BAQ105_English Literature-I

INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE & ONLINE LEARNING BACHELOR OF ARTS ENGLISH LITERATURE - I BAQ105 Self Learning Material R101

BACHELOR OF ARTS ENGLISH LITERATURE - I BAQ105 Dr. Manjushree Vikrant Sardeshpande

CHANDIGARH UNIVERSITY Institute of Distance and Online Learning Course Development Committee Chairman Prof. (Dr.) R.S. Bawa Vice Chancellor, Chandigarh University, Punjab Advisors Prof. (Dr.) Bharat Bhushan, Director, IGNOU Prof. (Dr.) Majulika Srivastava, Director, CIQA, IGNOU Programme Coordinators & Editing Team Master of Business Administration (MBA) Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Co-ordinator - Prof. Pragya Sharma Co-ordinator - Dr. Rupali Arora Master of Computer Applications (MCA) Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) Co-ordinator - Dr. Deepti Rani Sindhu Co-ordinator - Dr. Raju Kumar Master of Commerce (M.Com.) Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) Co-ordinator - Dr. Shashi Singhal Co-ordinator - Dr. Minakshi Garg Master of Arts (Psychology) Bachelor of Science (Travel & TourismManagement) Co-ordinator - Ms. Nitya Mahajan Co-ordinator - Dr. Shikha Sharma Master of Arts (English) Bachelor of Arts (General) Co-ordinator - Dr. Ashita Chadha Co-ordinator - Ms. Neeraj Gohlan Master of Arts (Mass Communication and Bachelor of Arts (Mass Communication and Journalism) Journalism) Co-ordinator - Dr. Chanchal Sachdeva Suri Co-ordinator - Dr. Kamaljit Kaur Academic and Administrative Management Prof. (Dr.) Pranveer Singh Satvat Prof. (Dr.) S.S. Sehgal Pro VC (Academic) Registrar Prof. (Dr.) H. Nagaraja Udupa Prof. (Dr.) Shiv Kumar Tripathi Director – (IDOL) Executive Director – USB © No part of this publication should be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording and/or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author and the publisher. SLM SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR CU IDOL STUDENTS Printed and Published by: Himalaya Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.himpub.com For: CHANDIGARH UNIVERSITY Institute of Distance and Online Learning CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

English Literature - I Credits: 3 Course Code: BAQ105 Course Objectives:  To motivate and encourage the students to understand and appreciate short lyrical poems.  To study world famous poets such as Shakespeare, Blake, Tagore, etc.  To develop in the students communicative competence by encouraging them to learn to listen. Syllabus Unit 1 – Marriage of True Minds – William Shakespeare Unit 2 – The School Boy – William Blake Unit 3 – The Education of Nature – William Wordsworth Unit 4 – All Things will Die – Alfred Lord Tennyson Unit 5 – Still I Rise – Maya Angelou Unit 6 – Where the Mind is without Fear – Rabindranath Tagore Unit 7 – Refugee Mother and Child – Chinua Achebe Unit 8 – Stanza Forms: 1. The Heroic Couplet, 2. The Blank Verse, 3. The Spenserian Stanza Unit 9 – Composition (Letter/Application Writing, Comprehension of Unseen Passage) Reference Books: 1. Khanna, V.K. and Paul, F.M. (2014), As Elaborated in the Blossoming Mind, New Delhi: Laxmi Publications. 2. Wren & Martin (2017), English Grammar and Composition, New Delhi: S. Chand Publishing. 3. Abrams, M.H. and Harpham, G.G. (2015), A Glossary of Literary Terms, Mumbai: Macmillan Publishers Indian Ltd. 4. Murphy, R. (2013), Elementary Grammar (Intermediate Level), UK: Cambridge University Press. 5. Hewing, M. (2012), Advanced English Grammar, UK: Cambridge University Press. 6. John, E. (2012), Oxford Practice Grammar (Intermediate Level), New Delhi: Oxford University Press. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

CONTENTS 1 – 27 28 – 49 Unit 1: The Marriage of True Minds 50 – 76 Unit 2: The School Boy 77 – 97 Unit 3: The Education of Nature 98 – 118 Unit 4: All Things will Die 119 – 132 Unit 5: Still I Rise 133 – 156 Unit 6: My Grandmother 157 – 183 Unit 7: Where the Mind is Without Fear 184 – 202 Unit 8: Refugee Mother and Child 203 – 228 Unit 9: Stanza Forms 229 – 230 Unit 10: Composition Model Question Paper CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 1 THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Structure: 1.0 Learning Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Themes 1.3 Art vs. Time 1.4 Symbols 1.5 Form and Structure of the Sonnets 1.6 Summary 1.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) 1.8 References 1.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, students will be able to understand: The universal acceptance of Shakespeare, understanding why Shakespeare is not of a particular age but for all times and Shakespeare’s relevance in today’s modern world make him very important. He is considered a master in English Literature. Shakespeare’s plays have transcended even the category of brilliance and have had a profound impact on the course of Western literature and culture ever after. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

2 English Literature - I 1. Illumination of the Human Experience: Shakespeare’s ability to summarize the range of human emotions in simple yet profoundly eloquent verse is perhaps the greatest reason for his enduring popularity. If you cannot find words to express how you feel about love or music or growing older, Shakespeare can speak for you. No author in the Western world has penned more beloved passages. Shakespeare’s work is the reason John Bartlett compiled the first major book of familiar quotations. 2. Great Stories: Marchette Chute, in the Introduction to her famous retelling of Shakespeare’s stories, summarizes one of the reasons for Shakespeare’s immeasurable fame: William Shakespeare was the most remarkable storyteller that the world has ever known. Homer told of adventure and men at war, Sophocles and Tolstoy told of tragedies and of people in trouble. Terence and Mark Twain told comedic stories, Dickens told melodramatic ones, Plutarch told histories and Hand Christian Andersen told fairy tales. But Shakespeare told every kind of story – comedy, tragedy, history, melodrama, adventure, love stories and fairy tales – and each of them so well, that they have become immortal. In all the world of storytelling, he has become the greatest name. (Stories from Shakespeare, 11) Shakespeare’s stories transcend time and culture. Modern storytellers continue to adapt Shakespeare’s tales to suit our modern world, whether it be the tale of Lear on a farm in Iowa, Romeo and Juliet on the mean streets of New York City, or Macbeth in feudal Japan. 3. Compelling Characters: Shakespeare invented his share of stock characters, but his truly great characters – particularly his tragic heroes – are unequalled in literature, dwarfing even the sublime creations of the Greek tragedians. Shakespeare’s great characters have remained popular because of their complexity; for example, we can see ourselves as gentle Hamlet, forced against his better nature to seek murderous revenge. For this reason Shakespeare is deeply admired by actors, and many consider playing a Shakespearean character to be the most difficult and most rewarding role possible. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 3 4. Ability to Turn a Phrase: Many of the common expressions, now thought to be cliches, were Shakespeare’s creations. Chances are you use Shakespeare’s expressions all the time even though you may not know it is the Bard you are quoting. You may think that fact is “neither here nor there”, but that is “the short and the long of it.” Bernard Levin said it best in the following quote about Shakespeare’s impact on our language: If you cannot understand my argument, and declare “It’s Greek to me”, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool’s paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; 1.1 Introduction About the Poet William Shakespeare William Shakespeare, often called England’s national poet, is considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare’s personal life is shrouded in mystery. Who was William Shakespeare? William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

4 English Literature - I Known throughout the world, Shakespear’s writings capture the range of human emotions and conflicts and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery. There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work — the plays, poems and sonnets — and the other is official documentation, such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself. When was Shakespeare Born? No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare’s birthday. Located about 100 miles northwest of London, during Shakespeare’s time, Stratford-upon- Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and bisected by a country road. Family Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. Before Shakespeare’s birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John’s fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s. Childhood and Education Scant records exist of Shakespeare’s childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King’s New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 5 Being a public official’s child, Shakespeare would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work (and even about whether or not Shakespeare really existed). Wife and Children Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11. Shakespeare’s Lost Years There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where no records exist after the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the “lost years,” and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period. One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire. It is generally believed that he arrived in London in the mid-to-late 1580s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London’s finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway. The King’s Men By the early 1590s, documents show Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting company in London with which he was connected for most of his career. Considered the most important troupe of its time, the company changed its name to the King’s Men following the crowning of King James I in 1603. From all accounts, the King’s Men CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

6 English Literature - I company was very popular. Records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature. Although the theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank, some of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors. Actor and Playwright By 1592, there is evidence that Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced. The September 20, 1592 edition of the Stationers’ Register (a guild publication), includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at Shakespeare: “...There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger’s heart wrapped in a Player’s hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit, the only Shake-scene in a country,” Greene wrote of Shakespeare. Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene’s way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe or Greene himself. Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first and second published poems: “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “The Rape of Lucrece” (1594). By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37 plays. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second-largest house in Stratford, called New House, for his family. It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, So it is believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting, and came home once a year during the 40- day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 7 Globe Theater By 1599, Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe that these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted. Shakespeare’s Writing Style Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that did not always align naturally with the story’s plot or characters. However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes, and creating a freer flow of words. With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose. William Shakespeare: Plays While it is difficult to determine the exact chronology of Shakespeare’s plays, over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays revolving around several main themes: histories, tragedies, comedies and tragicomedies. Early Works: Histories and Comedies With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s first plays were mostly histories. Henry VI (Parts I, II and III), Richard II and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare’s way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

8 English Literature - I Julius Caesar portrays upheaval in Roman politics that may have resonated with viewers at a time when England’s aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles. Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the whimsical A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing and the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Other plays written before 1600 include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V. Works after 1600: Tragedies and Tragicomedies It was in Shakespeare’s later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare’s characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare’s plots, destroying the hero and those he loves. In Shakespeare’s final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these are Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness. Other plays written during this period include All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Pericles and Henry VIII. When did Shakespeare die? Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe that this is a myth. Church records show that he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 9 The exact cause of Shakespeare’s death is unknown, though many believe that he died following a brief illness. In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his “second-best bed.” This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor, or that the couple was not close. However, there is very little evidence that the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term “second-best bed” often refers to the bed belonging to the household’s master and mistress — the marital bed — and the “first-best bed” was reserved for guests. Did Shakespeare write his Own Plays? About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon — men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration — as the true authors of the plays. Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare’s life and the dearth of contemporary primary sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford government record the existence of a Shakespeare, but none of these attest to him as being an actor or playwright. Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed in Shakespeare’s works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged that question the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19th century when adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest. The detractors believed that the only hard evidence surrounding Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings, who married young and became successful in real estate. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

10 English Literature - I Members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society (founded in 1957), put forth arguments that English aristocrat and poet Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the poems and plays of “William Shakespeare.” The Oxfordians cite de Vere’s extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works attributed to Shakespeare. They contend that Shakespeare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters. However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend that Shakespeare wrote all his own plays. They point out that other playwrights of the time, also had sketchy histories and came from modest backgrounds. They contend that Stratford’s New Grammar School curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare’s authorship argue that the lack of evidence about Shakespeare’s life doesn’t mean his life didn’t exist. They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of published poems and plays. Examples exist of authors and critics of the time acknowledging Shakespeare as the author of plays, such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and King John. Royal records from 1601 show that Shakespeare was recognized as a member of the King’s Men theater company and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare’s plays. There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright. Literary Legacy What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts, who, wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius was not recognized until the 19th century. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 11 Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works. Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and re-interpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare’s characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England. Shakespearean Sonnets Shakespeare’s sonnets are poems that William Shakespeare wrote on a variety of themes. When discussing or referring to Shakespeare’s sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609; however, there are six additional sonnets that Shakespeare wrote and included in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost. There is a partial sonnet found in the play Edward III. Shakespeare’s sonnets are considered a continuation of the sonnet tradition that swept through the Renaissance Era from Petrarch in 14th century Italy and was finally introduced in 16th century England by Thomas Wyatt and was given its rhyming meter and division into quatrains by Henry Howard. With few exceptions, Shakespeare’s sonnets observe the stylistic form of the English sonnet — the rhyme scheme, the 14 lines, and the meter. But Shakespeare’s sonnets introduce such significant departures of content that they seem to be rebelling against well-worn 200-year-old traditions. Instead of expressing worshipful love for an almost goddess-like yet unobtainable female love-object, as Petrarch, Dante, and Philip Sidney had done, Shakespeare introduces a young man. He also introduces the Dark Lady, who is no goddess. Shakespeare explores themes such as lust, homoeroticism, misogyny, infidelity, and acrimony in ways that may challenge, but which also open new terrain for the sonnet form. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

12 English Literature - I The sonnets cover such themes as the passage of time, love, infidelity, jealousy, beauty and mortality. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man; the last 28 are either addressed to, or refer to a woman. Sidney’s title may have inspired Shakespeare, particularly if the “W.H.” of Shakespeare’s dedication is Sidney’s nephew and heir, William Herbert. Henry Wriothesley (the Earl of Southampton), with initials reversed, has received a great deal of consideration as a likely possibility. He was the dedicatee of Shakespeare’s poems Venus & Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Southampton was also known for his good looks. The idea that the persona referred to as the speaker of the Shakespeare’s sonnets might be Shakespeare himself, is aggressively repudiated by scholars. However, the title of the quarto does seem to encourage that kind of speculation. The first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are addressed to the young man — urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation. Other sonnets express the speaker’s love for the young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticise the young man for preferring a rival poet; express ambiguous feelings for the speaker's mistress; and pun on the poet’s name. The final two sonnets are allegorical treatments of Greek epigrams referring to the \"little love-god\" Cupid. The publisher, Thomas Thorpe, entered the book in the Stationers' Register on 20 May 1609. Shakespeare’s sonnets are very different from Shakespeare’s plays, but they do contain dramatic elements and an overall sense of story. Each of these poems deals with a highly personal theme, and each can be taken on its own or in relation to the poems around it. The sonnets have the feel of autobiographical poems, but we do not know whether they deal with real events or not, because no one knows enough about Shakespeare’s life to say whether or not they deal with real events and feelings, so we tend to refer to the voice of the sonnets as “the speaker” — as though he were a dramatic creation like Hamlet or King Lear. There are certainly a number of intriguing continuities throughout the poems. The first 126 of the sonnets seem to be addressed to an unnamed young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very much; the rest of the poems (except for the last two, which seem generally unconnected to CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 13 the rest of the sequence) seem to be addressed to a mysterious woman, whom the speaker loves, hates, and lusts for, simultaneously. The two addressees of the sonnets are usually referred to as the “young man” and the “dark lady”; in summaries of individual poems, The speaker has also called the young man the “beloved” and the dark lady the “lover,” especially in cases where their identity can only be surmised. Within the two mini-sequences, there are a number of other discernible elements of “plot”: the speaker urges the young man to have children; he is forced to endure a separation from him; he competes with a rival poet for the young man’s patronage and affection. At two points in the sequence, it seems that the young man and the dark lady are actually lovers themselves — a state of affairs with which the speaker is none too happy. But while these continuities give the poems a narrative flow and a helpful frame of reference, they have been frustratingly hard for scholars and biographers to pin down. In Shakespeare’s life, who were the young man and the dark lady? Historical Mysteries Of all the questions surrounding Shakespeare’s life, the sonnets are perhaps the most intriguing. At the time of their publication in 1609 (after having been written most likely in the 1590s and shown only to a small circle of literary admirers), they were dedicated to a “Mr. W.H,” who is described as the “onlie begetter” of the poems. Like those of the young man and the dark lady, the identity of this Mr. W.H. remains an alluring mystery. Because he is described as “begetting” the sonnets, and because the young man seems to be the speaker’s financial patron, some people have speculated that the young man is Mr. W.H. If his initials were reversed, he might even be Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, who has often been linked to Shakespeare in theories of his history. But all of this is simply speculation. Ultimately, the circumstances surrounding the sonnets, their cast of characters and their relations to Shakespeare himself, are destined to remain a mystery. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

14 English Literature - I 1.2 Themes Different Types of Romantic Love Modern readers associate the sonnet form with romantic love and with good reason: the first sonnets written in 13th and 14th century Italy celebrated the poets’ feelings for their beloveds and their patrons. These sonnets were addressed to stylized, lionized women and dedicated to wealthy noblemen, who supported poets with money and other gifts, usually in return for lofty praise in print. Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to “Mr. W. H.,” and the identity of this man remains unknown. He dedicated an earlier set of poems, Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece, to Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton, but it is not known what Wriothesly gave him for this honor. In contrast to tradition, Shakespeare addressed most of his sonnets to an unnamed young man, possibly Wriothesly. Addressing sonnets to a young man was unique in Elizabethan England. Furthermore, Shakespeare used his sonnets to explore different types of love between the young man and the speaker, the young man and the dark lady, and the dark lady and the speaker. In his sequence, the speaker expresses passionate concern for the young man, praises his beauty, and articulates what we would now call homosexual desire. The woman of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the so-called dark lady, is earthy, sexual, and faithless—characteristics in direct opposition to lovers described in other sonnet sequences, including Astrophil and Stella, by Sir Philip Sidney, a contemporary of Shakespeare, who were praised for their angelic demeanor, virginity, and steadfastness. Several sonnets also probe the nature of love, comparing the idealized love found in poems with the messy, complicated love found in real life. The Dangers of Lust and Love In Shakespeare’s sonnets, falling in love can have painful emotional and physical consequences. Sonnets 127–152, addressed to the so-called dark lady, express a more overtly erotic and physical love than the sonnets addressed to the young man. But many sonnets warn readers about the dangers of lust and love. According to some poems, lust causes us to mistake sexual desire for true love, and love itself causes us to lose our powers of perception. Several sonnets warn about the dangers of lust, claiming that it turns humans “savage, extreme, rude, cruel”, as seen in Sonnet 129. The final two sonnets of Shakespeare’s sequence obliquely imply CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 15 that lust leads to venereal disease. According to the conventions of romance, the sexual act, or “making love,” expresses the deep feeling between two people. In his sonnets, however, Shakespeare portrays making love, not as a romantic expression of sentiment but as a base physical need with the potential for horrible consequences. Several sonnets equate being in love with being in a pitiful state; as demonstrated by the poems, love causes fear, alienation, despair, and physical discomfort, not the pleasant emotions or euphoria we usually associate with romantic feelings. The speaker alternates between professing great love and professing great worry as he speculates about the young man’s misbehavior and the dark lady’s multiple sexual partners. As the young man and the dark lady begin an affair, the speaker imagines himself caught in a love triangle, mourning the loss of his friendship with the man and love with the woman, and he laments having fallen in love with the woman in the first place. In Sonnet 137, the speaker personifies love, calls him a simpleton, and criticizes him for removing his powers of perception. It was love that caused the speaker to make mistakes and poor judgments. Elsewhere 3 the speaker calls love a disease as a way of demonstrating the physical pain of emotional wounds. Throughout his sonnets, Shakespeare clearly implies that love hurts. Yet, despite the emotional and physical pain, like the speaker, we continue falling in love. Shakespeare shows that falling in love is an inescapable aspect of the human condition — indeed, expressing love is part of what makes us human. Real Beauty vs. Clichéd Beauty To express the depth of their feelings, poets frequently employ hyperbolic terms to describe the objects of their affections. Traditionally, sonnets transform women into the most glorious creatures to walk the earth, whereas patrons become the noblest and bravest men the world has ever known. Shakespeare makes fun of the convention by contrasting an idealized woman with a real woman. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare directly engages — and skewers — clichéd concepts of beauty. The speaker explains that his lover, the dark lady, has wires for hair, bad breath, dull cleavage, a heavy step, and pale lips. He concludes by saying that he loves her all the more precisely because he loves her and not some idealized, false version. Real love, the sonnet implies, begins when we accept our lovers for what they are, as well as what they are not. Other sonnets explain that because anyone can use artful means to make himself or herself more attractive, no CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

16 English Literature - I one is really beautiful anymore. Thus, since anyone can become beautiful, calling someone beautiful is no longer much of a compliment. The Responsibilities of Being Beautiful Shakespeare portrays beauty as conveying a great responsibility in the sonnets addressed to the young man, in Sonnets 1-126. Here the speaker urges the young man to make his beauty immortal by having children, a theme that appears repeatedly throughout the poems. As an attractive person, the young man has a responsibility to procreate. Later sonnets demonstrate the speaker, angry at being cuckolded, lashing out at the young man and accusing him of using his beauty to hide immoral acts. Sonnet 95 compares the young man’s behavior to a “canker in the fragrant rose” or a rotten spot on an otherwise beautiful flower. In other words, the young man’s beauty allows him to get away with bad behavior, but this bad behavior will eventually distort his beauty, much like a rotten spot eventually spreads. Nature gave the young man a beautiful face, but it is the young man’s responsibility to make sure that his soul is worthy of such a visage. 1.3 Art vs. Time Shakespeare, like many sonneteers, portrays time as an enemy of love. Time destroys love because time causes beauty to fade, people to age, and life to end. One common convention of sonnets in general is to flatter either a beloved or a patron by promising immortality through verse. As long as readers read the poem, the object of the poem’s love will remain alive. In Shakespeare’s sonnet, the speaker talks of being “in war with time”; time causes the young man’s beauty to fade, but the speaker’s verse shall entomb the young man and keep him beautiful. The speaker begins by pleading with time in another sonnet, yet he ends by taunting time, confidently asserting that his verse will counteract time’s ravages. From our contemporary vantage point, the speaker was correct, and art has beaten time;the young man remains young since we continue to read of his youth in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Through art, nature and beauty overcome time. Several sonnets use the seasons to symbolize the passage of time and to show that everything in nature — from plants to people — is mortal. But nature creates beauty, which poets capture and render immortal in their verse. Sonnet 106 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 17 portrays the speaker reading poems from the past and recognizing his beloved’s beauty portrayed therein. The speaker then suggests that these earlier poets were prophesizing the future beauty of the young man by describing the beauty of their contemporaries. In other words, past poets described the beautiful people of their day and, like Shakespeare’s speaker, perhaps urged these beautiful people to procreate and so on, through the poetic ages, until the birth of the young man portrayed in Shakespeare’s sonnets. In this way — that is, as beautiful people of one generation produce more beautiful people in the subsequent generation, and as all this beauty is written about by poets — nature, art, and beauty triumph over time. Stopping the March Toward Death Growing older and dying are inescapable aspects of the human condition, but Shakespeare’s sonnets give suggestions for halting the progress toward death. Shakespeare’s speaker spends a lot of time trying to convince the young man to cheat death by having children. In Sonnets 1-17, the speaker argues that the young man is too beautiful to die without leaving behind his replica, and the idea that the young man has a duty to procreate becomes the dominant motif of the first several sonnets. In Sonnet 3, the speaker continues his urgent prodding and concludes, “Die single and thine image dies with thee”. The speaker’s words are not just the flirtatious ramblings of a smitten man: Elizabethan England was rife with disease, and early death was common. Producing children guaranteed the continuation of the species. Therefore, falling in love has a social benefit, a benefit indirectly stressed by Shakespeare’s sonnets. We might die, but our children—and the human race—shall live on. The Significance of Sight Shakespeare used images of eyes throughout the sonnets to emphasize other themes and motifs, including children as an antidote to death, art’s struggle to overcome time, and the pain of love. For instance, in several poems, the speaker urges the young man to admire himself in the mirror. Noticing and admiring his own beauty, the speaker argues, will encourage the young man to father a child. Other sonnets link writing and painting with sight: in Sonnet 24, the speaker’s eye becomes a pen or paintbrush that captures the young man’s beauty and imprints it on the blank page of the speaker’s heart. But our loving eyes can also distort our sight, causing us to CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

18 English Literature - I misperceive reality. In the sonnets addressed to the dark lady, the speaker criticizes his eyes for causing him to fall in love with a beautiful but duplicitous woman. Ultimately, Shakespeare uses eyes to act as a warning: while our eyes allow us to perceive beauty, they sometimes get so captivated by beauty that they cause us to misjudge character and other attributes not visible to the naked eye. Readers’ eyes are as significant in the sonnets as the speaker’s eyes. Shakespeare encourages his readers to see by providing vivid visual descriptions. One sonnet compares the young man’s beauty to the glory of the rising sun, while another uses the image of clouds obscuring the sun as a metaphor for the young man’s faithlessness and still another contrasts the beauty of a rose with one rotten spot to warn the young man to cease his sinning ways. Other poems describe bare trees to symbolize aging. The sonnets devoted to the dark lady emphasize her coloring, noting in particular her black eyes and hair, and Sonnet 130 describes her by noting all the colors she does not possess. Stressing the visual helps Shakespeare to heighten our experience of the poems by giving us the precise tools with which to imagine the metaphors, similes, and descriptions contained therein. 1.4 Symbols Flowers and Trees Flowers and trees appear throughout the sonnets to illustrate the passage of time, the transience of life, the aging process, and beauty. Rich, lush foliage symbolizes youth, whereas barren trees symbolize old age and death, often in the same poem, as, seen in Sonnet 12. Traditionally, roses signify romantic love, a symbol Shakespeare employs in the sonnets, discussing their attractiveness and fragrance in relation to the young man. Sometimes Shakespeare compares flowers and weeds to contrast beauty and ugliness. In these comparisons, marred, rotten flowers are worse than weeds — that is, beauty that turns rotten from bad character is worse than initial ugliness. Giddy with love, elsewhere the speaker compares blooming flowers to the beauty of the young man, concluding in Sonnets 98 and 99 that flowers received their bloom and smell from him. The sheer ridiculousness of this statement — flowers smell sweet for CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 19 chemical and biological reasons — underscores the hyperbole and exaggeration that plague typical sonnets. Stars Shakespeare uses stars to stand in for fate, a common poetic Trope, but also to explore the nature of free will. Many sonneteers resort to employing fate, symbolized by the stars, to prove that their love is permanent and predestined. In contrast, Shakespeare’s speaker claims that he relies on his eyes, rather than on the hands of fate, to make decisions. Using his eyes, the speaker “reads” that the young man’s good fortune and beauty shall pass to his children, should he have them. During Shakespeare’s time, people generally believed in astrology, even as scholars were making great gains in astronomy and cosmology, a metaphysical system for ordering the universe. According to Elizabethan astrology, a cosmic order determined the place of everything in the universe, from planets and stars to people. Although humans had some free will, the heavenly spheres, with the help of God, predetermined fate. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 25, the speaker acknowledges that he has been unlucky in the stars but lucky in love, thereby removing his happiness from the heavenly bodies and transposing it onto the human body of his beloved. Weather and the Seasons Shakespeare employed the Pathetic Fallacy, or the attribution of human characteristics or emotions to elements in nature or inanimate objects, throughout his plays. In the sonnets, the speaker frequently employs the pathetic fallacy, associating his absence from the young man to the freezing days of December and the promise of their reunion to a pregnant spring. Weather and the seasons also stand in for human emotions: the speaker conveys his sense of foreboding about death by likening himself to autumn, a time in which nature’s objects begin to decay and ready themselves for winter, or death. Similarly, despite the arrival of “proud-pied April” in Sonnet 98, the speaker still feels as if it were winter because he and the young man are apart. The speaker in Sonnet 18, one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems, begins by rhetorically asking the young man, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” He spends the remainder of the poem explaining the multiple ways in which the young man is superior to a summer day, ultimately concluding that while summer ends, the young man’s beauty lives on in the permanence of poetry. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

20 English Literature - I 1.5 Form and Structure of the Sonnets The sonnets are almost all constructed of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet. The sonnets are composed in iambic pentameter, the meter used in Shakespeare’s plays. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Sonnets using this scheme are known as Shakespearean sonnets, or English sonnets, or Elizabethan sonnets. Often, at the beginning of the third quatrain occurs the volta (“turn”), where the mood of the poem shifts, and the poet expresses a turn of thought. There are a few exceptions: Sonnets 99, 126, and 145. Number 99 has fifteen lines. Number 126 consists of six couplets, and two blank lines marked with italic brackets; 145 is in iambic tetrameters, not pentameters. In one other variation on the standard structure, found for example in sonnet 29, the rhyme scheme is changed by repeating the second (B) rhyme of quatrain one as the second (F) rhyme of quatrain three. Apart from rhyme, and considering only the arrangement of ideas, and the placement of the volta, a number of sonnets maintain the two-part organization of the Italian sonnet. In that case, the term “octave” and “sestet” are commonly used to refer to the sonnet’s first eight lines followed by the remaining six lines. There are other line-groupings as well, as Shakespeare finds inventive ways with the content of the fourteen line poems. The Marriage of True Minds Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand’ring bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 21 Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me prov’d, I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d. Sonnet 116 Paraphrase Let me not to the marriage of true minds Let me not declare any reasons why two Admit impediments. Love is not love True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances, Or bends with the remover to remove. Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark Oh no! it is a lighthouse That looks on tempests and is never shaken; That sees storms but it never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be Whose value cannot be calculated, although its taken. altitude can be measured. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical cheeks beauty Within his bending sickle’s compass come: Comes within the compass of his sickle: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, Love does not alter with hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. But, rather, it endures until the last day of life. If this be error and upon me proved, If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved. Analysis While this sonnet is clumped in with the other sonnets that are assumed to be dedicated to an unknown young man in Shakespeare’s life, this poem does not seem to directly address anyone. In fact, this poem seems to be the speaker’s — in this case, perhaps Shakespeare — ruminations CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

22 English Literature - I on love and what it is. The best way to analyse Shakespeare’s sonnets is to examine them line-by- line, which is what will follow. In the first two lines, Shakespeare writes, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments.” These lines are perhaps the most famous in the history of poetry, regardless of whether or not one recognizes them as belonging to Shakespeare. Straight away, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of marriage to compare it to true, real love. He is saying that there is no reason why two people who truly love should not be together; nothing should stand in their way. Perhaps he is speaking about his feelings for the unknown young man for whom the sonnet is written. Shakespeare was unhappily married to Anne Hathaway, and so perhaps he was rationalising his feelings for the young man by stating there was no reason, even if one is already married, that two people who are truly in love should not be together. The second half of the second line begins a new thought, which is then carried on into the third and fourth lines. He writes, “Love is not love/Which alters when it alteration finds,/Or bends with the remover to remove.” Shakespeare is continuing with his thought that true love conquers all. In these lines, the speaker is telling the reader that if love changes, it is not truly love because if it changes, or if someone tries to “remove” it, nothing will change it. Love does not stop just because something is altered. As clichéd as it sounds, true love, real love, lasts forever. The second quatrain begins with some vivid and beautiful imagery, and it continues with the final thought pondered in the first quatrain. Now that Shakespeare has established what love is not — fleeting and ever-changing — he can now tell us what love is. He writes, “O no, it is an ever fixed mark/That looks on tempests and is never shaken…” Here, Shakespeare tells his readers that love is something that does not shift, change, or move; it is constant and in the same place, and it can weather even the most harrowing of storms, or tempests and is never even shaken, let alone defeated. While weak, it can be argued here that Shakespeare decides to personify love, since it is something that is intangible and not something that can be defeated by something tangible, such as a storm. In the next line, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of the North Star to discuss love. He writes, “It is the star to every wand’ring bark,/Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.” To Shakespeare, love is the star that guides every bark, or ship, on the water, and while it is priceless, it can be measured. These two lines are interesting and worth CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 23 noting. Shakespeare concedes that love’s worth is not known, but he says it can be measured. How, he neglects to tell his reader, but perhaps he is assuming the reader will understand the different ways in which one can measure love: through time and actions. With that thought, the second quatrain ends. The third quatrain parallels the first, and Shakespeare returns to telling his readers what love is not. He writes, “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle’s compass come…” Notice the capitalization of the word “Time.” Shakespeare is personifying time as a person, specifically, Death. He says that love is not the fool of time. One’s rosy lips and cheeks will certainly pale with age, as “his bending sickle’s compass come.” Shakespeare’s diction is important here, particularly with his use of the word “sickle.” Who is the person with whom the sickle is most greatly associated? Death. We are assured here that Death will certainly come, but that will not stop love. It may kill the lover, but the love itself is eternal. This thought is continued in the lines eleven and twelve, the final two lines of the third quatrain. Shakespeare writes, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,/But bears it out even to the edge of doom.” He is simply stating here that love does not change over the course of time; instead, it continues on even after the world has ended (“the edge of doom”). Shakespeare uses lines thirteen and fourteen, the final couplet of the poem, to assert just how truly he believes that love is everlasting and conquers all. He writes, “If this be error and upon me proved/I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” Shakespeare is telling his reader that if someone proves he is wrong about love, then he never wrote the following words and no man ever loved. He is conveying here that if his words are untrue, nothing else would exist. The words he just wrote would have never been written, and no man would have ever loved before. He is adamant about this, and his tough words are what strengthens the sonnet itself. The speaker and poet himself are convinced that love is real, true, and everlasting. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

24 English Literature - I 1.6 Summary Sonnet 116 This sonnet attempts to define love, by telling both what it is and is not. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that love — “the marriage of true minds”— is perfect and unchanging; it does not “admit impediments,” and it does not change when it find changes in the loved one. In the second quatrain, the speaker tells what love is through a metaphor: a guiding star to lost ships (“wand’ring barks”) that is not susceptible to storms (it “looks on tempests and is never shaken”). In the third quatrain, the speaker again describes what love is not: it is not susceptible to time. Though beauty fades in time as rosy lips and cheeks come within “his bending sickle’s compass,” love does not change with hours and weeks; instead, it “bears it out even to the edge of doom.” In the couplet, the speaker attests to his certainty that love is as he says: if his statements can be proved to be error, he declares, he must never have written a word, and no man can ever have been in love. 1.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) A. Short Answer Questions 1. Why does Shakespeare compare true love to a lighthouse in \"Sonnet 116\"? 2. How does true love correspond to the polar star in Sonnet 116? 3. \"In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare considers time as the great adversary to love.\" Elucidate. 4. What is a volta? 5. What is a sonnet? 6. Explain Shakespearean Sonnet. B. Long Answer Questions 1. What is true love according to Shakespeare in \"Sonnet 116\"? 2. A majority of the words ( more than 75 per cent) in the sonnet are monosyllabic. Do they produce any special effect? CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 25 3. Scan the meter of verse 1 of \"Sonnet 116\" and comment on the rhythm. 4. What is the symbolism in Sonnet 116? 5. What is an analysis of Shakespeare's \"Sonnet 116?\" 6. Describe the evolution of thought in \"True Love,\" Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare. 7. Illuminate and extract the uses of rhyme scheme and figures of speech in \"Sonnet 116.\" 8. What is the theme of William Shakespeare's poem \"Let me not to the marriage of true minds\"? 9. Discuss universal elements in Shakespeare's Sonnets.Give Examples 10. Why does Shakespeare choose to write about a (metaphorical) journey at sea? Think about the time Shakespeare lived in (the era was filled with great sea adventures), and how difficult sea travel was... C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. The marriage of true minds refers to: (a) Marriage of two people (b) Faithful union of minds (c) Marriage of intellectual persons (d) Marriage of two people from the same community 2. The word ‘alter’ here means (a) A place in the church where the priest marries a couple (b) Change (c) Improve (d) Ends 3. In sonnet 116, Shakespeare does not compare love to: (a) Star (b) Lighthouse (c) Ever-fixed mark (d) Disease CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

26 English Literature - I 4. In this sonnet, Shakespeare (a) Explains what true love is and explains what it is not (b) Explains the problems with true love and how to fix it (c) Explains the problem with not finding true love and explains how to find it (d) Explains how he actually has never written anything and no one has ever really been in love 5. ‘Rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come’ means (a) Rosy lips and cheeks are true ingredients of love (b) Love will not change even if the beauty fades (c) Love depends on rosy lips and cheeks (d) Love bends in front of rosy lips and cheeks Answers 1. (b), 2. (b), 3. (d), 4. (a), 5. (b) 1.8 References 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_sonnets 3. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/whystudyshakespeare.html > 4. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/116detail.html 5. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/topic/sonnet-116 6. https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shakesonnets/section7 7. Atkins, Carl D., ed. (2007), Shakespeare’s Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary, Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 978-0-8386-4163- 7, OCLC 86090499. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Marriage of True Minds 27 8. Booth, Stephen, ed. (2000) [1st ed. 1977], Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Rev. ed.), New Haven: Yale Nota Bene, ISBN , OCLC 2968040. 9. Burrow, Colin, ed. (2002), The Complete Sonnets and Poems, The Oxford Shakespeare, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0192819338, OCLC 48532938. 10. Duncan-Jones, Katherine, ed. (2010) [1st ed. 1997], Shakespeare’s Sonnets, The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (Rev. ed.), London: Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-1-4080-1797- 5, OCLC 755065951. 11. Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. (1996), The Sonnets, The New Cambridge Shakespeare, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521294034, OCLC 32272082. 12. Kerrigan, John, ed. (1995) [1st ed. 1986], The Sonnets; and, A Lover’s Complaint, New Penguin Shakespeare (Rev. ed.), Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-070732-8, OCLC 15018446. 13. Mowat, Barbara A. and Werstine, Paul, eds. (2006), Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Poems, Folger Shakespeare Library, New York: Washington Square Press, ISBN 978- 0743273282, OCLC 64594469. 14. Orgel, Stephen, ed. (2001), The Sonnets, The Pelican Shakespeare (Rev. ed.), New York: Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0140714531, OCLC 46683809. 15. Vendler, Helen, ed. (1997), The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-63712-7, OCLC 36806589.  CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 2 THE SCHOOL BOY – WILLIAM BLAKE Structure: 2.0 Learning Objectives 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Poems of William Blake 2.3 Songs of Innocence and Experience 2.4 Themes 2.5 Analysis 2.6 The Schoolboy – Imagery, Symbolism and Themes 2.7 Summary 2.8 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) 2.9 References 2.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to understand the significance of the poet William Blake. William Blake was an English poet, painter and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is regarded today as an major, if iconoclastic figure, a religious visionary, whose art and poetry prefigured, and came to influence the Romantic movement. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 29 Blake valued imagination above reason, but unlike later Romantics, he deferred to inner visions and spiritual perception as surer denoters of the truth than sentiment or emotional response to nature. “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite,” Blake wrote in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. “For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.” Blake’s explorations of good and evil, heaven and hell, knowledge and innocence, and outer versus inner reality were unorthodox and perplexing to 18th century sensibilities. His well-known works, Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), contrast benign perceptions of life from the perspective of innocent children with a mature person’s experience of pain, ignorance, and vulnerability. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who received a copy of Songs of Innocence and Experience, considered Blake a “man of Genius.” Blake admired and studied the Renaissance masters, and he experimented by combining his own poetry and engravings on the same plate to produce a composite artistic statement. His illustrations often included fantastic, metaphorical creatures drawn from Greek and Roman mythology, with characters representing inspiration and creativity battling against arbitrary and unjust forces like law and religion. Blake’s antagonism toward established religion, the authority of government, and social and sexual conventions have influenced liberal thought and attitudes to the present day. His openness to spiritual inspiration largely bypassed Romantic emotional preoccupations and can be seen as an early influence on the modern New Age movement. Though Blake lived in poverty and died largely unrecognized, his works present a unique and significant contribution to European art and literature. 2.1 Introduction About the Poet William Blake was a 19th century writer and artist who is regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic Age. His writings have influenced countless writers and artists through the ages, and he has been deemed both a major poet and an original thinker. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

30 English Literature - I Born in 1757 in London, England, William Blake began writing at an early age and claimed to have had his first vision, of a tree full of angels, at age 10. He studied engraving and grew to love Gothic art, which he incorporated into his own unique works. A misunderstood poet, artist and visionary throughout much of his life, Blake found admirers late in life and has been vastly influential since his death in 1827. Early Years William Blake was born on November 28, 1757, in the Soho district of London, England. He only briefly attended school, being chiefly educated at home by his mother. The Bible had an early, profound influence on Blake, and it would remain a lifetime source of inspiration, coloring his life and works with intense spirituality. At an early age, Blake began experiencing visions, and his friend and journalist Henry Crabb Robinson wrote that Blake saw God’s head appear in a window when Blake was 4 years old. He also allegedly saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree and had a vision of “a tree filled with angels.” Blake’s visions would have a lasting effect on the art and writings that he produced. The Young Artist Blake’s artistic ability became evident in his youth, and by age 10, he was enrolled at Henry Pars’s drawing school, where he sketched the human figure by copying from plaster casts of ancient statues. At age 14, he apprenticed with an engraver. Blake’s master was the engraver to the London Society of Antiquaries, and Blake was sent to Westminster Abbey to make drawings of tombs and monuments, where his lifelong love of gothic art was seeded. The Maturing Artist In 1779, at age 21, Blake completed his seven-year apprenticeship and became a journeyman copy engraver, working on projects for book and print publishers. Also preparing himself for a career as a painter, that same year, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art’s Schools of Design, where he began exhibiting his own works in 1780. Blake’s artistic energies branched out at this point, and he privately published his Poetical Sketches (1783), a collection of poems that he had written over the previous 14 years. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 31 In August 1782, Blake married Catherine Sophia Boucher, who was illiterate. Blake taught her how to read, write, draw and color (his designs and prints). He also helped her to experience visions, as he did. Catherine believed explicitly in her husband’s visions and his genius, and supported him in everything he did, right up to his death 45 years later. One of the most traumatic events of William Blake’s life occurred in 1787, when his beloved brother, Robert, died from tuberculosis at age 24. At the moment of Robert’s death, Blake allegedly saw his spirit ascend through the ceiling, joyously; this moment, which entered into Blake’s psyche, greatly influenced his later poetry. The following year, Robert appeared to Blake in a vision and presented him with a new method of printing his works, which Blake called “illuminated printing.” Once incorporated, this method allowed Blake to control every aspect of the production of his art. While Blake was an established engraver, he soon began receiving commissions to paint watercolors, and he painted scenes from the works of Milton, Dante, Shakespeare and the Bible. Later Years In 1804, Blake began to write and illustrate Jerusalem (1804-20), his most ambitious work to date. He also began showing more work at exhibitions (including Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims and Satan Calling Up His Legions), but these works were met with silence, and the one published review was absurdly negative; the reviewer called the exhibit a display of “nonsense, unintelligibleness and egregious vanity,” and referred to Blake as “an unfortunate lunatic.” Blake was devastated by the review and lack of attention to his works, and subsequently, he withdrew more and more from any attempt at success. From 1809 to 1818, he engraved few plates (there is no record of Blake producing any commercial engravings from 1806 to 1813). He also sank deeper into poverty, obscurity and paranoia. In 1819, however, Blake began sketching a series of “visionary heads,” claiming that the historical and imaginary figures that he depicted actually appeared and sat for him. By 1825, Blake had sketched more than 100 of them, including those of Solomon and Merlin the magician and those included in “The Man Who Built the Pyramids” and “Harold Killed at the Battle of CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

32 English Literature - I Hastings”; along with the most famous visionary head, that included in Blake’s “The Ghost of a Flea.” Remaining artistically busy, between 1823 and 1825, Blake engraved 21 designs for an illustrated Book of Job (from the Bible) and Dante’s Inferno. In 1824, he began a series of 102 watercolor illustrations of Dante — a project that would be cut short by Blake’s death in 1827. In the final years of his life, William Blake suffered from recurring bouts of an undiagnosed disease that he called “that sickness to which there is no name.” He died on August 12, 1827, leaving unfinished watercolor illustrations to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and an illuminated manuscript of the Bible’s Book of Genesis. In death, as in life, Blake received short shrift from observers, and obituaries tended to underscore his personal idiosyncrasies at the expense of his artistic accomplishments. The Literary Chronicle, for example, described him as “one of those ingenious persons ... whose eccentricities were still more remarkable than their professional abilities.” Unappreciated in life, William Blake has since become a giant in literary and artistic circles, and his visionary approach to art and writing have not only spawned countless, spellbound speculations about Blake, they have inspired a vast array of artists and writers. 2.2 The Poems of William Blake William Blake was a poet who was not very well recognized during his lifetime. It was not until his sixties, when his work began to receive credit as leading a new literary movement in England at the time that was really triggered by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who were both much younger than Blake and of a superior social class. In his younger years, William Blake’s poetry was written off as lunacy by most of his contemporaries, and although he is recognized now as the ‘grandfather’ or the ‘Romantic period’, he was in fact, much older and far removed from that time. That being said, the reason Blake is associated with Romanticism is because of his ardent support of the French Revolution and all forms of anti-establishment radicalism. Blake was an untiring rebel, who verbally and poetically fought hard against all constrictions of his time CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 33 religious, social, sexual, and literary. His poems transmute clearly all the burring issues and events of his day and touch on issues such as the American War for Independence, the French Revolution, Colonialism and the expansion of Empire, Slavery, and finally the Industrial Revolution. Through Blake’s work, the reader can deduce his passion and vision that social rebellion against these injustices would serve as an apocalyptic turning point in the history of humankind, destroying the old, decaying order of oppression and presaging the redemption of humanity. The poems of William Blake reinterpret the spiritual history of the human race from the fall from Eden to the beginning of the French Revolution. Blake believed in the correspondence between the physical world and the spiritual world and used poetic metaphor to express these beliefs. In his poetry, we hear a man who look's for mankind to salvage his redemption from oppression through resurgence of imaginative life. The power of repression is a constant theme in Blake’s poems and he articulates his belief in the titanic forces of revolt, and the struggle for freedom against the guardians of tradition. What is important to keep in mind when discussing or reading Blake’s poetry is that, a lot of his poems were accompanied with some sort of illustration, painting, or in the case of the prophecies and songs, copper plates. It is difficult to fully grasp the poet’s intentions without having access to the artwork married to the poem. Additionally, his earliest work, “Poetical Sketches,” which is a collection that a lot of the poems discussed here are taken from, shows dissatisfaction with the reigning poetic tradition and his restless quest for new literary forms and techniques. Eventually, Blake’s genius would blossom and his thinking began to be articulated in giant forms, leading to the creation of complete mythology and extremely symbolic epics. 2.3 Songs of Innocence and of Experience Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794) juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression; while such poems as “The Lamb” represent a meek virtue, poems like “The Tyger” exhibit opposing, darker forces. Thus, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

34 English Literature - I the collection as a whole, explores the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world. Many of the poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the lens of innocence first and then experience. Blake does not identify himself wholly with either view; most of the poems are dramatic — that is, in the voice of a speaker other than the poet himself. Blake stands outside innocence and experience, in a distanced position from which he hopes to be able to recognize and correct the fallacies of both. In particular, he pits himself against despotic authority, restrictive morality, sexual repression, and institutionalized religion; his great insight is into the way these separate modes of control work together to squelch what is most holy in human beings. The Songs of Innocence dramatize the naive hopes and fears that inform the lives of children and trace their transformation as the child grows into adulthood. Some of the poems are written from the perspective of children, while others are about children as seen from an adult, perspective. Many of the poems draw attention to the positive aspects of natural human understanding prior to the corruption and distortion of experience. Others take a more critical stance toward innocent purity: for example, while Blake draws touching portraits of the emotional power of rudimentary Christian values, he also exposes — over the heads, as it were, of the innocent — Christianity’s capacity for promoting injustice and cruelty. The Songs of Experience work via parallels and contrasts to lament the ways in which the harsh experiences of adult life destroy what is good in innocence, while also articulating the weaknesses of the innocent perspective (“The Tyger,” for example, attempts to account for real, negative forces in the universe, which innocence fails to confront). These latter poems treat sexual morality in terms of the repressive effects of jealousy, shame, and secrecy, all of which corrupt the ingenuousness of innocent love. With regard to religion, they are less concerned with the character of individual faith than with the institution of the Church, its role in politics, and its effect on society and the individual mind. Experience thus adds a layer to innocence that darkens its hopeful vision while compensating for some of its blindness. The style of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience is simple and direct, but the language and the rhythms are painstakingly crafted, and the ideas they explore are often deceptively complex. Many of the poems are narrative in style; others, like “The Sick Rose” and “The Divine CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 35 Image,” make their arguments through symbolism or by means of abstract concepts. Some of Blake’s favorite rhetorical techniques are personification and the reworking of Biblical symbolism and language. Blake frequently employs the familiar meters of ballads, nursery rhymes, and hymns, applying them to his own, often unorthodox conceptions. This combination of the traditional with the unfamiliar is consonant with Blake’s perpetual interest in re- considering and re-framing the assumptions of human thought and social behavior. 2.4 Themes Opposition In the “Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” Blake wrote: “Opposition is true friendship.” Even the title of that poem points to his theory of a “marriage” between opposites. So, much of Blake’s work revolves around the theme that opposition represents balance in this world, and a focus on one side over its counter, leads to oppression and ignorance. Many people who study Blake argue that he is an extreme radical who was out to abolish any form of order that existed during his lifetime. A close reading of his work dealing with this theme will prove that this is not the case. William Blake was intelligent enough, and courageous enough, to recognize the Age of Reason’s over governing intentions and set out to challenge the notion that sensibility and order are exclusive partners. But Blake did not seek complete anarchy in the world contrary to a lot of interpretation of his work. What the poet did was illustrate that governing does not have to equal a loss of liberty, and he did so by presenting the opposition to the demanding institutions — church, state, law, monarchy — of his time. By examining ideas and objects in terms of opposites, and allowing access to both sides of the scale, man will reach a true state of enlightenment rather than a repressed state where few benefit and most are held in bondage. The Cycle Cycle is very similar to the theme of opposition. Where Blake argues each object or abstract idea has an equal and valid opposite form, he also contends that nature of these objects and abstractions pass back and forth through one another. This is most obvious in “The Season” poems studied here, but also in many other works of Blake. The reader learns of his static belief that nature operates in cyclical terms. William Blake would use this theory as evidential support CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

36 English Literature - I for the changes of his time, especially the Revolutions that were happening in America and France. Frustrated with a long period of repression in Europe, Blake felt it was time for the people to rise and fight back, and that a political and philosophical cleansing was not only a positive part to the progression of mankind and evolution of societies, but that it was as natural as the rotation of the earth, the changing of the seasons, and the maturity of humans. Oppression/Repression Blake lived in a period of aggressive British colonialism, slavery, social casting, Revolutionary change in America and Europe, as well as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Being a member of the lower class, an uneducated artist (in the formal sense of the term, although Blake was clearly quite intelligent), and considered by many to be an inferior poet bordering madness, Blake experienced firsthand the struggles of oppression. Using words and illustrations, Blake fought back against his countrymen, political leaders, and religious principals (ples). The theme of the repressed is the easiest to identify and extract from Blake’s poetry. Most of his work will feature a wearisome protagonist who is attempting to revolt against some greater being, whether it be political, religious, or even the shackles of love and marriage. Many times, this theme is represented in the form of mythology, literary allusion, and the personification of natural objects. Sexuality A lot has been written on the hidden sexual references that are laden in Blake’s poetry. While some of the examples put forward by Blake scholars who seek sexual innuendo in all of Blake’s writings is debatable, there are some instances where sexual reference is prevalent without doubt. There has been some work on homosexuality and homoeroticism appearing in the poems as well, and this is a harder case to prove. Regardless of the directed gender of the metaphor, sexuality does play an important role in Blake’s canon. Due to Blake’s feeling that the human imagination and desire is oppressed in all forms, it makes complete sense that he would also draw upon the supposed dishonor and immoral act of copulation as just one more facet of persecution against nature’s intent. The most repeated reference made to this is the literary allusion repeatedly made to Milton and the fall of man from the Garden of Eden as a result of his sin for love. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 37 Innocence and Experience Similar to Blake’s focus on man’s fall from grace, Blake was constantly exploring the moment of lost innocence. This repeated theme in Blake’s poetry is almost like a paragon for a combination of all the other themes so far discussed. The theme of the separation, transition, and difference between innocence and experience highlights the theory of opposition, cycling, repression, and sexuality. Songs of Innocence and of Experience aside, Blake continues to explore and personify this transient moment and investigate its consequences. Recognizing that in a world of “reason” or “sensibility”, we risk forgetting all of our primitive desires and suppressing all of our natural intuitions. Blake attempts to invoke recognition for the imaginative spirit that lies in all of us, but since our moment of experience has been subjugated to the areas of our mind, we are called upon to ignore. Religion It is unclear exactly where Blake stood in terms of his beliefs in God. Some contend that through his works it is clear he was an atheist; others argue he was more agnostic. While it is impossible to say for sure, it is not the opinion of this author that Blake had no belief in a super- being, God-like, creator. Blake makes many references to God and a supernatural, omniscient, and omnipresent being. That being said, it is very valid to assume that Blake had a distinct disdain for religion as an institution. The theme of religion appears in a lot of Blake’s work, and in his “opposition is true friendship” manner, he usually counter-balances this theme with references to nature, showing his belief in a natural superpower rather than mythological creator. Blake views religion as one of the paragons of tyranny. Inventing a mythology full of angels, demons, and Gods that mirror a lot of Milton’s writings, it becomes obvious that William Blake was fascinated with religion as literary allusion, and infuriated with it as a means to suppress man’s natural desires. Poetry/Imagination By the time William Blake began writing poetry at the very young age of twelve, he was already frustrated with the stale situation English poetry was in at that time. Blake felt that poets needed to seek new ways to express their words and ideas, and sought to step away from the Classic traditions of English poetry that had not really changed since Spenser (so Blake thought CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

38 English Literature - I anyhow). As readers, we witness Blake play around with new forms and seek new methods to get across his message. In some of the poems, literary reference becomes the theme itself (“Memory, hither come” and “To the Muses” for example). William Blake was continuously finding new ways to express his philosophical beliefs and articulate his extraordinary imagination. The School boy. From Songs of Experience I love to rise in a summer morn, When the birds sing on every tree; The distant huntsman winds his horn, And the skylark sings with me: O what sweet company! But to go to school in a summer morn, O it drives all joy away! Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay. Ah then at times I drooping sit, And spend many an anxious hour; Nor in my book can I take delight, Nor sit in learning’s bower, Worn through with the dreary shower. How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? How can a child, when fears annoy, But droop his tender wing, And forget his youthful spring! O father and mother if buds are nipped, And blossoms blown away; CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 39 And if the tender plants are stripped Of their joy in the springing day, By sorrow and cares dismay. How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, Or bless the mellowing year, When the blasts of winter appear? The School Boy, by William Blake ‘The School boy’ by William Blake is a short poem that is separated into six stanzas of five lines, called quintets. The first two stanza, rhyme is a scheme of ABABB, ACACC while the last four diverge, rhyming (with alternative endings) ABCBB or ABABB. This piece was first published in the second half of Blake’s masterpiece, ‘Songs of Experience.’ The publication of this volume came approximately five years after the publication of ‘Songs of Innocence’ in 1789. 2.5 Analysis First Stanza I love to rise in a summer morn, When the birds sing on every tree; The distant huntsman winds his horn, And the skylark sings with me: O what sweet company! In the first stanza of this piece, Blake introduces the reader to his main character and speaker. The poem is told from the perspective of a young school age boy who feels trapped in the monotony of the everyday attendance of his studies. He speaks with the conscience of an older man, projecting the emotions and beliefs common to the Romantic poets, of which Blake was one. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

40 English Literature - I The young narrator speaks about the things he loves in this first stanza. He loves “to rise in a summer morn” and hear the birds singing “on every tree.” Further in the distance, he can hear the horn of the “huntsman” and the song of the “skylark” who seems to sing only for him. These are the types of company he desires. This is when he is happiest, a sentiment that many a Romantic poet has expressed. Second Stanza But to go to school in a summer morn, O it drives all joy away! Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay. The second stanza presents the exact opposite — things that “drive all joy away!” When he is forced to rise on a “summer morn” and go to school, unable to stay in his peaceful environment, he is unhappiest. He bemoans his, and his classmate’s fate; that they are stuck inside, “In sighing and dismay.” Third Stanza Ah then at times I drooping sit, And spend many an anxious hour; Nor in my book can I take delight, Nor sit in learning’s bower, Worn through with the dreary shower. The young speaker continues on, telling the reader more about his miserable days at school. He sits “drooping,” hunched over in his seat. He takes no pleasure in school work and is anxiously waiting for the end of the day. He cannot even take “delight” in his book, or “sit in learning’s bower” as it has been all “Worn through” by rain. It is clear from these lines that the child is not adverse to learning in general, he appreciates reading and understands the joys that can be gained from encompassing oneself within the “bower,” or sanctuary, of learning. It is only the structure of school that he cannot stand. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 41 The child expresses his weariness. He sits drooping out in the sea of tediousness. The child restrains the assault on him by the oppressive personality of the teacher and unnecessary lectures (shower of meaningless words). The finicky teacher gushes his words of erudition without even attempting to understand the child’s intention and his urge for unchecked freedom. The learning’s bower refers to a garden where the child can be taught in an interesting way, only if nature accompanies him instead of the school teacher. Fourth Stanza How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? How can a child, when fears annoy, But droop his tender wing, And forget his youthful spring? In the fourth stanza of “The School boy” the speaker questions his reader, demanding an answer to a rhetorical question. He pleads with whoever is listening and asks how a “bird that is born for joy,” referring to himself or others that think like him, be asked to “Sit in a cage and sing?” He knows that he was made to learn, read, and write, but he cannot do so in school, a place he considers equal to a cage. He now turns to begging on behalf of other children. He makes the case for all those trapped indoors. He professes to worry for their wellbeing and the fact that while they are inside, their “tender” wings drooping, they are forgetting the “spring” of their youth. These children, just like he is, are missing out on the joys of being a child. A bird which is born cheerful and jovial can never sing sweet songs if caged. Similarly, a child if retained under the umbrella of annoying fear and tension, the skepticism of his teacher, can never enjoy the natural instincts of joy and playfulness. Indeed, a world full of rigid course of discipline will ruthlessly take away the beautiful springs (the childhood days) of a person’s life. Fifth Stanza O father and mother if buds are nipped, And blossoms blown away; CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

42 English Literature - I And if the tender plants are stripped Of their joy in the springing day, By sorrow and cares dismay, In the fifth quintet of the poem, the speaker turns to address his parents as he sees them as the ones that could possibly change his situation. If only he can convince them to see things his way! In this stanza, he presents them with the reasons why they should not force him to go to school. He speaks about his own childhood joys as being “buds” that are being “nipped” and “blossoms” that are blowing away. His happiness is delicate like the “tender plants” and he should not have to be subjected to “sorrow and cares dismay” at his young age. He need not feel so unhappy when he is only a child. The boy complains to the highest authority, to his father and mother, of a budding child who is picked and swept off in the early stage of life in an ocean of sorrow, where there is no one to care for. If misery withers the tender plants, the beautiful buds and the new born buds, summer can never be joyful. Sixth Stanza How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, Or bless the mellowing year, When the blasts of winter appear? If all of the things stated in the fifth stanza happen, if he is indeed stripped of his joy and given sorrow in return, then how can his parents expect the appearance of fruit in the summer. They should, he states, worry that due to their choices he will never be the same. He will be unable to stand the “blasts of winter” when they appear. While this poem did appear in “Songs of Experience”, this child has yet to reach an age in which he will truly feel sorrow or despair. His youthful melodramatic appeal will fall on deaf ears. If care and concern rule over the plants, flowers and birds, such a summer will be dry and will bear no fruit. The child enquires his parents as to how they can win back what grief has CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 43 destroyed. If the plants are withered due to the canker of grief, no fruit will be there in the season of autumn (mellowing year). This implies that if childhood pleasures and joys are censored and truncated, one has to be very sure that the adult life will be utterly dry and unproductive. “Critical Appreciation of The School Boy by William Blake”: The School Boy, was originally published in “The Songs of Innocence”. Blake put this poem in The “Song of Experience” when the combined volume was published. This poem is appropriate in “Songs of Experience” as we find the elements of restriction imposed on the carefree life of the school boy. The poem marks the freshness of summer morning Though the first few lines provide a fragrance of innocence, there is a spontaneous fill of restriction. The boy summons his liking to be one with the birds and be in the distant fields blowing the huntsman clarion. The moments of euphoria is curtained in the clouds of experience. The boy has to go with the bitter memories of attending his school and the tiring lectures. It drives all the vigor and vitality of summer that he has drunk making him droop in front of the cruel eyes of the teacher from the daylong thraldom. Ah! Then at times I drooping sit. And spend many an anxious hour. “The School Boy” is a six-stanza poem of five lines each. Each stanza follows an ABABB rhyme scheme, with the first two stanzas using the same word “morn” to rhyme in the first lines. The repetition of the word “morn” as well as similarly low-sounding words such as “outworn,” “bower,” “dismay,” and “destroy” lend the poem a bleak tone, in keeping with the school boy’s attitude at being trapped inside at school rather than being allowed to move freely about the countryside on this fine summer day. Blake suggests that the educational system of his day destroys the joyful innocence of youth Blake himself was largely self-educated and did not endure the drudgery of the classroom as a child. Again, the poet wishes his readers to see the difference between the freedom of imagination offered by close contact with nature, and the repression of the soul caused by Reason’s demands for a so-called education. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

44 English Literature - I Theme of the ‘The School Boy’ by William Blake The poem, ‘The School Boy’ discusses a boy’s repelling imprisonment at his school, from his company with the animate objects of the summer morning (birds, flowers etc) to the inanimate object of his school which is indeed a matter of concern and grief. School life is an ordeal for him. The boy’s filling of summer festivity is countered by the terrifying eye of the teacher that robs from him all his childhood happiness. School is nothing but a prison that negates the playful activity of childhood. The restriction of an imposed school, forms a hurdle for the natural expression of creativity and forlorn the essence of geniusness. 2.6 The School Boy – Imagery, Symbolism and Themes Imagery and Symbolism This poem depends upon three inter-related images, the school Boy, the bird and the plant. All three are dependent upon, or vulnerable to the way in which they are treated by human beings. School Boy: The image of the child here focuses on his nature as free and unfettered. He is associated with the spring as a time for growth, freshness and playfulness. As such, the child represents the playful, free nature of the creative imagination. According to Blake, this was fettered by subjection to the demands of a system which denies the validity of imagination. In The School Boy, formal education involves subjection to a ‘cruel’ eye and cruelty in Blake is always linked with the denial of imaginative freedom and of the spiritual self. Bird: The bird imagery allows for the comparison between the free child being imprisoned in school and the songbird being caged. The unity between bird and boy is emphasised in stanza one. The sky-lark ‘sings with me’. This inverts our expectations. We tend to think of the sky-lark as the primary singer, with whom people might sing along. Here, however, it is the child who is the first singer. It is as natural to him as to the lark, as though he were another bird. Birds are also images of freedom. Their capacity for flight and for song, makes them appropriate images of creative imagination, since poet’s ‘song’ and imagination is often linked with the notion of flight. The school boy in school and the bird in the cage are, therefore, seen as CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The School Boy 45 equivalents not only at the natural level, under physical subjection, but at the spiritual level, too. Both represent the caging and entrapping of imaginative vision. Plant: The image of the plant applies to the school boy’s present and future. The young plant, like the young child, is tender and vulnerable. The way it (and the child) is treated at this stage dictates its later capacity to bear fruit. Just as food gathered in autumn is necessary to ensure survival through the winter, so experiences of joy and the freedom of the imagination are necessary for a person’s capacity to live well and survive the inevitable ‘griefs’ of life. Themes The Nature and Vulnerability of Innocence Innocence is presented here as freedom from constraint and self-consciousness. The child starts out taking pleasure in an uninhibited life, full of trust in his world, both natural and human. The fragility of this state is clear from images like ‘blossoms’ and ‘tender plants .. strip’d’. The child soon experiences the ‘woe’ in life and of learning the possibility of failure and betrayal. Snares, Confinement Images of confinement abound in the Songs. Blake the revolutionary, opposed the coercive strictures of the ‘Establishment’ –– the state, organised religion etc. — which sought to quantify and rule all aspects of human behaviour. Here, education is formalised and restrictive, actually stunting the development of those it claimed to nurture. Prison imagery is seen in the ‘cruel eye’ of the overseer and the ‘cage’ of the bird. The Perception of Children  Is the child born free and good, as Rousseau believed, or born sinful, as the Calvinist Christians believed?  Or is this opposition the result of fallen human beings’ inability to recognise that the capacity for good and evil both belong to humanity? Blake’s idea that a young child can clearly see God, echoes the Romantic sensibility articulated by Wordsworth, that children had an existence in heaven before the commencement of their earthly life. Blake saw the natural child as an image of the creative imagination which is CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)