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  • Significance of the title of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

    Significance of the title of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

    Far From the Madding Crowd is a phrase that occurs in Thomas Gray‘s Elegy written in the Country Churchyard. This Elegy pays a tribute to humble and homely ancestors of village-people, who lie buried in the country church-yard. The phrase occurs in the following stanza:

    Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife;
    Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray;
    Along with the cool, sequester’d vale of life
    They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

    The title suggests that the novel deals with the life of country people. The latter lead a calm and quiet existence far removed from the din, hustle and bustle, and the feverish activities of town life. They are either farmers, laborers, or shepherds. Most of them are illiterate or half-educated. They keep the noiseless tenor of their life because they are neither as ambitious nor as corrupt or dishonest as city-bred people. They lead a happy, contented, and quiet life.

    Most of the characters are homely and simple-minded. Some are pure rustics, like Joseph Poorgrass, Laban Tall, Cain Ball, and Henery Fray. They are illiterate, superstitious, and clownish. They remind us of Shakespeare’s rustics and jesters. Among major characters Oak is an idealized rustic; Boldwood and Bathsheba are farmers. The only exception is Sergeant Troy who is a sufficiently educated man and whose polished ways present a sharp contrast to the rustic behavior of other characters.

    The novel refers to scenes and activities associated with rural or pastoral life. Thus, we have references to lambing, sheep-washing, Sheep-shearing, sheep-fairs, and shearing-feasts. The novel is throughout pervaded by a pastoral atmosphere. Indeed, it would not be wrong to describe it as a Pastoral Romance.

    The title might also have a deeper meaning. It may suggest that human nature is the same everywhere. Thus, though the characters live in the countryside, far from the madding crowds of big towns and cities, they are torn by the same passions, which work havoc with city-bred people. This is to say, the same emotions sway their minds that inspire people elsewhere. Thus, these characteristics are not proof against love, jealousy, or vanity. Oak and Boldwood have both to suffer because Bathsheba does not respond to their love. Bathsheba marries Troy because she feels jealous of the other beautiful woman whom Sergeant Troy intends to marry. Boldwood shoots Troy dead because he (Boldwood) does not approve Troy’s employing force in compelling Bathsheba to accompany him. Fanny Robin meets with a tragic end because she is deserted by her lover.

    Thus we can say that Far From the Madding Crowd is an apt and appropriate title. It suggests, at first sight, that the novel will deal with country people and rural life. The novel thus has been rightly named because it refers to the joys and sorrows of the humble and homely countrymen.

    Also read; An Impression about Maud Gonne in the poem “No Second Troy” by W.B.Yeats

  • Definition of Limerick definition, features and famous examples

    Definition of Limerick definition, features and famous examples

    Limerick:

    This is a short poem of five lines only, the one generally written in anapestic meters, with occasional variations. The theme is usually comical or humorous, while the technique has a striking order.

    This generally consists of the three (first, second and fifth) lines of trimeter and the remaining two lines (third and fourth) of diameter. Such verses are light and popular, although often appear nonsensical in sense. The first, second and fifth lines are longer than the third and fourth lines. The rhyming pattern is AABBA.

    The standard form of the limerick is a stanza of five lines, with the first, second and fifth rhyming with one another and having three feet of three syllables each; and the shorter third and fourth lines also rhyming with each other, but having only two feet of three syllables. The first line traditionally introduces a person and a place, with the place appearing at the end of the first line and establishing the rhyme scheme for the second and fifth lines.

    The limerick form was popularized by Edward Lear in his first Book of Nonsense (1846) and later work, More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc. (1872). Lear wrote 212 limericks.

    Examples:

    1. There was a young lady of Lynn,
    Who was so uncommonly thin
    That when she essayed
    To drink lemonade
    She slipped through the straw and fell in.

    Here we see the first, second and fifth line( lynn, thin and in) rime with each other and the third and fourth(essayed and lemonade) rime with each other.

    2. There was an old man with a beard,
    A funny old man with a beard
    He had a big beard
    A great big old beard
    That amusing old man with a beard

    3. THERE was a small boy of Quebec,
    Who was buried in snow to his neck;
    When they said. “Are you friz?”
    He replied, “Yes, I is—
    But we don’t call this cold in Quebec.” (There was a small boy of Quebec by Rudyard Kipling)

  • A short note on Widsith, an Anglo Saxon poem and its importance

    A short note on Widsith, an Anglo Saxon poem and its importance

    Widsith is a short poem, instead of a song. It records the experience and sensations of a traveller who has wandered much. Widsith, or the far wanderer, has travelled widely among different tribes and races and encountered different tribal chiefs and princely rulers. The wanderer lists the tribal princes with whom he was acquainted and who had given him rich presents. Some princes, like Eormenric, king of the Goths, Attila, king of the Huns, Alboin, king of the Lombards, and Theodrik, king of the Franks, are historical figures. References are also made to Hrothgar and Hrothwulf and their victory over an incident mentioned in Beowulf. The poet also describes the rituals, social manners, and customs of different primitive people. It further contains some details about the wandering minstrels of primitive times. In short, Widsith is a record of the tribes and tribal heroes of the remote Teutonic world.

    Widsith is a valuable piece of the social documents of primitive life and times in Britain. It has, no doubt, a historical and legendary character. But the historical elements, recorded in it, are seldom accurate. Widsith is no historical work, but a typical document of primitive societies and social life. The importance of the poem mainly lies in its social aspects. The work contains too much of the rites and customs, habits, and manners of the Teutonic people of the past.

    Widsith is rich in descriptive details and may be characterised as the first parent of descriptive English poems, like Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. In its enumeration of different primitive princes and lords, the poem, though not an epic itself, contains much matter familiar with epic poetry. Yet, Widsith bears many lyrical notes in the poet’s subjective description and reflections. Moreover, the unknown poet’s concluding glorification of his craft is intensely personal and simultaneously synthesises individuality and universality.

    Also read: Summary and Analysis of the poem The Dream of the Rood

  • Summary and critical analysis on the Anglo Saxon poem The Phoenix

    Summary and critical analysis on the Anglo Saxon poem The Phoenix

    The Phoenix is an Anglo-Saxon Christian work. It is found to carry on the tradition of symbolic poetry, set up so elegantly in The Dream of the Rood. It is, like the great vision of the rood, both metaphorical and religious, and bears out sufficiently the highly poetic artistry of its author. Naturally, the poem is supposed to have come from Cynewulf, who was acknowledged as one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon Christian poets.

    The subject matter of the poem is the mythological bird phoenix, which is supposed to live in the Arabian desert for five to six centuries and then burn itself to be reborn, with a renewed youth, out of its own ashes to live for another cycle. This myth of the phoenix is an allegorical application to Christ in the poem. The bird is turned into the symbol of Christ and the Christian faith.

    The first canto describes paradise, the land of eternal youth, wherein the phoenix dwells. The second canto describes the enchanting life of the bird from morning to evening in that deathless land of joy. The phoenix lives here for a thousand years and thereafter flies far to the sea and the desert, where at the top of a high tree he makes his death nest of odorous leaves. When in summer, the sun is brightest, the nest is heated and the fury of fire devours the bird’s nest. But the ashes form together into a ball, grow into an apple, and in that apple a wondrous worm waxes till it becomes an eagle and then a phoenix as before. The bird eats only honey dew that falls at midnight and when he has gathered all the relics of his old body, he takes them in his claws and, flying back to his paradise, buries them in the earth. Everybody watches his flight, but he outstrips their every sight, and is once more in his happy realm.

    This is how the bird is reborn and returns to his lovely domain. The author makes two allegories out of the story. The first is about the immortal lives of the saints, for Christ, after the judgment, flies through the air, attended by the adoring souls, like the birds, and each soul becomes a phoenix and dwells forever young in the city of life. The second one is of Christ Himself who passed through the fire of death to the glorious life of salvation.

    The Phoenix is a happy instance of Anglo-Saxon religious poetry. The high truth of Christianity is here conveyed with an artistic dexterity through symbolism. Along with The Dream of the Rood, it stands out as one of the earliest allegorical poems in the English language.

    This poem may well be taken as a piece of Anglo-Saxon Christian lyrics. The lyrical element is clearly manifested in its reflective as well as impulsive notes. What is, however, striking in the poem is the symbolic representation of a natural element to propagate Christian morality and virtue. This seems rather rare in the poetry of a remote time. But what characterizes the poem particularly is its richness of description. Highly colourful and spectacular images mark the poem, and, in this respect, the description of the land, where the phoenix dwells is particularly noteworthy. The poem is illustrative of the love of nature, so distinctly evident in Anglo-Saxon poetry.

    Also read; Discuss the figure of speech Hyperbaton: Definition, Features and Examples

  • Discuss the term The term “repressive tolerance” by Herbert Marcuse

    Discuss the term The term “repressive tolerance” by Herbert Marcuse

    The term “repressive tolerance” refers to the passive acceptance of social and governmental practices, policies and actions which restrict freedom in an absolute sense. The Frankfurt School theorist Herbert Marcuse coined this term in an essay of that title for a book co-written with Robert Wolff and Barrington Moore, Critique of Pure Tolerance (1965).
    Repressive tolerance, Marcuse argues, takes two main forms: (i) the unthinking acceptance of entrenched attitudes and ideas, even when these are obviously damaging to other people, or indeed the environment (the painfully slow response to warnings about climate change and environmental degradation might be seen as an example of this); and (ii) the vocal endorsement of actions that are manifestly aggressive towards other people (the popular support in the US and the UK in the aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7 for the respective government’s attempts to override or limit habeas corpus is a clear example of this). Genuine tolerance, Marcuse argues, can only exist in a situation of intolerance for these limits on real freedom. Slavoj Žižek’s books Violence (2008) and In Defence of Lost Causes (2008) continue and update this line of thought.

    Also read:Reflexive novel: Definition, Meaning and Examples

  • What is an epinicion; definition and famous poets

    What is an epinicion; definition and famous poets

    Epinicion:
    An epinicion is a triumphal song or ode that commemorates a victory, most notably those achieved at the Olympic Games or in honor of a victor in war. The word derives from the Greek term epinikion, which comes from the neuter form of epinikios, meaning “of victory.” This, in turn, is formed from epi- meaning “upon” and nikios, stemming from nikē, which means “victory.” Therefore, an epinicion can be interpreted as a “song of victory” or “victorious song.”

    Structure and Performance
    The epinicion was typically performed by a chorus, often with a solo singer, to celebrate a victor’s return to his city after his triumph. The performance was an expression of celebration and an integral part of the ceremony honoring the victor, be it an athlete or a military hero.

    The song was structured into several groups of three stanzas, arranged as strophe, antistrophe, and epode:

    • Strophe: The first stanza, sung by the chorus as they moved in one direction.
    • Antistrophe: The second stanza, sung as the chorus moved in the opposite direction.
    • Epode: The final stanza, sung while the chorus stood still.

    Subjects and Themes:
    Epinicia were composed in honor of a wide range of victors, including: Runners at the Olympic Games, Pentathletes (athletes who competed in a five-event contest), Wrestlers and boxers, and Charioteers, often the heroes of the equestrian events at the Games.

    In these odes, the poets would celebrate the athlete’s success, detailing their physical prowess and the glory they brought to their city or nation. The odes also often include a praise of the victor’s lineage, his city, and sometimes a reflection on the broader importance of the victory for the community or even for the gods.

    Famous Poets of the Epinicion:
    Some of the most famous poets who composed epinician odes were:

    • Pindar: Perhaps the greatest of the epinician poets, Pindar wrote numerous odes for the victors of the Olympic Games, and his work remains the most celebrated example of this genre.
    • Simonides of Ceos: A poet renowned for his elegiac style, Simonides also composed epinicia, many of which praised victors of the Panhellenic Games.
    • Bacchylides: A contemporary of Pindar, Bacchylides was also known for his epinician odes, which were more accessible and less formal than Pindar’s, yet equally powerful in their celebration of victory.
    • Euripides: Although primarily known for his tragedies, Euripides also wrote an epinicion for Alcibiades, the Athenian general, to commemorate his victory in a prestigious chariot race.

    Cultural Significance
    The epinicion was a song of celebration and a cultural artefact highlighting the intersection of sports, religion, and civic pride in ancient Greece. It symbolised the unity and glory brought to a city through individual triumphs. The epinician poets played a significant role in elevating the reputation of the victor and their city. These odes often conveyed messages of moral and spiritual lessons, and values of the time, such as honour, the favour of the gods, and the pursuit of excellence.

  • William Archer (1856–1924) drama critic, and translator

    William Archer (1856–1924) drama critic, and translator

    William Archer (1856–1924) was a Scottish writer, drama critic, and translator. He was born in Perth, Scotland, and educated at Edinburgh University. He spent periods of his boyhood with his grandparents in Norway, where he learned the language; when he later became an influential drama critic in London, he did much to popularize Henrik Ibsen in England. His translation of Ibsen’s Pillars of Society became in 1880 the first Ibsen play to be produced in London, although it attracted little notice. In 1889, the production of his translation of A Doll’s House caused moral controversy, which increased with the production of Ghosts and Hedda Gabler in 1891, with Elizabeth Robins (1862–1952) in the role of Hedda.

    He also translated, alone or in collaboration, other productions of the Scandinavian stage: Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1889), The Master Builder (1893, with Edmund Gosse); Edvard Brandes’s A Visit (1892); and in 1892 he and his brother produced a translation of Peer Gynt. The collected works of Ibsen appeared in 1907. Archer campaigned extensively throughout his career to reform and modernize the English theatre. His books included: English Dramatists of Today (1882), Henry Irving, a study (1883) About the Theatre (1886), Masks and Faces? A Study in the Psychology of Acting (1888) (1888), W. C. Macready, a biography (1890), America To-day, Observations and Reflections (1900). His annual volumes of collected theatre criticism, The Theatrical World, appeared between 1894 and 1898. In 1907, with Harley Granville-Barker, he issued detailed proposals for a National Theatre, and in 1919 he assisted with the establishment of the New Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote an essay titled The Great Analysis: A Plea for a Rational World-Order in 1912. In The Drama Old and New (1923), he promoted the work of George Bernard Shaw, whose career as a playwright he helped launch, and John Galsworthy among others; in the same year his own play, The Green Goddess, was produced with great success in London after a successful run two years earlier in America.

    Also read: Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) Anglo-Irish writer and novelist

  • Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) and her famous works

    Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) and her famous works

    Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) was an Anglo-Irish historian, writer, feminist, and traveller. She was born in Dublin. She began her adult life as a governess. Her friendship with the Fanny Kemble, and a long visit to Germany, brought her into contact with literary society, and she became a close friend of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, Mary Russell Mitford,  Harriet Martineau, Ottilie von Goethe, Lady Byron, Charles, and Elizabeth Eastlake, and eventually of the Carlyles. She produced many highly respected works of art history and criticism, biography, theology, history, travel, social comment, and general essays, some of which exhibited a strong interest in the position and education of women. Her Winter Studies and Summer Rambles (1838), an account of her visit to Canada, is an important work in early Canadian literature.

    The work for which she is now mainly remembered is Characteristics of Women (1832, later known as Shakespeare’s Heroines), dedicated to Fanny Kemble, and illustrated with her etchings. Shakespeare she saw as ‘the Poet of Womankind, whose heroines display all the aspects and complexities of womanhood. She divides the 25 heroines of her book into four groups: the characters of intellect, such as Portia; those of passion and imagination, such as Viola; those of the affections, such as Desdemona; and those from histories, such as Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth. For this book, Anna Jameson read Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, S. T. Coleridge, Charles Lamb, and other major critics, as well as relevant European and Greek drama, and thoroughly investigated the sources of the histories. Although she makes little attempt to relate the character to context, her interpretations, many of which are very detailed, were considered illuminating, and the work was received with considerable respect. Gerard Manley Hopkins placed her among the most eminent of Shakespeare’s critics. A volume of essays published in 1846 contains one of Jameson’s best pieces of work, The House of Titian.

    Her other important works include Social Life in Germany (1840); Companion to the Public Picture Galleries of London (1842); Memoirs of Early Italian Painters (1845); Memoirs and Essays on Art, Literature and Morals (1846); (edited) Sacred and Legendary Art (4 vols., 1848–60); Sisters of Charity (1855); The Communion of Labor (1856).

    Also read: Discuss the term différance by Jacques Derrida and its meaning

  • Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) Anglo-Irish writer and novelist

    Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) Anglo-Irish writer and novelist

    Early Life and Education

    Maria Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish writer and novelist. Born on January 1, 1768, she was the eldest daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817), a wealthy Irish landlord known for his radical and inventive nature. He was deeply interested in science, education, and social reform, associating with prominent figures like Erasmus Darwin, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, and Thomas Day. Her father’s influence on Maria was immense—he not only managed her literary career but also heavily edited and contributed to her works. Their collaboration led to the publication of Practical Education (1798), a treatise grounded in the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, though it was more practical and less theoretical in tone.

    Edgeworth’s early years were spent in Ireland before she received some schooling in England. At 15, she returned to Ireland to live with her family. It was during this time that she developed her passion for writing. Maria’s first significant publication, Letters to Literary Ladies (1795), called for better education for women. This began a prolific writing career that spanned over four decades.

    Maria Edgeworth maintained essential connections with other prominent literary figures throughout her life. In 1803, she visited London and was warmly received by the literary world, meeting notable figures like Lord Byron, Sydney Smith, Joanna Baillie, and Henry Crabb Robinson. She later visited Walter Scott in 1823, who greatly admired her work. In his preface to the Waverley edition of 1829, Scott described her as “the great Maria” and acknowledged her influence on his work. Other admirers included Jane Austen, who sent her a copy of Emma, and later intellectuals such as Thomas Macaulay, W. M. Thackeray, John Ruskin, and the Russian author Turgenev.

    Contribution to Literature: The Regional and Historical Novel

    One of Edgeworth’s most important contributions to English literature was her pioneering work in the genre of the regional and historical novel. Her novel Castle Rackrent (1800) is considered the first fully developed regional novel in English and one of the first historical novels. It also satirised Anglo-Irish landlords in the pre-1782 period, critiquing the landowning class’s need for better management of Irish estates. This novel would influence the works of Sir Walter Scott, who acknowledged her contribution in his own historical novels.

    Edgeworth’s other notable Irish novels include The Absentee (1812) and Ormond (1817), which focus on the lives of the Anglo-Irish class and Irish society, and are regarded as her finest works. She detailed Irish life, offering readers a window into the complexities of Anglo-Irish relations.

    Maria Edgeworth’s writing also touched on English society. Her novel Belinda (1801–2) became particularly famous for its controversial portrayal of interracial marriage between a Black servant and an English farm girl. This depiction sparked debates on race and marriage in the early 19th century, with later editions of the novel removing the sections that discussed these themes. Other works that explore contemporary English society include Leonora (1806), Patronage (1814), and Helen (1834).

    In addition to her novels, Edgeworth wrote numerous stories aimed at children, often designed to impart moral lessons. These works include The Parent’s Assistant (1796–1800), Moral Tales (1801), Popular Tales (1804), and Harry and Lucy Concluded (1825). Her works for children were widely popular and have remained an important part of her legacy.

    Legacy and Recognition
    Maria Edgeworth’s impact on English literature is still felt today. Her works contributed significantly to the regional and historical novel genres and offered a nuanced portrayal of Irish life and Anglo-Irish relations. She was a strong advocate for women’s education and was a pioneering figure in the early 19th-century literary scene. Marilyn Butler’s 1972 biography, Maria Edgeworth, further solidified her legacy, which remains the standard account of her life and work. Edgeworth passed away in 1849, leaving a literary legacy that continues to be studied and admired.

    Also read: An Impression about Maud Gonne in the poem “No Second Troy” by W.B.Yeats

  • An Impression about Maud Gonne in the poem “No Second Troy” by W.B.Yeats

    An Impression about Maud Gonne in the poem “No Second Troy” by W.B.Yeats

    Maud Gonne, the poet’s beloved woman, a staunch Irish revolutionist, is not named, but she is the only talked personality in the poem No Second Troy by W.B.Yeats. The woman (‘her’), referred to in the very first line of the poem, is Maud Gonne. She is the only character, mentioned and treated in the poem. The poem is based on the poet’s assessment of Maud Gonne, the woman he loved intensely. In fact, the entire poem, no doubt short enough, is related to her nature and function as the poet’s close associate and zealous organiser of the Irish uprising against the British occupation in Ireland.

    The theme of the poem includes the power of Maud Gonne to attract and draw people, as she did to the poet and the poor ignorant Irish masses. At the sametime, she was hard and full of frenzy in her approach and attitude. She turned down ruthlessly the poet’s proposal, just as she incited ignorant simple Irish men to violent and thoughtlessly frenzied activities.

    The poet also refers to Maud Gonne’s specific qualities that made her always restless, full of zeal and fury. Her mind, inspired with a pure selfless dedication to the cause of her homeland, made her restless and violently operative. Her beauty was strangely allied to sternness and her nature indicated her idealistic loftiness, commanding individuality and strong personality. She had an extraordinary character that was not natural to her time, full of tension and confusion, rich with a hig spirit and heroism.

    The poem, in fact, centres round Maud Gonne, the poet’s much beloved woman, her nature and temperament, her role and function in public life and private. Of course, as indicated already, the poet is nowhere found to blame her for any reason whatsoever. Even he is frank in his admission of her power to create, like the rare Greek beauty, Helen, another devastating fire to burn down another great city, like Troy, if she could have such one-

    “Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
    Was there another Troy for her to burn.”