?

Ans. The writer discusses about overpopulation and deforestation

with their severe consequences in the essay “Two long term problems”.

The writer suggested overcoming them. However the situation

could be improved by controlling population and pollution, many factors

such as modernization, effective family planning measures equal

economic, educational and legal opportunities to woman will help to

control the rapid population growth. In order to set this world for our

future generation, we must save forest by reducing population pressure

on it through effective family planning measures and educating people.

We may also save the forest by making effective and strict laws with a

provision to impose high tax on wood product and provision of incentive

for pressuring forest. There should be a provision in the law to punish

severely for destroying forest. Massive reforestation, another effective

step will benefit the world in conserving biodiversity, pristine wildness

and to minimize desertification, flood and weather extremes. By

controlling population and saving forest, we may solve this planet for

our future generation utilizing our knowledge to convert our wisdom,

courage and passion into practice to turn this world into a heaven.

4. What is wrong in Nissani’s view with treeless in Nepal?

OR

According to the writer, what’s wrong with treeless in Nepal?

Ans. The writer expresses his concerned about deforestation crisis in

Nepal. Showing devastating effecting of deforestation in Nepal, the

writer makes us conscious about the importance of preservation of

forest. According to him, destruction of forest in Nepal will cause soil

erosion in every rainfall. The eroded soil will be deposited in the rivers

making them shallow and gradually causing siltation of rivers and dams.

After the deforestation, every heavy rainfall is likely to cause

devastating flood in plains of Nepal, India and Bangladesh. The

destruction of forest in turn contributes to greenhouse effect

irresponsible (that can’t be repair) loss of many thousands species of

animals and plants, landslides, draught and weather extremes. Therefore,

besides causing serious flood in Nepal, India and Bangladesh

deforestation in Nepal in the long run will also damage the quality of life

and the ability of Biosphere to sustain life.

THE LAMENTATION OF THE OLD PENSIONER

Unit One

Lesson Three

The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner                   W. B. Yeats

SUMMARY

 W. B. Yeats, the greatest English poet of 20th century, presents the reminiscences of his eventful young age and contrasts them with his present pathetic old life in the poem, “The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner.”

The title suggests that the poet is a Pensioner. It means he must be very old and is living a retired life. He says whenever he is caught in rain he takes shelter under a broken tree. The broken tree cannot protect him from the rain. Here, one must note the point that in England it rains during winter. It means he is deprived of a reliable shelter, when he needs it most. But it was not always the case with him. When he was young, he used to sit nearest to the fire, which warmed and comforted him. You can’t light fire in rain outside. It means he had reliable place to live in when he was young. Not only that, the cosy parlour of the poet always used to be full with the livelier company of his friends who talked about love and politics. But today, he misses them as “Time” has taken away all his friends leaving him old and isolated.

He sees some mischievous boys making weapons for some conspiracy. These ‘rascals’ are sure to create chaos in the society through some barbarous activities. But the poet is not concerned about the possible anarchy in the society. He is sad as the time has transfigured him.

The poet laments that the time has made him ugly like a broken tree and therefore, no woman shows interest in him. However, the poet consoles himself that “the beauties that he loved” are still fresh in his memory. He holds the “Time” a culprit, who has taken away his shelter, friends, youth, energy, and charm and wants to spit on its face in disgust for his metamorphosis.

Significance of the Title: The title of the poem, “The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner”, consists three content words, two nouns (“lamentation” and “Pensioner”), and an adjective, “old” that qualifies the second noun.

“Lamentation” means mourning or wailing over the loss of some precious things, a privilege position or an advantage. The second noun used by the poet is “pensioner”. The poet could have used ‘man’ instead. But he didn’t. It is remarkable. A pensioner is a senior citizen, who is provided with some (monetary) benifits for the services s/he has provided in her/his youth. It helps him/her to live in old age.

The poet has become old as the ‘Time’ has cast its spell (effect) and transfigured him into an ugly old man. It has taken away all his physical charms, energy, and friends. Therefore, he is lamenting. However, at the same time, he boasts that Time was not able to take away the memories of his heroic deeds done during the Irish cultural revolutions and Irish republican movements of early 1920s. It gives him heroic feeling and helps, like pension, to live in old age.

Analysis

The poem is based on a conversation that Yeats had with an elderly poet. He wrote in a letter that the poem was: little more than a translation into verse of the very words of an old Wicklow peasant.”

Wicklow, by the way, is a green, rural county south of Dublin. This precise technique of observation of peasants is what Yeats later recommended to J.M. Sybge upon meeting him in Paris, and which led to successful works like The Playboy of the Western World.

The elderly peasant’s lamentation is that time has transformed him into someone that is no longer important or viable. This is in contrast to Yeats’s other, more wistful and gentle portrayal of age in the rest of the collection. The pikes to which the “old pensioner” refers are the weapons traditionally used in nationalist uprisings against the British, which the man is too old for, so regards as futile.

The poem complicates Yeats’s earlier poems, many of which exhort the Irish to contemplate eternal questions like Time rather than take up their pikes, so to speak, for a passing political issue. This old man, who is forced away from politics and love, shows the downside of such contemplative non-participation in life. Of course, he is still tormented by the passions of his youth for women and conservation, and so his mediation aren’t exactly what Yeats has in mind in poems like “Who Goes with Fergus?” and “The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland.”

ABOUT LOVE

Unit One

Lesson Two

About Love                                                    Anton Chekhov

Characters:

Alyohin: character of the story

Nikanor: male servant who drinks, love Pelageya

Pelageya: maid servant

Luganovich: a friend of Alyohin, assistance in court where Alyohin works

Anna Alexeyevna: Luganovich's wife of about 22, mother of two children, beautiful  & Charming

Burkin & Ivan: Alyohin's guests

Setting:

Alyohin's restaurant, his village Sofyino, Moscow where he got his education, the city where he works as a judge

Time & Weather:grey sky & rain outside

 Love: Selfish love between College girl & Alyohin, Violent Love between Nikanor & Pelageya and True & Spiritual Love between Alyohin & Anna

Summary

“About Love” is a famous Russian story written by a famous story-writer, Anton Chekhov. In the story, Chekhov presents the difference between three love stories and tries to prove that “Love” like that is not bound by conjugal relations. He views that love is true and spiritual. Happiness, unhappiness, morality, sin, virtue, social status, class, prestige etc. have nothing to do with love. Alyohin is the narrator in this story. He had been living as a poor farmer at Sofyino since he graduated from the university. The story begins when the narrator and his two guests-Bufkin and Ivan were having breakfast in a country house. Alyohin told about the violent love affair between his two servants Nikanor and Pelageya. According to the narrator, pelageya didn’t want to marry Nikanor but she was ready to live with him just so. On the other hand, Nikanor couldn’t stay with her before marriage for religious reasons. Alyohin says that love is a hindrance and a source of dissatisfaction and irritation. To justify his statement, he began his own story.

Alyohin had to work hard at Sofyino to pay off his debt as his father had spent a lot of money on his education by mortgaging the land. Though he was a landowner, Alyohin had to work hard in the farm with his servants. Many years before, he had been elected honorary justice for peace and sometimes he had to go to the town to participate in the court session. Unexpectedly, one of his friends, Luganovich invited him for dinner. There, he was very much attracted by the young and beautiful Ana Alexeyevna, the wife of Luganovich. In the later days, he frequently visited her and they spent much time together flaking for hours and going to the theatre. Though they couldn’t miss the company of each other, they didn’t express their desires, love and feedings. They hid feelings fearing that it would ruin both of their lives.

At last, as a result of unexpressed feelings, Anna had got mental sickness and she had to go to Crimea for treatment. Many people gathered at the railway station to say goodbye to Anna. When the train started to move, Alyohin ran to Anna with her basket which she had forgotten. Their emotional eyes met together and their spiritual strength couldn’t stop them falling in each other’s arms. They kissed each other and expressed their deep love. However, they parted forever and Alyohin returned to his farm land (village) being sad and he would never meet her again in his life. The true love of Alyohin is the means of living. The moment of her memory often relieved Alyohin in his life.

         1.     The second paragraph of “About Love” is a brief account of a violent love affair between two servants’. Is it significant that Aloyohin is the source of this anecdote?

ANS:   In the second paragraph of the story, Alyohin tells the story of the violent love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya. It is important that Alyohin is the source of this story because in the story Alyohin is not only a character but also the narrator. The whole sotry revolves around him and his story telling except slight intervention in the first and last paragraph of the story. As he is the narrator, whatever he tells about other and about himself should be believed without any question. The contrast between the love affair of Nikanor-Pelageya and Alyohin-Anna is clear. In the first love story, hero and heroine belong to socially inferior class whereas in the second love story, they belong to socially superior and cultivated class of people. And moreover, the love between first couple is an ordinary and usual love between a man and women to be materialized by marriage but love between Anna and Alyohin is of higher level, an unusual love which goes beyond the social limitation and matrimonial bonds.

           

            2.     How does an account of the occasion and of the setting in which the narrative occurs affect our understanding of Alyohin?

ANS:  First two paragraphs of the story provide an appropriate setting to the story. The story starts with an occasion where few friends including Alyohin are having a leisurely time perhaps celebrating their holiday. What they all are doing is eating, drinking and talking. As the time goes on, Alyohin starts talking about the love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya and nature of their behavior. Their conversation turns to the subject of love which leads to the telling of Alyohin’s own love story. Alyohin’s statement about love is very much influenced by his own experience. By telling his own love story, he wants to free love from marital bonds. So, the setting does affect our understanding of Alyohin.

        3.     An atmosphere of inertia is established in the opening paragraphs of the story. Cite some specific details which help to create this atmosphere. Is this air of indecisive leisure suggested again at the end of the story? What is the connection between this atmosphere and Alyohin’s behabiour with the women he loves, and the outcome of their relationship?

ANS:  The story begins with an occasion where few friends are having leisurely time. They are eating, drinking and talking about anything they like. They have already had their breakfast and the cook again comes to ask what they would like for dinner. This occasion helps to create the atmosphere of inertia in the sense that they have nothing special to do except eating, drinking and talking. The same air of leisure is suggested again at the end of the story. As Alyohin is telling the story, the rain stops, the sun comes out and two friends Burkin and Iva go out on the balcony and enjoy a fine view of garden. The atmosphere was a close connection with Alyohin’s behavior with the women he loves. Alyohin  seems to be lovely fellow and he is always disturbed by the memory of his beloved Anna. Whenever he has any free time, he can’t help telling his love story to others. This also suggests that he has got life long grief and misery as the outcome if his relationship with Anna.

        

     4.     Alyohin is said to rush around like a squirrel in a cage and this judgement is echoed in the final paragraph of the story. What is the significance of this repetition?

ANS:  Alyohinis said to rush around like a squirrel in a cage and this judgement is repeated in the final paragraph.  This repetation is very much significant. Alyohin is not a common man. He is an educated man with the knowledge of language and intellectual sensibilities. But instead of involving in scholary activities, he is living a life of a simple farmer which limit the scope of his life. In this sense the first judgement is made by Luganovich family that he is rushing around like a squirrel in a cage. The same judgement is repeted by his friend when he finishes telling his love story. Alyohin tells his love story so skillfully and beautifully that his friends are greatly impressed by his intelligence and skill. Such a person who can tell stories with such a candor, with kindness and intelligence is living a life of an ordinary farmer. So, his friends are sorry for him and make this judgement. The implication is that he should have been an artist, or writer, not an ordinary farmer.

    

        5.     Why do you think Chekhov chose to write about and ordinary man instead  of a hero or a scholar or actor? Does Chekhov imply anything about Alyohin’s  assumption that “Celebrated” people lead more fulfilled lives than the rest of us? Do you agree with Alyohin’s assumption?

ANS:  Chekhov chose to write about an ordinary man instead of a hero, or a scholar or an actor in order to present general human nature and possible events that may happen to a man. Even a hero or a scholar or an actor is a man at first, then only comes what he does. And moreover, natural human feelings of love, hatred, anger, emotion, happiness and grief do not make any difference between celebrated personality and common and ordinary man. These feelings are common to all. The only thing is that well educated people may perceive things differently and may better handle in a different way. So, I do not agree with Alyhin’s assumption that only the celebrated people lead more fulfilled lives. Each human attempt kindled with virtue and goodness is heroic in it’s own way. Chekov also doesn’t imply anything about Alyohin’s assumption because Chekhov has presented the plight of common ordinary man as opposed to Alyohin’s assumption. Alyohin does not know that he is the hero of the story of his own life.

GRANDMOTHER

Unit- One

 Lesson One

Grandmother                                                            Ray young Bear

 “Grandmother” is written in regretful tone. In the poem, the poet has tried to manifest his close relation with his grandmother. The love and affection that she showed towards him in his childhood (it is obvious she is no more with the poet), is still imprinted on his mind and heart. To show the closeness of their relation the poet has successfully utilized two new tools in the poem - 

a) Conditional sentences: Sight, Touch, Smell & Hearing

b) Sensuous images: if i felt........, if i heard.......

The poet boasts that he was so intimate to his grandmother that if he got even a view of her from miles away, his sense of sight would immediately recognize that it was his grandmother by observing her purple scarf and the plastic shopping bag. He was so familiar with her that he could also differentiate that the “warm and damp” hands that were put on his head were of nobody else but of his grandmother. It was not that he could only use his sense of sight or sense of touch to identify his grandmother. His sense of smell and sense of hearing were also equally capable of recognizing her. He could recognize his grandmother from “the smell of roots” that her hands gave off.

Most notably, the words of his grandmother were a source of inspiration for him. When he used to hear her words, it used to flow inside his body and refresh his lost strength and energy. He has compared its effect with stirring the ashes of sleeping fire to regenerate fire. Fire is the source of energy, light and clarity. Similarly, when the poet used to hear her words it used to fill him with new energy, hope, and erase all his confusions. In other words, her advises were a source of motivation for him.

QUESTIONS

Q. 1. What images do you find in this poem written by a member of the Sauk and Fox (Mesquaki) Indian tribe of North America? To what senses do these images appeal? 

   Ans. The poet has used the sensuous images as effective tools in this poem. As a result he is successful in creating a vivid picture of his grandmother. These images particularly appeal to our sense of sight (if i were to see …), sense of touch (if I felt …), sense of smell (with the smell of roots.), and sense of sound (if i heard …). The poet, through the use of these sensuous images has tried to express how much he loved and how close was his grandmother to his heart.

OR

There are various images used in the poem, for example, ‘purple scarf’, ‘plastic shopping bag’, ‘warm and damp hands with the smell of roots’, ‘voice coming from the rock’ and ‘a sleeping fire at night’. All these images are closely related to the activities and life styles of Mesquaki tribal people. Most of tribal people do not have the opportunity to enjoy a fairly rich and luxurious life. They buy ordinary stuff in a small amount. As they have to survive on natural plants, it is natural that their hands smell roots which they use as food. Similarly rocks and night flies are also inseparatable parts of tribal life. All these images used in the poem are very much appealing because they provide rural and rustic setting to the poem. These images give the realistic impression and make the poem very much life-like.

    Q.2.     How does the speaker has feel towards his grandmother ? In what words or lines does he make his feeling clear?

Ans:    The speaker has an affectionate and respectful feeling towards his grandmother. He describes his grandmother in such a way that she becomes the source of love and inspiration to him. He expresses his warm and intimate feeling to her through the words like feeling her ‘warm and damp hands’ and ‘her words would flow inside me like the light’. Here, the grandmother’s words are compared with the light of sleeping night fire which lightens the darkness when it is recovered by removing the ashes. This means that her words lighten the darkness of his life and show the right path to truth, love and goodness.

ALTERNATIVE SUMMARY

In the poem The Grandmother, the American-Indian poet, Ray Young Bear, draws a picture of his grandmother, all-loving, all-inspiring. His grandmother would wear a purple scarf round her head for warmth and she would go to market with a plastic shopping bag in her hand. Her shape was also quite remarkable. If the poet saw her forma a long distance, he could tell that she was his grandmother. She would come home working in the field and wash her hands. They were wet and had the smell of roots. She would put her hands on his head and caress it lovingly. Although they were wet, they would be warm out of love. Before he looked at her face, the smell and warmth-would make him guess that it was his grandmother. 

Sometimes the poet would go to her grave. He would imagine to have heard a voice coming from the tombstone. He could feel to be his grandmother. He could feel that her words were moving smoothly inside him like a stream. They would inspire him. In his sad life he would find a faint glimpse of hope. He would remember the winter night when they were shivering with cold. His grandmother would wake up and try to move the fire which was covered with thick ashes and he would see her from his bed and hope that he would warm his body by the open fire.

      The poem expresses not only poet’s love and respect towards his grandmother but uses grandmother as an epitome for native America. The poem has tried to pay tribute to his Native American grandmother. The poem is rich in use of symbols and images that brings out a picture of typical Mesquaki grandmother and her native culture. The grandmother portrayed in the poem appears to be all loving and affectionate. The poet feels a kind of loss for his grandmother and expresses his strong desire to be with her.

The poet has used his all sensory perceptions to understand the greatness of his grandmother. In the first part of the poem, poet uses his eyes to identify his grandmother’s shape, her purple scarf, and a plastic shopping bag. In the middle part of the poem, he uses his skin and nose to recognize his grandmother’s warm and damp hand on his head and he could get ancestral smell from her. In the last part of the poem, poet uses his good sense of his ears to hear her words in the land of his origin. In this way poet has successfully drawn a picture of his grandmother by various images appeal to all senses.

      The verse of the poem “I’d know her words would flow inside me like the light of someone sharing ashes from a sleeping fire night,” clarifies the poet’s feelings. He means that wisdom got from his grandmother helps to search for identity of Native American people. He finds his grandmother a great teacher for the depth of past and the lesson of life in the present time. The poet also finds his grandmother all-loving and all-inspiring. ‘Warm and damp’ shows how deeply, she loved him and “her words flow inside me like the light” shows how poet is inspired by her.

INTERPRETATIONS

Ø  The grandmother of the poet is the prominent and highly regarded women of contemporary America who represent the difficulties in Mesquaki tribe.

Ø  The poet assumes and senses that he would see the shape of his grandmother from the miles away.

Ø  Poet sees his grandmother from his inner eyes that it is his merely assumption only and he would recognize his grandmother instantly who is coming from the long distance. He even assumes that if he would see from his outer eyes, he would see his grandmother coming from the long distance or from the mile away by wearing purple scarf and carrying plastic shopping bag.

Ø  The poet assumes that if he felt hand on his head, the poet know that those hands were his grandmother’s which are warm and damp with the smell of roots.

Ø  Again, the poet assumes that if he heard a voice from the rock, he would know that he words are resounded in his heart with instant flow inside him like the light of someone stirring ashes from a sleeping fire at night.

Ø  The poet implies the rigid suppression to the Mesquaki tribe by the Americans, especially the white Americans.

Ø  In spite of suppression, discrimination and contempt, the tribe strongly existed in the American states.

Ø  The poet sustains the cultural ethics, values and norms of Mesquaki tribe.

Ø  The poet reveals the difficulties of women in that tribe, the poem shows that women in that tribe faces great struggle to sustain their lives. There is the rustic scene of American countryside where the tribes reside.