This blog is in response to the Sunday reading task, assigned by dr barad sir. This blog is about a poem "Lockdown" by poet laureate Simon Armitage. In this blog I share my lockdown experience and try to connect my experience with the poem.
The poem "Lockdown" was first published in the Guardian on 21 march 2020. This poem moves from the outbreak of bubonic plague in Eyam in the 17 th century, and this poem also refears the epic poem meghaduta by the sanskrit poet kalidasa.
The poem was also influenced by a scene in meghaduta in which an exile sends reassuring words to his wife in the Himalayas via a passing cloud.
About simon Armitage-
Simon Robert Armitage is an English poet, playwright and novelist. He was professor of poetry at the University of leeds. He was also appointed UK poet laureate on 10 may 2019.
Simon was born in Marsden, a village in west yorkshire, England. He received a BA from Portsmouth university in geography and did an MS in social work from Manchester university. From 2015 to 2019, he served as professor of poetry at the university of oxford.
Lockdown by Simon Armitage
And I couldn’t escape the waking dream
of infected fleas
in the warp and weft of soggy cloth
by the tailor’s hearth
in ye olde Eyam.
Then couldn’t un-see
the Boundary Stone,
that cock-eyed dice with its six dark holes,
thimbles brimming with vinegar wine
purging the plagued coins.
Which brought to mind the sorry story
of Emmott Syddall and Rowland Torre,
star-crossed lovers on either side
of the quarantine line
whose wordless courtship spanned the river
till she came no longer.
But slept again,
and dreamt this time
of the exiled yaksha sending word
to his lost wife on a passing cloud,
a cloud that followed an earthly map
of camel trails and cattle tracks,
streams like necklaces,
fan-tailed peacocks, painted elephants,
embroidered bedspreads
of meadows and hedges,
bamboo forests and snow-hatted peaks,
waterfalls, creeks,
the hieroglyphs of wide-winged cranes
and the glistening lotus flower after rain,
the air
hypnotically see-through, rare,
the journey a ponderous one at times, long and slow
but necessarily so.
Lessons-
What is your first reaction to this poem? Are you able to connect your lockdown experience with this poem?
Yes, I can connect my lockdown experience with this poem. When I was in my second year of college, I spent the whole year at home. That was the time when i developed my painting skills, leaned about oil painting, figure study etc things, and i started youtube channel, make painting videos and uploaded it in my channel. Many relatives appreciated my work, and also I received some commission work that time. Lockdown time benefited me alot.
On the other side, the whole world stopped, many people died because of this coronavirus, and poor people suffered a lot. In my village there were many corona cases, and many of my neighbors and relatives died. People are afraid of this virus.Most news channels continuously give coron Virus news updates all over the world. Many people died badly and there wasn't sufficient wood to burn their bodies so health officers started to put dead bodies in vasty holes outside the cities and it scared people mentally.
If you are Chinese or African, would you be happy with the concluding message the speaker is deriving or interpreting from this poem?
If I was Chinese or African, I would surely say that I am happy with the concluding message of the speaker because this poem does not point out one particular country's people or race, it reflects the situation of the whole world.
By april 2020, half of the world's population was under lockdown. There were more than 3.9 billion people who faced this situation.
Here are two literary works which spread the same message of mention in this poem.
-The ballad of east and west by rudyard kipling
-where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Gitanjali 35 by Rabindranath tagor.
Here is youtube video of this poem-
At last I could say that Simon Amritage presented the right situation of that lockdown time, by the example of the great work meghaduta and plague.
This blog is a thinking activity task given by vaidehi ma'am. In this blog I am going through some of the important questions mentioned in the task, and try to justify the questions.
"The rape of the lock" was first published anonymously in 1712 before it was rewarded and republished in 1714 by alexander pope.
This poem is a mock epic or mock heroic poem, which means it draws from and parodies traditional roman or greek epics. This poem satirized the upper class in London at a time. The poem uses a heavy amount of satire, which is the use of ridicule, exaggeration, irony, humor, etc. Alexander pope the rape of the lock, in particular, satirizes both the obssesion with physical appearance and trivial matters by the people of 18 th century England.
The title of the poem points out what exactly happens in the poem. Belinda who is the main character of the poem has one of her locks of hair stolen by the baron.
The word "rape" draws its defination frome the latin root of the word " Rapio" which actually means "to snatch" or " to seize".
In 18th century, however, "Rape" could still means sexual assault, which pope was awar of and used to exaggerate the people involved.
The final form of the poem appeared in 1717 with the addition of Clarissa's speech on good humor.
Q-1 According to you, who is the protagonist of the poem Clarissa or Bilinda ? Why? give your answer with logical reason?
Pope wrote " The Rape Of The Lock" in response to a request madeby his friend John caryll, a prominant Roman catholic of the time. Caryll explained that his friend lord petre, had cut off a lock of Arabella fermor's hair.
In order to make light of the situation pope wrote the " Rape of the lock". The stealing of Miss Belle Fermor's hair was taken too seriously, and caused an estrangement between the two families, though they had lived so long in great friendship before.
First of all we should go through who is Belinda and who is Clarissa.
Belinda:
She is the protagonist of the poem, Belinda is a wealthy and beautiful young woman who travels to Hampton court for a day of socializing and leisure. Her remarkable beauty attracts the attention of the baron. Who snips off locks of hair in his infatuation.
The poem states that-
Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll, Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
"If to her share some female errors fall, look on her face, and you'll forget'em all "
In other words, she is so beautiful That those around her consider her basically exempt from any moral judgment. Belinda is Based on the real life figure of arabella fermor, who also had a lock of her hair cut off by a suitor.
Clarissa:
She lends the Baron her scissors to chop off belinda's lock of hair, she later finds the whole incident frustratingly trivial and she delivers a speech about how physical beauty is not as important as morally things. She says that virtue is most attractive to the soul, her speech obviously makes good sense.
Clarissas name , meaning "clarity", hints that the reader might do well to take her wise advice.
According to me clarissa should be protagonist of this poem because she knows that woman's outer beauty is not everything, and she says that woman should instead invest their time and energy in being the best moral being they can be. Outer beauty is not permanent thing, it gets old, but inner beauty is most important thing.
This story begins with belinda belinda arise to prepare for the day's social activities after sleeping late.
Belinda's guardian who is sylph, apriel, warns her in a dream that some disaster will befall her, and promises to protect her. Belinda then completes the elaborate process of beautifying herself.
Belinda looks beautiful and two locks in which she has styled her hair look especially attractive, and the baron eyes them in admiration. He has resolved to take one for himself either by force or by theft. Before sunrise that morning, he had prayed for success to the god of love.
After that belinda sits down with two men to play a game of ombre, belinda plays well, and coffee is then served, which the smell of revives the baron and reminds him of his plan to steal the lock, clarissa draws out a pair of scissors, and the baron seizes them and prepares to snip off the lock. The baron crows with delight and belinda screams in horror at what has happened.
Belinda feels sad, and considers the wrong done to her. Then at last Clarissa quiets the group and makes her own speech, she argues that this whole debate is silly, women place too much value on transient female beauty, and that women should instead invest their time and energy in being the best moral being they can be.
At the end Belinda shouts at the baron to return the stolen lock. But the lock is gone. Unlike every other lock, however, this one will never grow gray, but will burn brightly in the sky as belinda's spectacular beauty.
Q-2 What is beauty ? Write your view about it.
According to me beauty is not all about outer looks, and always looking beautiful. Women should spend much time on their looks rather than thinking to become Better person And serve society. Outer look self obsession is useless and ridiculous nonsense.
In this poem belinda has obsession with her beauty, and she always spent time to beautify herself. But this is not the right thing. Women should not obsess with her beauty blindly. They should try to be moral and develop a good personality, being a good human being. Beauty is not everything in woman's life. Because everyone grows old, outer beauty is a temporary thing and when a woman gets old her beauty will fade and all beautiful hair ultimately turns gray, no matter how nicely they are styled. So losing beauty loday isn't much different from losing it later on.
In this modern time many beauty contest are based on contestents inner beauty their moral sence, they don't jude contestent by their skin colors and their race, cast and class. They dudge contestant by how they answering the questions asked to him, how they use their moral sense.
This is a picture of miss universe2011 laila lops.
Q-3 Research paper-
The Rape of the Lock and other poems by alexander pope.
Alexander pope, thomas markc parrott, of english.
Introduction-
In this text Thomas Marc Parrott says that perhaps no other great poet in English literature has been so differently judged at different times as Alexander pope. Accepted almost on his first appearance as one of the leading poets of the day, he rapidly became recognised as the foremost man of letters of his life, and for over half a century after his death his works were considered not only as masterpieces, but as the finest models of poetry.
With the change of poetic temper that occurred at the beginning af the nineteenth century popes fame was over shaowed.
Pope as a man and as a poet is sadly in need of a defender today. Popes religious and his chronicill health are two facts of the highest importance to be taken into consideration in any study of his life or judgment of his character.
In a well konwn passage of the epistle to arbuthnot pope has spoken of his life as one long disrase.
Q-4 write your views about the significance of hair, is it symbolic?
Belindas lock of hair symbolize the absurdity of the importance to female beauty in society. Belinda has two locks and it actracted man who looks at them. The lock are " labyrinthus". Under the influence of umbriel, thalestris laments the loss of the lock as the symbolic loss of belindas reputation in society, exclaiming,
"methinks already i Your tears survey, already hear the horrid things they say."
In popes day, the respectability of a women in Society depended upon her having a spotless reputation and being perfectly virtuous, sexually pure. When baron having taken it, and the people will think she in some way allowed him to violate her body. Pope satirise this idea that beauty and virtue are so closely related at the end the lock is too precious to remain on earth. It gonne in sky.
Here i embeded a youtube video of this poem-
Conclusion-
This poem reflacts artificial and hollow life of people, and how they wast thaeir time in such gatherings and card games and Belinda spent her most time in beautifing herself. pope satirize this character in this poem.
Lowellrightly says that -
“Pope stands by himself in English verse as anintellectual observer and describer of personal weaknesses”
This blog is in response to the task assigned by dr. barad sir. In this blog I am going to discuss some important general characteristics of literature of these ages.
Introduction-
Puritan Age-
puritan age is also called age of milton.
This age is divided in two sub periods-
- jecobean (james 1 1603-1625)
- caroline period (charles 1625-1649)
The puritan age is named after the rise of the puritan movement in England in the 17 th century. Basically puritans, were a group of English speaking protestant who were dissatisfied with the religious reformation movement carried out during the reign of queen elizabeth.
They wanted a couplete purification of church of England and removal
of practices such as hierarchical leadership, clerical vestments and various rituals of the church, which were associated with rome.
The puritans emerged as a strong political force during the england war(1642-1651). In that time the English civil war was a series of conflicts between Charles 1 and his supporters called the cavaliers on the one hand, and on the other hand parliamentarians or the roundheads mainly comprised the puritan middle classes. This war was ended in 1651 with the victory of the parliamentarians, charles 1 was executed while his son, charles 2 died to france, and there any hopes of monarchy were demolished and the monarchical rule was replaces first with commonwealth of England (1649-53), and then with a protectorate (1653-59), under oliver cromwell's personal rule.
Restoration Age-
The period from 1660 to 1700is mainly known as the restoration age or also known as the age of dryden.
Dryden was the representative writer of this period. The restoration of king charles 2 in 1660 marks the beginning of a new era. This era made an effect in life and the literature of England. The king was received with wild joy on his return from exile.
This period is Renaissance delight in the world and also the unlimited possibilities of the exploration of the world and their moral zeal and the earnestness of the puritan period could no more fascinate the people of England. The greater part of the restoration period there was awareness of the limitations of human experience, there was without faith in the extension of the resources. There were historical events like the restoration of charles 2 in 1660, and also religious controversy and the revolution of 1688 deeply influenced the social life and the literary movements of the age.
Here are general characteristics of these ages-
Characteristics of puritan age-
Here are the main characteristics of the literature of the age.
Geres-
In this period first person narratives were commonplace in the writing especially in the forms of journals and diaries. There were personal accounts of early American colonists depicting tales of traveling to the new lands, immigration, and everyday struggle.
The main genres of this age writing included religious sermons, historical narrative, and personal journals and poetry.
Themes of this age-
The common themes of this age included religious and political idealism.
There is also an insistence on practicality and pragmatism of day to day life.
There is heavy usage of symbolism, especially from religious scripture. The age is also due to the heavy influence of biblical text, for example, old testament and books like the book of jeremiah. The genre, known as Jeremiads, was split into three portions.
There was also an influence of natural phenomena like earthquakes, fire, floods etc as the people of the age were interested in learning about nature and the signs for god's design in nature. Other thematic works included the idea of reformation or regeneration. Unity and free choice and order were also topical manifestations. The concept of struggle between the world and spirituality was also there.
Writing style-
The writing style of this age was plain with simple sentences and language. There was limited use of metaphorical constructions and excessive ornamentation or dramatic appeals were discouraged.
The main motive was to tell the truth of God's existence in a commonly understandable form. Therefore the use of Greek mythology or forms of classical literature was avoided.
In this age puritan believed that literature should not be used for entertainment. It must be used in the service of religious discourse.
Anne Bradstreet and John Winthrop wrote extensively about spirituality. They mainly wanted to motivate people by creating an allusion to that ideal society. The one work of winthrop's " model of christians charity" which was actually a sermon and used the popular metaphor"city upon a hill" in abella covenant.
Puritan Poetry-
They mainly used sonnets, especially the likes of Anne Bradstreet, who she considered to be the first American poet. This was a continuation of the sonnet writing in the elizabeth age and the works of Shakespeare etc.
"the author of her book" by Anne Bradstreet is the best example of sonnets. Here she used a European poetic style and avoided getting into squabbles with the criticism of the clergy at the time. Poets like John Dryden broughy new creativity to the puritan age.
Characteristic of Restoration age-
The literature of the restoration period marked the complete breaking of ties with the renaissance literature. It mainly reflected the spirit of the age, there is a spirit of corruption and moral laxity, which were reflected in literature.
The following are the main characteristics of the age.
Rise of neo - classicism-
This age marks a complete break with the past. Most people believed in the present, the real and the material. Men had learned to fear individual enthusiasm and therefore they tried to discourage withbreason and common sense to which all men should adapt themself. These all tendencies were reflected in the literature of this period. Prose and poetry writers agreed upon the rules and principles in accordance with which they should write.
Rules and literary conventions became more important than the depth and seriousness of the subject matter to the writers of this period.
Imitation of the ancient masters-
Most of the authors of this period were not endowed with exceptional literary talents. So they turned to the ancients writers, in particular to the latin writers, for guidance and inspiration they generally believed that the ancients had reached the acme of excellence and the modern poets could do no better than model their writings on the classics, thus grew the neo classical school of poetry.
Imitation of the french masters-
In this period King Charles II and his companions had spent the period of exile in France. They demanded that poetry and drama should follow the style to which they had become accustomed in France. Shakespeare and his contemporaries could not satisfy the popular literary taste.
Pepys wrote in his diary that he was bored to see Shakespeare‘s Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Italian influence had been dominant in the Elizabethan period. Now began the period of French influence, which showed itself in English literature for the next century. W. H. Hudson commented on the French influence on the literature of this period and writes that-
Now the contemporary literature of France was characterized particularly by lucidity, vivacity, and by reason of the close attention given to form – correctness, elegance and finish.
The famous French writers like Corneille, Racine, Moliere and Boileau were imitated. Boileau‘s ―good sense idea became very popular.
Correctness and Appropriateness
The most work of the authors of the Restoration period was imitative and of limited quality. Since they lacked creativity and flight of imagination, they abandoned freedom altogether and slavishly followed the rules.
There was the new tendency, which reached its climax in the Age of Pope, is very clearly marked in the literature of the Restoration period. To Dryden Dr. Johnson applied the term ―Augustan, saying that Dryden did to English literature what Augustus did to home.
Dryden was the first representative of the new ideas that were to dominate English literature till the end of the eighteenth century.
Realism and formalism
This Restoration literature is realistic. It was very much related with life in London, and with details of dress, fashions and manners.
The early Restoration writers observe that W. J. Long, sought to paint realistic pictures of corrupt court and society, and emphasized vices rather than virtues and gave us coarse, low plays without interest or moral significance.
In this period Dryden accepted the excellent rule for his prose, and adopted the heroic couplet, as the next best thing for the greater part of this poetry.
Here i embeded youtube video of puritan and restoration age-
Conclusion-
In Puritan age there were first person narratives in forms of journels and diaries and The main genres of this age writing included religious sermons, historical narrative, and personal journals and poetry. On other side in puritan age Rules and literary conventions became more important than the depth and seriousness of the subject matter to the writers of this period. The common theme of puritan age was religious and political idealism. in Restoration literature is realistic. It was very much related with life in London, and with details of dress, fashions and manners.
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