BAQ105_English Literature-I

96 English Literature - I 4.8 References 1. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Lord-Tennyson/Major-literary-work 2. https://beamingnotes.com/2017/07/18/summary-analysis-things-will-die-tennyson/ 3. https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/plot-analysis/ 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred,_Lord_Tennyson 5. “British Listed Buildings Aldworth House, Lurgashall”. British Listed Buildings Online. Retrieved 5 November 2012. 6. Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett’s Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly’s Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p. 1091 7. “Ten of the greatest: British poets”. Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 6 November 2012 8. Stern, Keith (2007). Queers in History (2007 ed.). Quistory Publishers. 9. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. 1999. 10. Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Brief Biography, Glenn Everett, Associate Professor of English, the University of Tennessee at Martin 11. Savage-Armstrong, George Francis (1888). The Ancient and Noble Family of the Savages of the Ards, with Sketches of English and American Branches of the House of Savage: Comp. From Historical Documents and Family Papers. p. 50–52. 12. Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Eugene Parsons (Introduction). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1900. 13. “Tennyson, Alfred (TNY827A)”. A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. 14. “Trinity College, University of Cambridge”. BBC Your Paintings. Archived from the original on 11 May 2014. Retrieved 12 February2018. 15. Friedlander, Ed. “Enjoying \"Timbuktu\" by Alfred Tennyson” 16. “Lincolnshire People – Famous Yellowbellies – Alfred, Lord Tennyson”. BBC. 31 August 2005. Archived from the original on 31 August 2005. Retrieved 26 March 2018. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

All Things will Die 97 17. H. Tennyson (1897). Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son, New York: MacMillan. 18. “History of Holy Innocents Church” Archived 20 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Highbeachchurch.org. Retrieved 27 April 2012 19. The Home of Tennyson Archived 24 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine Rebecca FitzGerald, Farringford: The Home of Tennyson Archived 4 December 2008 at the Wayback Machineofficial website  CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 5 STILL I RISE – MAYA ANGELOU Structure: 5.0 Learning Objectives 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Themes 5.3 Still I Rise 5.4 Summary 5.5 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) 5.6 References 5.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will understand the significance of Maya Angelou. While Angelou is known primarily for her autobiographies, her poetry has life of its own. Her poetry was often considered “Anthems of African Americans”. What is interesting about her poetry is that it isn’t devoid of the public ethos in which it was conceived, and there is a prominent public aspect to her poetry. Her poetry is quite often considered representative of the social landscape from which she emerges. Angelou’s poems have important messages to convey, and they do so with striking force and clarity. Angelou was most famously an activist for the rights of those suffering oppression, which she herself did in many forms during her lifetime, being an African-American woman who had been routinely sexually abused. Accordingly, many of her poems speak up for these oppressed CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 99 people, and many do so with great clarity and vigor. Poems such as “On the Pulse of Morning” alert people to the oppression happening in the world, calling them to stop it: “You, created only a little lower than/The angels, have crouched too long in/The bruising darkness/Have lain too long/Face down in ignorance/Your mouths spilling words/Armed for slaughter.” Some, like “Harlem Hopscotch” and “Awaking in New York,” give a brutally honest picture of the quality of life for African-American people living in the lower-end residences in the city. Others, such as “Phenomenal Woman,” celebrate the power of womanhood in the face of gender discrimination. “Caged Bird” is a stunning description of a life lived under oppressive constraints, and “Still I Rise” is a powerful declaration of strength and perseverance, a call for those who are oppressed to rise up and a proclamation of the inevitability of a brighter tomorrow. Angelou’s poems may be under-appreciated, but they are certainly not without their merits, and they can be powerful tools for change in a world of injustice. 5.1 Introduction About the Poet Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson: April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, co- ordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the de-colonization of Africa. She was an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

100 English Literature - I in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993), at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. With the publication of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries. Angelou’s most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family and travel. Eventful Early Life Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. After her parents’ marriage ended, she and her brother, Bailey (who gave her the name \"Maya\"), were sent to rural Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother, who owned a general store. Although her grandmother helped her develop pride and self-confidence, Angelou was devastated when she was raped at the age of eight by her mother’s boyfriend while on a visit to St. Louis. After she testified against the man, several of her uncles beat him to death. Believing that she had caused the man’s death by speaking his name, Angelou refused to speak for approximately five years. She attended public schools in Arkansas and later California. While still in high school she became the first ever African American female streetcar conductor in San Francisco, California. She gave birth to a son at age sixteen. In 1950 she married Tosh Angelos, a Greek sailor, but the marriage lasted only a few years. Later, Angelou studied dance and drama and went on to a career in theater. She appeared in Porgy and Bess, which gave performances in twenty-two countries. She also acted in several plays on and off Broadway, including Cabaret for Freedom, which she wrote with Godfrey Cambridge. During the early 1960s Angelou lived in Cairo, Egypt, where she was the associate CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 101 editor of The Arab Observer. During this time she also contributed articles to The Ghanaian Times and was featured on the Ghanaian Broadcasting Corporation programming in Accra, Ghana. During the mid-1960s, She became Assistant Administrator of the School of Music and Drama at the University of Ghana. She was the feature editor of the African Review in Accra from 1964 to 1966. After returning to the United States, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) requested she serve as northern co-ordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Success as an Author “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1970), the first in a series of Angelou’s autobiographical (telling the story of her own life) works, was a huge success. It describes Angelou’s life up to age of 17, providing a child’s point of view about the confusing world of adults. The book concludes with Angelou having regained her self-esteem and caring for her newborn son. In addition to being a sharp account of an African American girl’s coming of age, this work offers insights into the social and political climate of the 1930s. Her next autobiographical work, “Gather Together in My Name” (1974), covers the period immediately after the birth of her son Guy and describes her struggle to care for him as a single parent. “Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas” (1976) describes Angelou’s experiences on the stage and concludes with her return from the international tour of Porgy and Bess. “The Heart of A Woman” (1981) shows the mature Angelou becoming more comfortable with her creativity and her success. “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes” (1986) recalls her four-year stay in Ghana. Angelou wrote about other subjects as well, including a children’s book entitled “Kofi and His Magic” (1996). Other Works and Awards Angelou had been writing poetry since before her novels became popular. Her collections include: “Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie” (1971); “Oh Pray My Wings Are Going to Fit Me Well” (1975); “And Still I Rise” (1976), which was made into an Off-Broadway production in 1979; “Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing” (1983); “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me,” illustrated by celebrated New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat (1993); “Soul Looks Back in CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

102 English Literature - I Wonder” (1994); and “I Shall Not Be Moved” (1997). Angelou’s poetry, with its short lyrics and jazzy rhythms, is especially popular among young people, but her heavy use of short lines and her simple vocabulary has turned off several critics. Other reviewers, however, praise Angelou’s poetry for discussing social and political issues that are important to African Americans. For example Angelou’s poem “On the Pulse of the Morning,” which she recited at the 1993 swearing in of President Bill Clinton (1946), calls for a new national commitment to unity and social improvement. Angelou has received many awards for her work, including a nomination for National Book Award, 1970; a Pulitzer Prize nomination, 1972; a Tony Award nomination from the League of New York Theatres and Producers, 1973, for her performance in Look Away; a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, 1977, for Roots; and the North Carolina Award in Literature, 1987. In the 1970s, she was appointed to the Bicentennial Commission by President Gerald Ford (1913) and the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year by President Jimmy Carter (1924). She was also named Woman of the Year in Communications by Ladies’ Home Journal, 1976, and one of the top one hundred most influential women by Ladies’ Home Journal, 1983. Angelou has also taught at several American colleges and universities, including the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Kansas, Wichita State University, and California State University at Sacramento. Television and Movies Angelou also worked in television as a writer-producer for 20th Century-Fox, from which her full-length feature film “Sister, Sister” received critical praise. In addition “she wrote the screenplays” Georgia, Georgia and “All Day Long” along with television scripts for “Sister, Sister” and the series premiere of Brewster Place. She wrote, produced, and hosted the National Educational television series blacks! Blues! Black! She also co-starred in the motion picture “How to Make an American Quilt” in 1995. Angelou made her first attempt at film directing with the feature length movie “Down in the Delta” (1998). The film told the story of a seventy-year- old woman and her personal journey. Angelou found directing to be a much different experience from writing because with directing you have \"ninety crew and the cast and the sets and lights and the sound.” CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 103 Although Angelou is dedicated to the art of autobiography — a sixth volume, “A Song Flung Up to Heaven,” was published in 2002 — in her seventies she remains a force in several different fields. Since the early 1980s she has been Reynolds Professor and writer-in-residence at Wake Forest University. In the year 2000 she was honored by President Clinton with the National Medal of Arts, and in 2002 Hallmark introduced The Maya Angelou Life Mosaic Collection, a series of greeting cards containing her verse. She also has plans to write a cookbook and direct another feature film. 5.2 Themes Angelou explores many of the same themes throughout all her writings, in both her autobiographies and poetry. These themes include love, painful loss, music, discrimination and racism, and struggle. Her poetry cannot easily be placed in categories of themes or techniques. It has been compared with music and musical forms, especially the blues, and like the blues singer, Angelou uses laughter or ridicule instead of tears to cope with minor irritations, sadness, and great suffering. Many of her poems are about love, relationships, or overcoming hardships. The metaphors in her poetry serve as “coding”, or litotes, for meanings understood by other Blacks, but her themes and topics apply universally to all races. Angelou uses everyday language, the Black vernacular, Black music and forms, and rhetorical techniques such as shocking language, the occasional use of profanity, and traditionally unacceptable subjects. As she does throughout her autobiographies, Angelou speaks not only for herself, but for her entire gender and race. Her poems continue the themes of mild protest and survival also found in her autobiographies, and inject hope through humor. Tied with Angelou’s theme of racism is her treatment of the struggle and hardships experienced by her race. Understanding Slavery One of the central ideas that are explored in her poems is that of slavery. This is a recurrent theme and is a significant idea that is fostered in her works. In all of her poetry, Maya Angelou relentlessly condemns the very idea of slavery and promotes egalitarianism. She becomes one of the harshest critics of slavery and her poetry documents the brutalities of the lives of slaves. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

104 English Literature - I Gender Inequality Another recurrent theme in the poetry of Maya Angelou is gender inequality. As mentioned before, in “Woman Work,” the life of a woman is seen akin to that of a slave. She writes about the quotidian struggles faced by a woman because of the discrimination that has been internalized in the society that makes the woman an inevitable victim of patriarchy. Love A less polarizing and arguably more universal theme that permeates across the poetry of Maya Angelou is that of love. This love can be individual love or one for humanity. In the poem “When You Come To Me,” the poet talks about love in the most conventional sense. She talks about the themes of love and pain that often go hand in hand. In this poem, a lover has come back to ask for forgiveness. This poem shows a less political side of Maya Angelou’s poetry. Racism and Segregation Maya confronts the insidious effects of racism and segregation in America at a very young age. She internalizes the idea that blond hair is beautiful and that she is a fat black girl trapped in a nightmare. Stamps, Arkansas, is so thoroughly segregated that as a child Maya does not quite believe that white people exist. As Maya gets older, she is confronted by more overt and personal incidents of racism, such as a white speaker’s condescending address at her eighth-grade graduation, her white boss’s insistence on calling her Mary, and a white dentist’s refusal to treat her. The importance of Joe Louis’s world championship boxing match to the black community reveals the dearth of publicly recognized African American heroes. It also demonstrates the desperate nature of the black community’s hope for vindication through the athletic triumph of one man. These unjust social realities confine and demean Maya and her relatives. She comes to learn how the pressures of living in a thoroughly racist society have profoundly shaped the character of her family members, and she strives to surmount them. Debilitating Displacement Maya is shuttled around to seven different homes between the ages of three and sixteen: from California to Stamps to St. Louis to Stamps to Los Angeles to Oakland to San Francisco to Los Angeles to San Francisco. As expressed in the poem she tries to recite on Easter, the statement “I CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 105 didn’t come to stay” becomes her shield against the cold reality of her rootlessness. Besieged by the “tripartite crossfire” of racism, sexism, and power, young Maya is belittled and degraded at every turn, making her unable to put down her shield and feel comfortable staying in one place. When she is thirteen and moves to San Francisco with her mother, Bailey, and Daddy Clidell, she feels that she belongs somewhere for the first time. Maya identifies with the city as a town full of displaced people. Maya’s personal displacement echoes the larger societal forces that displaced blacks all across the country. She realizes that thousands of other terrified black children made the same journey as she and Bailey, traveling on their own to newly affluent parents in northern cities, or back to southern towns when the North failed to supply the economic prosperity it had promised. African Americans descended from slaves who were displaced from their homes and homelands in Africa, and following the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, blacks continued to struggle to find their place in a country still hostile to their heritage. Resistance to Racism Black peoples’ resistance to racism takes many forms in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Momma maintains her dignity by seeing things realistically and keeping to herself. Big Bailey buys flashy clothes and drives a fancy car to proclaim his worth and runs around with women to assert his masculinity in the face of dehumanizing and emasculating racism. Daddy Clidell’s friends learn to use white peoples’ prejudice against them in elaborate and lucrative cons. Vivian’s family cultivates toughness and establishes connections to underground forces that deter any harassment. Maya first experiments with resistance when she breaks her white employer’s heirloom china. Her bravest act of defiance happens when she becomes the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Blacks also used the church as a venue of subversive resistance. At the revival, the preacher gives a thinly veiled sermon criticizing whites’ charity, and the community revels in the idea of white people burning in hell for their actions. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

106 English Literature - I Strong Black Women Though Maya struggles with insecurity and displacement throughout her childhood, she has a remarkable number of strong female role models in her family and community. Momma, Vivian, Grandmother Baxter, and Bertha Flowers have very different personalities and views on life, but they all chart their own paths and manage to maintain their dignity and self-respect. None of them ever capitulates to racist indignities. Maya also charts her own path, fighting to become the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco, and she does so with the support and encouragement of her female predecessors. Maya notes at the end of Chapter 34 that the towering character of the black American woman should be seen as the predictable outcome of a hard-fought struggle. Many black women fall along the way. The ones who can weather the storm of sexism and racism obviously will shine with greatness. They have survived, and therefore by definition they are survivors. Literature Maya’s first love is William Shakespeare. Throughout her life, literature plays a significant role in bolstering her confidence and providing a world of fantasy and escape. When feeling isolated in St. Louis, she takes refuge in the library. She describes Mrs. Bertha Flowers as being like women in English novels. Mrs. Flowers helps Maya rediscover her voice after her rape by encouraging her to use the words of other writers and poets. Maya continually quotes and refers to the literature she read throughout her childhood. For instance, at one point she simply gives San Francisco the title “Pride and Prejudice” without referring specifically to Jane Austen’s novel of the same name. Bailey appreciates Maya’s love of literature. He often presents her with gifts, such as the book of Edgar Allen Poe’s work that he and Maya read aloud while walking in their backyard in Stamps. Naming Maya’s real name is Marguerite, and most of her family members call her Ritie. The fact that she chooses to go by Maya as an adult, a name given to her by her brother, Bailey, indicates the depth of love and admiration she holds for him. When Maya reunites with her mother and her mother’s family in St. Louis at age eight, one of her uncles tells her the story of how she got this CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 107 name. Thus, finding her family is connected with finding her name and her identity. Indeed, for African Americans in general, Maya notes, naming is a sensitive issue because it provides a sense of identity in a hostile world that aims to stereotype blacks and erase their individuality and identity. Consequently, given the predominance of pejoratives like nigger so often used to cut down blacks, Maya notes the danger associated with calling a black person anything that could be loosely interpreted as insulting. Besides the obvious fact that Mrs. Cullinan does not take the time to get Maya’s name right in the first place, Mrs. Cullinan wishes to manipulate Maya’s name for her own convenience, shortening it to Mary, illustrating that she cares very little about Maya’s wishes or identity. Maya becomes enraged, and the incident inspires her to commit her first act of resistance. The Store Momma’s store is a central gathering place in Stamps and the center of Maya’s childhood. There she witnesses the cycles of nature and labor, tending to workers in the cotton-picking season and canners during the killing season. Maya notes that until she left Arkansas for good at age thirteen, the Store was her favorite place to be. It symbolizes the rewards of hard work and loyalty and the importance of a strong and devout community. Maya’s Easter Dress The lavender taffeta dress that Momma alters for Maya on Easter symbolizes Maya’s lack of love for herself and her wish for acceptance through transformation. She believes that beauty means white beauty. Hanging by the sewing machine, the dress looks magical. Maya imagines that the dress will reveal her true self to people who will then be shocked by her beauty. Harsh reality strikes on Easter morning, however, when she realizes that the dress is only a white woman’s throwaway that cannot wake her from her black nightmare. Maya learns that her transformation will have to take place from within. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

108 English Literature - I 5.3 Still I Rise By Maya Angelou You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 109 Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise. Analysis ‘Still I Rise’ is a typical Maya Angelou poem in terms of its subject matter, but what really sets it apart is the kind of visual stimulation it provides to readers. We shall find evidence of this time and time again in our analysis of the poem. The first seven stanzas of the poem show a simple ABCB rhyme scheme. However, the final, longer stanza has a slightly different rhyme scheme. We can divide it into three units. The first unit, consisting of lines one to six of the last stanza, have an ABABCC pattern. The second unit, consisting of lines seven to twelve, have a similar pattern, that is, DBDBEE. The third unit, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

110 English Literature - I consisting of lines thirteen to fifteen of the last stanza, consist of BBB. B, in all three units, is “I rise.” It is best to analyse “Still I Rise” in terms of clusters of images. The images of rising, for example, occur in the first, third, and sixth stanzas. Angelou says that hope is what motivates women like her to rise, and she alternately compares her kind of rising with that of dust, air, and the tides. In any of these three cases, the upward movement signals an upheaval in the environment. Similarly, says Angelou, if women stand up for themselves, they shall be able to bring about social upheaval, and thereby effect a positive change in the economic and political situation of black women in the American society of their times. Exaggerated images of financial security occur in the second, fifth, and seventh stanzas (as explained in the summary). However, the only function of these images is not to contribute to a light tone within this poem that voices such grim concerns. Through these images, Angelou seems to be saying that the white male population is so materialistic and mercenary that the only way in which they view her confidence and pride is through imagining that she looks as if she were very rich. In their system of values, only the rich can afford to be defiant, and all others must remain silently downtrodden (as the images of drooping shoulders, bowed head, lowered eyes, teardrops, and weakened cries in the fourth stanza show). Among these images – of oil wells, gold mines, and diamonds between her thighs – the third one is especially interesting. By designating the location of the diamonds as being part of her body, Angelou is saying that even though black women have traditionally been taught to be ashamed of their bodies, they in fact value their bodies, and believe they are as beautiful as diamonds. In defining herself as sassy, haughty, and sexy, Angelou outlines the kinds of behaviour that are not expected from black women, but that they manifest within themselves anyway. “Sassiness”, in particular, has the connotation of behaviour that is inappropriate. However, Angelou does not consider her, or other African American women’s behaviour as inappropriate, but rather celebrates the audacity with which they carry themselves in the majority-white and male-dominated world. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 111 “History” is evoked in both the first and the last stanzas, with Angelou affirming that she has not forgotten her heritage. In a sense, Angelou is saying that all African-American people need to remember that their slave ancestors wanted a better world for their offspring, and that is the responsibility of Angelou’s generation to make sure that dream comes true. The importance of this notion to Angelou becomes even more obvious when one considers that she had just given birth to a child before writing this poem. She wants to leave only happiness for her child, and no painful memories of all the experiences that she and her ancestors had gone through. So she is resolved to swallow up all those memories within her as if she were the ocean, or a black hole. This can only happen when African-American women stand up in unison for respect, and bring about positive changes in society by asserting their pride in themselves as a collective. This is Angelou’s mission — to inspire her fellow women, and give them a message of hope and empowerment. “Still I Rise” is an empowering poem about the struggle to overcome prejudice and injustice. It is one of Maya Angelou’s most popular poems. When read by victims of wrongdoing, the poem becomes a kind of anthem, a beacon of hope for the oppressed and downtrodden. It is a reminder of the abuse of power by those who sit in government, the judiciary, the military, and the police force. For members of the public, it sends out the clear, repeated message of hope. No matter the circumstances, there must always be hope to cling to. This stirring poem is packed fully with figurative language. It functions as a sort of secular hymn to the oppressed and abused. The message is loud and clear — no matter the cruelty, regardless of method and circumstance, the victim will rise up, the slave will overcome adversity. (It is little wonder that Nelson Mandela read this poem at his inauguration in 1994, having spent 27 years in prison. Although written with black slavery and civil rights issues in mind, “Still I Rise” is universal in its appeal. Any innocent individual, any minority, or any nation subject to oppression or abuse could understand the underlying theme — don’t give in to torture, bullying, humiliation, and injustice. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

112 English Literature - I This poem includes 43 lines in total, made up of seven quatrains and two end stanzas which help reinforce the theme of individual hope, with the phrase “I rise” being repeated in mantra fashion. This is a poem aimed at the oppressor. Note the first “you” in the first line and the rhyme scheme ABCB, which tightly knits the stanzas together. It is worth going through the rhyme’s effect because the full rhymes such as eyes/cries, hard/backyard, surprise/thighs continue up to the last two stanzas when the scheme changes from ABCB to ABCC and AABB, giving an absolute solid ending to the piece. If this poem were a sculpture, it would have a granite plinth to stand on. The natural imagery is far-reaching and the voice is loud. In this poem, there are moons and suns, tides and black oceans. There is a clear daybreak and ancestral gifts, all joining together in a crescendo of hope. Similes and metaphors abound. Every stanza has at least one, from the first... “But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” To the last... “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.” There is a defiance in the poem as you read through, as if the speaker is trying to prick the conscience of the oppressor, by reminding them of past wrongs and present realities. The word “sassiness” suggests an arrogant self-confidence, backed up by the use of “haughtiness” and “sexiness.” The poet’s use of hyperbole with these three nouns, adds a kind of absurd beauty when she says, Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as some surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Stanza six brings the oppressive issue to a climax, so to speak. Three lines begin with “You,” the speaker, choosing particularly active verbs — “shoot,” “cut,” and “kill” — to emphasize the aggression. But this aggression comes to no avail, for the oppressed will still rise, this time like air, an element which you cannot shoot, cut, or kill. All in all, this is an inspirational poem with a powerful repetitive energy, a universal message, and a clear, positive pulse throughout. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 113 What’s the Poem’s Theme? “Still I Rise” is primarily about self-respect and confidence. In the poem, Angelou reveals how she will overcome anything through her self-esteem. She shows how nothing can get her down. She will rise to any occasion, and nothing, not even her skin color, will hold her back. Although slavery had been long abolished, Angelou saw its effects on society and the African American people. This poem is her declaration that she, for one, would not allow the hatefulness of society to determine her own success. This poem is not only a proclamation of her own determination to rise above society, but was also a call to others to live above the society in which they were brought up. It is still one of the most widely read poems in America. 5.4 Summary Stanza 1 In this stanza, Maya Angelou gives her heart and soul to declare that nothing and no one could oppress her or keep her down. She doesn’t care what the history books saw, for she knows they are full of “twisted lies”. She will not let it bother her that others “trod” her “in the very dirt”. She proclaims that if she is trodden in the dirt, that she will rise like dust. Stanza 2 In the second stanza, she asks a question. This is an interesting question, as she refers to her own tone as “sassiness” and asks the hearer if her sassy tone is upsetting. She notices that the people around her in her society are “beset with gloom” when she succeeds. She questions this. She knows that she is succeeded in life, in her writing, and as a woman. The “oil wells pumping in [her] living room” symbolize her success. Stanza 3 In this stanza, she compares herself to the moons and the suns as they are affected by the tides. This gives the reader the understanding that the speaker has no other choice but to rise up out of her affliction. Try as society might to keep her oppressed, it is in her nature to rise up and stand against oppression just as it is the nature of the tides to respond to the moon. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

114 English Literature - I Stanza 4 The speaker’s questions in this stanza are direct, pertinent, and appropriately accusing. She knows that her own success is received with bitterness by the racist people in her society. So she directs these questions at the society that has long tried to keep her oppressed. She asks them if they want to see her broken, oppressed, depressed and bitter. She asks these questions knowing that this indeed is what many in society wanted. They did not want to see a black woman rise up out of the oppression of her society and succeed. The speaker knows this and she draws attention to it with this revealing, yet cutting questions. Stanza 5 She continues with the questions directed at a racist society when she asks whether her “haughtiness” is offensive. She knows that society resents seeing a black woman full of pride. This question has an air of sarcasm which serves to point out the hypocrisy of society as it is embittered by the success of one that it has tried to oppress. The speaker continues in a sarcastic tone as she pretends to comfort the hearer. She says, “don’t you take it awful hard”. This is her sarcastic way of pretending to care for those who resent her success. She continues, however, in a sense, to “flaunt” her success before the society that has always oppressed her. She claims that she has “gold mines” and that she laughs at the success she has found. Stanza 6 In this stanza, she lets society know that no matter what it does to oppress her, it will not succeed. She lets society know that it cannot prevail against her with words or looks. She proclaims that society cannot prevail against her even if it managed to have her killed because of its hatefulness. She claims that she will still, “like air,” rise. Stanza 7 The speaker continues her questioning of society. By this time in the poem, it becomes apparent that the speaker has placed society on trial and is now in the process of cross- examination. She knows the answers to these questions, but to ask them is to incriminate the offender. While she asks incriminating questions, she simultaneously reveals incredible self- confidence despite the oppression of society. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 115 Stanza 8 In this stanza, the speaker finally refers to the past – the reason that she is oppressed and resented to this day. She calls slavery “history’s shame” and she proclaims that she will not be held down by the past, even if it is “rooted in pain”. Stanza 9 In the final stanza, the speaker reveals that she intends to leave behind all the effects of slavery and the history of oppression with intent to rise above it. She claims that she will leave behind the “terror and fear” and that she will rise above the pain and the oppression “into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear”. The speaker does not intend to allow the hatefulness of society or the pain of the past to stop her from becoming all that she has ever dreamed of being. For this reason, she repeats three times, “I rise”. 5.5 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) A. Short Answer Questions 1. Maya Angelou makes use of questions as a device. What is the impact of these questions in the poem, “Still I Rise”? 2. What do you think Maya Angelou implies in the line “Out of the huts of history’s shame” in her poem “Still I Rise?” 3. Why are the last two stanzas of “Still I Rise” different from the rest? 4. Who is speaking the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou? 5. What is the theme of the poem “Still I Rise”? 6. What does “I dance like I’ve got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs” mean? 7. In the poem “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou compares herself to “moons” and “suns.” What do you think she wants to convey through these similes? 8. “I’ve got oil wells,” “I’ve got gold mines” and “I’ve got diamonds.” What is the effect of repetition here and of the particular images used? 9. Discuss the way you personally connect with this poem. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

116 English Literature - I 10. What does “I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,/Welling and swelling I bear in the tide” mean? 11. Who will be made to trod the dirt in “Still I Rise”? 12. Whom do you think the narrator is “speaking to” in the first seven stanzas of “Still I Rise”? 13. In the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, the phrase “I rise” is repeated several times. What do these words convey? 14. What is the tone of the poem—sad or strong? Why? 15. What does Angelou compare her hope to in “Still I Rise”? 16. What does Maya Angelou mean when she says, “You may shoot me with your words” in “Still I Rise”? B. Long Answer Questions 1. What types of figurative language are used in the poem “Still I Rise”? 2. How is the tenacity of the poet showcased throughout the poem “Still I Rise”? 3. What are all the poetic devices in “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou? 4. How is irony employed in “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou? 5. Analyze how language features are used to create a powerful emotional response in the reader. 6. Does the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou give any indication of feminism or equality? 7. Analyze how literary devices from “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou contribute to the depth of the poem. 8. Why does the poet ask questions in “Still I Rise”? 9. How does the structure of Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” affect the meaning? 10. What are the inherited gifts that the poet brings with her? Answer with reference to Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.” CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Still I Rise 117 11. What is Maya Angelou's poem “Still I Rise” about? Why is it important? 12. What elements of the poem “Still I Rise” make it inspiring and timeless? C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Who is the protagonist of the poem? (a) A Black Woman (b) A White Woman (c) A Black Man (d) A White Man 2. Which of the following is not used as a symbol of wealth in the poem? (a) Diamonds (b) Pearls (c) Oil wells (d) Gold Mines 3. What does the speaker mean by the ‘gifts’ that her ancestors gave? (a) Her children (b) Money (c) Her determination and strength (c) Artifacts 4. Which of the following does the speaker not compare herself to when rising? (a) Temperature (b) Hopes (c) Air (d) Dust 5. What is the overall message that Angelou delivers through her poem? (a) Resist your oppressor and fight for change (b) Be violent towards your oppressor (c) Ignore your oppressor (d) Resist your oppressor but stop if they really harm you Answers 1. (a), 2. (b), 3. (c), 4. (a), 5. (a) CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

118 English Literature - I 5.6 References Web Resources 1. https://beamingnotes.com/2014/08/26/still-rise-analysis-maya-angelou/ 2. https://poemanalysis.com/still-i-rise-maya-angelou-poem-analysis/ 3. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise 4. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-Of-Still-I-Rise-By-Maya-Angelou 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou Reference Books 1. Angelou wrote about Vivian Baxter’s life and their relationship in Mom & Me & Mom(2013), her final installment in her series of seven autobiographies. 2. According to Angelou, Annie Henderson built her business with food stalls catering to black workers, which eventually developed into a store. 3. The correct Greek spelling of Angelou’s husband name is probably “Anastasios Angelopoulos”. 4. Reviewer John M. Miller calls Angelou’s performance of her song “All That Happens in the Marketplace” the “most genuine musical moment in the film”. 5. In Angelou’s third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter (2009), she credits Cuban artist Celia Cruz as one of the greatest influences of her singing career, and later, credits Cruz for the effectiveness and impact of Angelou’s poetry performances and readings. 6. Guy Johnson, who as a result of this accident in Accra and one in the late 1960s, underwent a series of spinal surgeries. He, like his mother, became a writer and poet. 7. Angelou called her friendship with Malcolm X “a brother/sister relationship”. 8. Angelou did not celebrate her birthday for many years, choosing instead to send flowers to King’s widow Coretta Scott King.  CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 6 MY GRANDMOTHER – ELIZABETH JENNINGS Structure: 6.0 Learning Objectives 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Analysis of ‘My Grandmother’ 6.3 Themes 6.4 Language and Imagery 6.5 Summary 6.6 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) 6.7 References 6.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will understand the significance of Maya Angelou. Elizabeth Jennings is an English Catholic poet and scholar who established her literary reputation as a member of “The Movement,” a group of writers which included Kingsley Amis, Thom Gunn, and Philip Larkin. The dignity and composure that characterized the early work of “The Movement” writers is evident in all of Miss Jennings’ poetry. In declining to use rhetorical gestures, startling images and metaphors, or to render the physical world with any vividness, Miss Jennings severely limits her range. She asks to be read as a poet of the mind, to be read for her insights and the play of ideas. And she selects topics about CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

120 English Literature - I which one might write a prose essay. She likes such subjects as the nature of symbols, myth, kingship — all of which call for intellectual reach and subtlety. Elizabeth Jennings’s poetry inhabits a moral world, and that is a rare thing these days when the pat phrases of ideological indignation are as far as many of our poets get in exploring the universe ethically considered. Didactic poetry, like didactic judgment, can appear harsh and off- putting; but her poems are saved from this by her vulnerability to the fact of pain and her fund of sympathy. She is also a wise, as well as compassionate poet and knows that self-pity is ‘death to the human heart’; which is one reason why she tells us ‘Never blame/Anyone but yourself.’ Her most frequent themes are hurt, sorrow and aloneness (whether of herself or others), but she does not seek to hug these states, rather to understand and transcend them. So she sees the roots of so many of our moral and spiritual dilemmas in an egoism turning inward. In 1967, Elizabeth Jennings’ Collected Poems appeared. Edmund Blunden described her poetry as uniting “the deepest sensibility with a poetry of restraint and yet of great candour”. [Here is] … a formal restraint rather than a tentativeness of statement. Her prose poems are her most successful deviations from strict form, while the free-verse or aformal poems at the end of the Collected are the least successful. Miss Jennings requires traditional form, and she uses it with authority. Her temperament is not innovative in this sense. With her, form helps to discover order or disorder, rather than … order or disorder discovering form. Form is a primary poetic necessity rather than a device in Miss Jennings’ poetry. Early on, she saw it, rather as Donne did, controlling the otherwise inarticulable. Her central preoccupation is not, then, with technique — something she takes for granted and uses skilfully. Nor does she worry much about “what poetry is” — she recognises that it is essential to her, and it would be solipsistic in her to tease out the reasons for this urgent necessity. If anything, poetry is a mode — perhaps the only mode — she has of reaching beyond her individual isolation and discovering relationship. When her poems are aesthetic in preoccupation, she is usually exploring the applicability of art to experience, or its vital relationship with experience. Most often her preoccupation is with suffering of various sorts, with loss, and occasionally fine celebrations of love. She is a poet who is still developing, within her chosen CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

My Grandmother 121 formal confines, towards a new clarity. She began as a love poet and has developed into the poet of complex relationships. Her best poems are not descriptive but exploratory of relationships. 6.1 Introduction About the Poet Elizabeth Jennings, in full Elizabeth Joan Jennings, (born July 18, 1926, Boston, Lincolnshire, England — died October 26, 2001, Bampton, Oxfordshire), English poet whose works relate intensely personal matters in a plainspoken, traditional, and objective style and whose verse frequently reflects her devout Roman Catholicism and her love of Italy. Jennings was educated at Oxford High School and St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Her first pamphlet, “Poems,” appeared in 1953, followed by “A Way of Looking” (1955), which won her a Somerset Maugham Award and enabled her to visit Italy. “Song for a Birth or a Death” (1961) marked a new development, with its confessional tone and more savage view of love. Some of the best of her later poems concern her nervous breakdown and its aftermath, such as those collected in “Recoveries” (1964) and “The Mind Has Mountains” (1966). Other works include “The Animals’ Arrival” (1969), “Lucidities” (1970), “Relationships” (1972), “Extending the Territory” (1985), and “Familiar Spirits” (1994). A translation, “The Sonnets of Michelangelo” (1961), was revised in 1969. She also published poetry for children. In 1992 Jennings was made a Commander of the British Empire. Poetry Influences Style and Themes ‘A poet is not an isolated person. He is not isolated because he is part of a tradition. Behind him are all the great and the minor poets of the past, influencing him, encouraging him, urging him to do better.’ Echoing T.S. Eliot in ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’, Jennings found community in fostering connections with poets, both living and dead. In her volume “Tributes,” she dedicates her work to other poets (and painters) and intertextual resonances emanate from, and occasionally clutter, much of her writing. Her anthology, “A Poet’s Choice” (1996) self-confessedly indicates some of the poems that shaped her. Whereas American-born Eliot sought literary innovation, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

122 English Literature - I Jennings places herself in the line of English poets whose formalism and sense of tradition she preserved with her search for order and belonging. One strand of her writing vitalizes English mystical verse in which she was steeped. In idiom, she joins the stream that starts with the anglo- saxon alliterative poets, and then flows through ballads, the Romantics, the anti-elitist Thirties poets and the postwar anti-heroic Movement. Jennings gradually broke from the zeitgeist of intellectualism that surrounded “The Movement,” and the New Critics before them, to more freely develop her “what we might term” an intelligence of feeling that would engage her readers. For her, this also involved breaking ‘the tight cases of stanzaic form that was an obvious feature in New Lines’ (Poetry Today, 1961). Poetry Today registers her principles of clarity and order from which she did not deviate over the next forty years of her writing career. It is also a useful document about poetry from a contemporaneous perspective and Jennings is at her best in her integration of the macro and micro, providing an overview, comparisons and close reading. Jennings preserves the traditional property of the lyric, offering aesthetic compensation for the subject’s expressed suffering. While ‘identity politics’, that characterizes literary theory and practice since the 1970s, seems to pass her by, arguably Jennings’ sense of personal and literary marginality formulated the voice of the solitary individual that connects the fragmentary psyche across the specific outsiderdom of gender, race or place. Her best poems provoke a moment of astonishment, akin to an epiphany, in the pain or pedestrian pace of living. Poet Elizabeth Jennings (1926 – 2001) led an extraordinary life: the only woman to join The Movement (an English group of poets dedicated to an anti-romantic aesthetic); publisher of twenty-six books of poetry in her lifetime; colloquially known in her later life as the bag-lady of poetry due to her immense poverty; and a dedicated Roman Catholic. Much of her work touched on the periods of her life when she was interned at a psychiatric hospital, though she maintained that she was not a writer of autobiographical poetry. If it were not for the large amount of correspondence and personal notebooks Jennings left behind, it would be difficult to piece all of these aspects of her life together. As a writer, she exalted formalism, striving to maintain a sense of tradition through regular meter and order. In the context of her tumultuous personal life, and her desires brings this depth of pain into her work. She both respected the Confessional label and shied away from it (as it had become a pejorative term). CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

My Grandmother 123 Her desire to be in communion with others and her need for isolation was a constant topic of discussion in her letters, as well as a theme in her poetry. She maintained lifelong friendships over correspondence. Rugena Stanley, a Czech refugee, whom Jennings met when at the Warneford hospital, helped her recover from and survive later bouts with mental illness. Other friends, like Dame Veronica Wedgwood, were a source of literary support, and even went as far as typing and editing Jennings’ poems. While Jennings’ work stands on its own as an expression of a fragmented psyche struggling to live simply, when read in context with her biographical accounts, her poetry can be understood as an almost obsessive quest to fully understand herself. Dana Greene, author of the first Jennings biography, The Inward War (which shares its title with Jennings’ unpublished autobiography), spoke with the Modern Literature Collection about Jennings’ work. “She almost never revised but would rather write another poem, perhaps on the same theme. This does not allow for a comparison of revised poems, but it gives evidence of the themes which preoccupied her — love, nature, faith, death, friendship, the seasons, childhood — over her lifetime.” Dana Greene, author of the first Jennings biography, The Inward War (which shares its title with Jennings’ unpublished autobiography), spoke with the Modern Literature Collection about Jennings’ work. Greene researched the Elizabeth Jennings Papers in the Modern Literature Collection (MLC) for her biography of Jennings, because the only original, handwritten copies of her unpublished autobiography are here. Greene said: “There were two other iterations of this work, but they were “cleaned up.” The MLC version was more direct in its language, and its title – ‘The Inward War’ – was revelatory. The later iterations were titled ‘Autobiography’ and ‘As I Am.’ Although none of these autobiographies was ever published, Jennings used the title ‘The Inward War’ for her subsequent and unpublished biography of her favorite poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins.” At the end of her life, Jennings struggled with poverty and ill-health. As the Elizabeth Jennings Project states: “The downtrodden appearance of her later years (cardigan, skirt, ankle socks, plastic carrier bags) became something of an anecdote, culminating in her refusal to deviate from this costume for a dinner at Rules Restaurant to celebrate her CBE Honour or her appearance at Buckingham Palace.” Her legacy has perhaps suffered from her decline in CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

124 English Literature - I popularity in her later years, but her poetry remains potent for those wanting to read about estrangement, loss, the ordinary, and the sacred. My Grandmother She kept an antique shop – or it kept her. Among Apostle spoons and Bristol glass, The faded silks, the heavy furniture, She watched her own reflection in the brass Salvers and silver bowls, as if to prove Polish was all, there was no need of love. And I remember how I once refused To go out with her, since I was afraid. It was perhaps a wish not to be used Like antique objects. Though she never said That she was hurt, I still could feel the guilt Of that refusal, guessing how she felt. Later, too frail to keep a shop, she put All her best things in one long, narrow room. The place smelt old, of things too long kept shut, The smell of absences where shadows come That can’t be polished. There was nothing then To give her own reflection back again. And when she died I felt no grief at all, Only the guilt of what I once refused. I walked into her room among the tall Sideboards and cupboards – things she never used But needed: and no finger-marks were there, Only the new dust falling through the air. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

My Grandmother 125 6.2 Analysis of ‘My Grandmother’ In this poem, Jennings displays and explores the relationship between the speaker and his/her grandmother. The speaker of this poem is anonymous; it is unknown whether is a male or female, but surely mature. The speaker’s remorse is depicted through the course of the poem, as he/she refused a request by the grandmother. This twenty-four lines poem is divided into four stanzas. The first stanza is written in the third point of view, and shows the speaker’s grandmother owned an antique shop. In the first line, the persona portrays the grandmother’s strong attachment to the shop via personifying the shop and giving it the ability to keep her: “She kept an antique shop – or it kept her.” This may give two possible interpretations; it shows to what extent the shop was important to the grandmother, or it is possible to say due to the grandmother’s strong attachment to the shop she herself turned to an antique that is no more new or fading away from the “new” world. Usually, as social creatures, human being, need the feel of love and being loved, and the way to feel this love is through the reflection of love form others, or to say, to see one’s self and reflection thorough the eyes and love of others. But, the three last lines show exactly the contrary of the aforementioned notion, since the grandmother saw her reflection only through objects she possessed in the shop as if she was not in need of love anymore “Polish was all, there was no need of love.” The second stanza is written in the first point of view. The speaker recounts and recalls the occasion of refusing the grandmother’s request for going with her to the antique shop and how she felt after the refusal of the speaker. In the third line, the speaker gives the reason of the refusal as it was for nothing, but only of being afraid that grandmother would take her/him as an antique to keep in the shop: “It was perhaps a wish not to be us/Like antique objects”. Later on, the speaker depicts how the grandmother was hurt but uttered nothing. In the three last lines, the speaker shifts to the present time to express the remorse and guilt of refusing the grandmother’s request: “I still could feel the guilt/Of that refusal, guessing how she felt.” In the third stanza, the speaker demonstrates the retirement of the grandmother after becoming frail and unable to take care of the shop, and being unable to polish the objects. She kept everything in a small narrow room. As a result, “There was nothing then/To give her own CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

126 English Literature - I reflection back again.” Through this stanza, the speaker wants to give the idea how the grandmother was unable anymore to polish the objects, to see the reality, in other words as if saying the grandmother regretted of taking care more about objects than her family or people around her, and when the “shadows” of death came, she lost both the objects and people, and nothing gave the reflection of reality and love anymore. (Carmen, 2007) In the fourth stanza, the speaker recalls his/her feelings of not being sad after the death of the grandmother, but only the feeling of guilt for not responding positively to the request of the grandmother. From the third line to the last of this stanza, the speaker indirectly shows the grandmother’s unfulfilling desires and the sense of loneliness and alienation she was suffering from; since the speaker sees many collected objects as stepping to the grandmother’s room, but these objects are “things she never used/But needed”, and this indicate to the unpleasant feeling and complexes which the grandmother suffered from, since it is the nature of human when feeling alone, or aimless in life to do things which are unimportant or when feeling alone to fill this sense of loneliness by any mean, whether to spend money for buying new things, to add something new to fulfill the emptiness the one is suffering from, or by doing different aimless things. 6.3 Themes Many of Elizabeth Jennings poems explore themes of family, relationships, suffering and loneliness. In this poem, she explores a very personal memory of the guilt she still feels about the way she behaved towards her grandmother on a particular occasion. The poet explores her own feelings of inadequacy in dealing with the memories of Her relationship with Her grandmother. In a broader sense, the poet seems to explore the difficulties in relationships and with people’s feelings, as opposed to the inanimate objects her grandmother collected around herself. Language and Form: This is a narrative or half-elegy poem. The language used in this poem is quiet easy since it tackles some issues from the everyday life and is written for ordinary people, not the elite. It has a regular rhyme scheme (ABABCC DDEDFF GHGHMM NDNDOO). CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

My Grandmother 127 However, in this poem the use of half rhymes could be seen in different positions such as in the first line and third from the first stanza. Moreover, in the second line of the second stanza, the poet repeated the same rhyme of the previous line as DDEDFF. The meter of the poem is iambic pentameter. (www.bbc.co.uk) Structure The poem is divided into four stanzas, each of which develops the idea further:  Stanza 1: describes her grandmother  Stanza 2: describes the incident which causes her guilt  Stanza 3: shows her grandmother in retirement  Stanza 4: after her grandmother has died, the poet reflects on her grandmother’s life and her own memories. The poem comprises four six-lined stanzas, There is a structured rhyme scheme throughout; ABABCC. In the first three stanzas, she uses consonant rhyme; ‘her’ and ‘furniture’; ‘guilt’ and ‘felt’; ‘put and shut’ etc. It is only in the last stanza that the rhyme is perfect. This creates a sense of flexibility, so the reader is subtly caught up in the flow of the poem. Figures of Speech and Imagery: The poet deliberately and profusely used images to portray the physical appearance of the shop and to make the audiences share the same feelings the speaker or the poet conveyed. In the following stanza the readers see how the different types of images used in the poem contribute into the imagination of the readers, to create an image for the shop and the reactions of the speaker. Moreover, talking about figures of speech, in the first line of the first stanza, personification is used to personify the shop “it kept her”. Also, in the third stanza the poet uses a metaphorical language to construct an idea in her readers, minds of how the place was old, “the place smelt old,” and “the smell of absence” to show the solitude and loneliness atmosphere. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

128 English Literature - I 6.4 Language and Imagery The old woman is defined in terms of the antique shop and the objects she kept and apparently loved. Jennings therefore enumerates these in stanza one, a seemingly random list of disparate items. They were essential to her, though unused. Atmosphere is built up through references to ‘shadows’ and ‘dust’ with their connotations of death. The old lady’s inability to keep her antiques polished is a metaphor for her growing frailty and loss of identity. The Title and Persona: The persona in this poem is anonymous, the reader cannot infer wheather is a male or female it since the idea is applicable to all, but perhaps the persona is mature, since he/she is recalling the occasion which happened in the past. The title of the poem is very direct, as the reader can induce, the subject matter is about a person without knowing the nature of it. Themes: It is one of the characteristics of the modern poetry, to be written for ordinary people and about the modern life. Thus, in this poem, Jennings explores the theme of family and the modern relationships among the members of one family, as well as she portrays how family values have been changed; As she wants to show how the nature of the love of the family is changed; since the grandmother only cares about antiques and shop on one hand, and on the other, how the speaker distrust the grandmother and later the regression of that. 6.5 Summary In this poem Jennings evokes the sense of loss we often — but not always — experience when someone close to us dies. The pain may be exacerbated by feelings of guilt and inadequacy. In Jennings' poem there is a sense that she did too little while her grandmother was alive. She is aware that she was powerless or at least failed to close the gap in understanding between herself and her grandmother. The speaker associates her grandmother with the antique shop she kept, in which everything was clean and highly polished. When the old woman closed the shop she kept the antiques in one crowded room at home, but was too frail to keep them polished. After her grandmother’s death, CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

My Grandmother 129 the speaker feels guilt more than grief, because of her neglect and particularly deeply regrets the occasion she refused to go out with her. It is a poem about reacting to death, but also about relationships between family members and the nature of love. 6.6 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) A. Short Answer Questions 1. Identify the speaker in the poem ‘Grandmother’. 2. Identify and briefly explain the use of any two images in the poem. 3. What do the following lines mean in the poem? ‘too frail to keep a shop’ ‘only the new dust failing through the air’ 4. Describe the tone of the poem. 5. Explain the paradox in the line: Things she never used But needed B. Long Answer Questions 1. Give the summary of the poem? 2. Explain the speaker’s sense of guilt. 3. How does Elizabeth Jennings explore the difficulties in relationships? 4. Comment on the form and structure of the poem, 5. How does Jennings explore the theme of family and the modern relationships? CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

130 English Literature - I C. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Who is the persona in the poem? (a) A daughter (b) A grandmother (c) A grandchild (d) A son 2. How is the speaker’s attitude towards her grandmother in the poem? (a) Of love (b) Of indifference (c) Of respect (d) Of friendship 3. What does ‘too frail to keep a shop’ mean? (a) Too poor to own a shop (b) Too old to look after the shop (c) Did not have time to look after the shop (d) Too lazy to look after the shop 4. How did the granddaughter feel after the death of her grandmother? (a) Grief (b) Lonely (c) Relieved (d) Guilty 5. What is not the meaning of ‘it kept her’? (a) She reaped a huge profit from the shop (b) She was too occupied in the shop (c) It was a means of her survival (d) She was tied to it Answers 1. (c), 2. (b), 3. (b), 4. (d), 5. (a) CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

My Grandmother 131 6.7 References 1. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Jenning 2. http://archon.wulib.wustl.edu/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=911&q=el izabeth+ jennings 3. https://genius.com/Elizabeth-jennings-my-grandmother-annotated 4. https://revisionworld.com/gcse-revision/english/poetry-gcse/studying-poetry/modern- poetry 5. https://www.academia.edu/13054393/Elizabeth_Jennings_and_the_poetry_of_the_ movement._An_analysis_of_five_poems_by_her?auto=download 6. https://www.enotes.com/topics/elizabeth-jennings/critical-essays/jennings-elizabeth- 1926 7. Grevel Lindop (31 October 2001). “Elizabeth Jennings Obituary”. The Guardian. Retrieved 5 October 2012. 8. Couzyn, Jeni (1985) Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, pp. 98-100. 9. “Elizabeth Jennings - poetryarchive.org”. www.poetryarchive.org. 10. “A Bird in the House\" at the Poetry archive”. Archived from the original on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2012. 11. “Clarify Me, Please, God of the Galaxies - Dana Gioia”.  CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT 7 WHERE THE MIND IS WITHOUT FEAR – RABINDRANATH TAGORE Structure: 7.0 Learning Objectives 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Main Themes in Rabindranath Tagore’s Poems 7.3 Where the Mind is Without Fear – Rabindranth Tagore 7.4 Theme 7.5 Analysis 7.6 Summary 7.7 Unit End Questions (MCQ and Descriptive) 7.8 References 7.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will understand the significance of Rabindranth Tagore as a poet. Rabindranath Tagore’s spiritual presence was awesome. His words evoked great beauty. Nobody had ever read anything like it. A glimpse of the mysticism and sentimental beauty of Indian culture were revealed to the West for the first time. Less than a year later, in 1913, Rabindranath received the Nobel Prize for literature. He was the first non-westerner to be so honored. Overnight he was famous and began world lecture tours promoting inter-cultural harmony and understanding. In 1915, he was knighted by the British King George V. When not CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Where the Mind is Without Fear 133 traveling, he remained at his family home outside of Calcutta, where he remained very active as a literary, spiritual and social-political force. In 1919, following the Amritsar massacre of 400 Indian demonstrators by British troops, Sir Tagore renounced his Knighthood. Although a good friend of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, most of the time Tagore stayed out of politics. He was opposed to nationalism and miltiarism as a matter of principle, and instead promoted spiritual values and the creation of a new world culture founded in multi-culturalism, diversity and tolerance. He served as a spiritual and creative beacon to his countrymen, and indeed, the whole world. He used the funds from his writing and lecturing to expand upon the school he had founded in 1901 now known as Visva Bharati. The alternative to the poor system of education imposed by the British, combined the best of traditional Hindu education with Western ideals. Rabindranath Tagore’s creative output tells you a lot about this renaissance man. The variety, quality and quantity are unbelievable. As a writer, Tagore primarily worked in Bengali, but after his success with Gitanjali, he translated many of his other works into English. He wrote over one thousand poems; eight volumes of short stories; almost two dozen plays and play-lets; eight novels; and many books and essays on philosophy, religion, education and social topics. Aside from words and drama, his other great love was music in Bengali style. He composed more than two thousand songs, both the music and lyrics. Two of them became the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. In 1929 he even began painting. Many of his paintings can be found in museums today, especially in India, where he is considered the greatest literary figure of India of all times. Tagore was not only a creative genius, he was also a great man and friend to many. For instance, he was also a good friend from childhood to the great Indian Physicist, Bose. He was educated and quite knowledgeable of Western culture, especially Western poetry and Science. This made him a remarkable person, one of the first of our planet to combine East and West, and ancient and modern knowledge. Tagore had a good grasp of modern – post-Newtonian – physics, and was well able to hold his own in a debate with Einstein in 1930 on the newly emerging principles of quantum mechanics and chaos. His meetings and tape recorded conversations with his contemporaries, such as Albert Einstein and H.G. Wells, stand as cultural landmarks, and show the brilliance of this great man. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

134 English Literature - I Although Tagore is a superb representative of his country, India, the man who wrote its national anthem – his life and works go far beyond his country. He is truly a man of the whole Earth, a product of the best of both traditional Indian, and modern Western cultures. He exemplifies the ideals important to us of Goodness, Meaningful Work, and World Culture. 7.1 Introduction About the Poet Rabindranath Tagore, 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by his pen name Bhanu Singha Thakur (Bhonita), and also known by his sobriquets Gurudev, Kabiguru, and Biswakabi, was a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the “profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse” of “Gitanjali,” he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore’s poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his “elegant prose and magical poetry” remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as \"the Bard of Bengal”. A Brahmo from Calcutta with ancestral gentry roots in Jessore, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At the age of sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusimha (“Sun Lion\"), which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics. By 1877, he graduated to his first short stories and dramas, published under his real name. As a humanist, universalist, internationalist, and ardent anti-nationalist, he denounced the British Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy also endures in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University. Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics of political and personal nature. “Gitanjali (Song Offerings),” “Gora” (Fair-Faced) and “Ghare-Baire” (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Where the Mind is Without Fear 135 acclaimed — or panned — for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India’s Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh’s Amar Shonar Bangla. The Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work. Rabindranath Tagore, who composed the National Anthem of India and won the Nobel Prize for Literature, was a multi-talented personality in every sense. He was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, painter and a composer. He was also a cultural reformer who modified Bengali art by rebuffing the strictures that confined it within the sphere of classical Indian forms. Though he was a polymath, his literary works alone are enough to place him in the elite list of all-time greats. Even today, Rabindranath Tagore is often remembered for his poetic songs, which are both spiritual and mercurial. He was one of those great minds, ahead of his time, and that is exactly why his meeting with Albert Einstein is considered as a clash between science and spirituality. Tagore was keen in spreading his ideologies to the rest of the world and hence embarked on a world tour, lecturing in countries like Japan and the United States. Soon, his works were admired by people of various countries and he eventually became the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize. Apart from “Jana Gana Mana” (the National Anthem of India), his composition “Amar Shonar Bangla” was adopted as the National Anthem of Bangladesh and the National Anthem of Sri Lanka was inspired by one of his works. Childhood and Early Life Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7th May 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi in the Jorasanko mansion (the ancestral home of the Tagore family) in Calcutta. He was the youngest son among thirteen children. Though the Tagore family had many members, he was mostly raised by servants and maids, as he lost his mother while he was still very young and with his father being an extensive traveler. At a very young age, Rabindranath Tagore was part of the Bengal renaissance, which his family took active participation in. He was also a child prodigy as he started penning down poems at the age of 8. He also started composing art works at a tender age and by the age of sixteen, he had started publishing poems under the pseudonym Bhanusimha. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

136 English Literature - I He also wrote the short story, ‘Bhikharini’ in 1877 and the poem collection, ‘Sandhya Sangit’ in 1882. He drew inspiration by reading the classical poetry of Kalidasa and started coming up with classical poems of his own. Some of his other influences and inspirations came from his brothers and sisters. While Dwijendranath, his elder brother, was a poet and philosopher, Satyendranath, another brother of his, was in a highly respectable position. His sister Swarnakumari was a well- known novelist. Tagore was largely home-schooled and was trained by his siblings in the field of gymnastics, martial arts, art, anatomy, literature, history and mathematics among various other subjects. In 1873, he accompanied his father and toured the country for many months. During this journey, he accumulated knowledge on several subjects. His stay at Amritsar paved the way for him to learn about Sikhism, an experience which he would later on use to pen down as many as six poems and many articles on the religion. Education Rabindranath Tagore’s traditional education began in Brighton, East Sussex, England, at a public school. He was sent to England in the year 1878 as his father wanted him to become a barrister. He was later joined by some of his relatives like his nephew, niece and sister-in-law in order to support him during his stay in England. Rabindranath had always despised formal education and thus showed no interest in learning from his school. He was later on enrolled at the University College in London, where he was asked to learn law. But he once again dropped out and learned several works of Shakespeare on his own. After learning the essence of English, Irish and Scottish literature and music, he returned to India and married Mrinalini Devi when she was just 10 years old. Establishment of Santiniketan Rabindranath’s father had bought a huge stretch of land in Santiniketan. With an idea of establishing an experimental school in his father’s property, he shifted base to Santiniketan in 1901 and founded an ashram there. It was a prayer hall with marble flooring and was named ‘The Mandir.’ The classes there were held under trees and followed the traditional Guru-Shishya method of teaching. Rabindranath Tagore hoped that the revival of this ancient method of CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Where the Mind is Without Fear 137 teaching would prove beneficial when compared to the modernized method. Unfortunately, his wife and two of his children died during their stay in Santiniketan and this left Rabindranath distraught. In the meantime, his works started growing more and more popular amongst the Bengali as well as the foreign readers. This eventually gained him recognition all over the world and in 1913, Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming Asia’s first Nobel laureate. The World Tour Since Rabindranath Tagore believed in the concept of one world, he set out on a world tour, in an attempt to spread his ideologies. He also took along with him his translated works, which caught the attention of many legendary poets. He also lectured in countries like the United States and Japan. Soon after, Tagore found himself visiting places like Mexico, Singapore and Rome, where he met national leaders and important personalities including the likes of Einstein and Mussolini. In 1927, he embarked on a Southeast Asian tour and inspired many with his wisdom and literary works. Tagore also used this opportunity to discuss with many world leaders, the issues between Indians and the English. Though his initial aim was to put an end to nationalism, Rabindranath over a period of time realized that nationalism was mightier than his ideology, and hence developed further hatred towards it. By the end of it all, he had visited as many as thirty countries spread over five continents. Literary Works During his lifetime, Rabindranath Tagore wrote several poems, novels and short stories. Though he started writing at a very young age, his desire to produce more number of literary works only enhanced post the death of his wife and children. Some of his literary works are mentioned below:  Short stories: Tagore began to write short stories when he was only a teen. He started his writing career with “Bhikharini”. During the initial stage of his career, his stories reflected the surroundings in which he grew. He also made sure to incorporate social issues and problems of the poor man in his stories. He also wrote about the downside of Hindu marriages and several other customs that were part of the country’s tradition back CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

138 English Literature - I then. Some of his famous short stories include “Kabuliwala”, “Kshudita Pashan”, “Atottju”, “Haimanti” and “Musalmanir Golpo” among many other stories.  Novels: It is said that among his works, his novels are mostly under-appreciated. One of the reasons for this could be his unique style of narrating a story, which is still difficult to comprehend by contemporary readers, let alone the readers of his time. His works spoke about the impending dangers of nationalism among other relevant social evils. His novel “Shesher Kobita” narrated its story through poems and rhythmic passages of the main protagonist. He also gave a satirical element to it by making his characters take jibes at an outdated poet named Rabindranath Tagore! Other famous novels of his include “Noukadubi”, ‘Gora’, “Chaturanga”, “Ghare Baire” and “Jogajog”.  Poems: Rabindranath drew inspiration from ancient poets like Kabir and Ramprasad Sen and thus his poetry is often compared to the 15th and 16th Century works of classical poets. By infusing his own style of writing, he made people to take note of not only his works but also the works of ancient Indian poets. Interestingly, he penned down a poem in 1893 and addressed a future poet through his work. He urged the yet-to-be born poet to remember Tagore and his works while reading the poem. Some of his best works include “Balaka”, “Purobi”, “Sonar Tori” and “Gitanjali”. Tagore’s Stint as an Actor Tagore wrote many dramas, based on Indian mythology and contemporary social issues. He began his drama works along with his brother when he was only a teen. When he was 20 years old, he not only did pen the drama “Valmiki Pratibha”, but also played the titular character. The drama was based on the legendary dacoit Valmiki, who later reforms and pens down one of the two Indian epics – Ramayana. Tagore, the Artist Rabindranath Tagore took up drawing and painting when he was around sixty years old. His paintings were displayed at exhibitions organized throughout Europe. The style of Tagore had certain peculiarities in aesthetics and coloring schemes, which distinguished it from those of other artists. He was also influenced by the craftwork of the Malanggan people, belonging to the CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Where the Mind is Without Fear 139 northern New Ireland. He was also influenced by Haida carvings from the west coast of Canada and woodcuts by Max Pechstein. The National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi houses as many as 102 art works of Tagore. Political Views Though Tagore denounced nationalism, he also vouched for the Indian independence through some of his politically charged songs. He also supported Indian nationalists and publicly criticized European imperialism. He also criticized the education system that was forced upon India by the English. In 1915, he received knighthood from the British Crown, which he later renounced citing the massacre held at Jallianwala Bagh. He said that the knighthood meant nothing to him when the British failed to even consider his fellow Indians as humans. Adaptations of Tagore’s Works Many of his novels and short stories were made into films by the renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Other filmmakers too, over the years, have drawn inspiration from his works and have incorporated his stories into their movies. As many as 39 stories of his were made into films by various directors and a few other stories were made into TV series. Some of the recent movie adaptations include “Detective”, “Postmaster”, “Jogajog”, “Shesher Kabita” and “Tasher Desh.” Last Days and Death Rabindranath Tagore spent the last four years of his life in constant pain and was bogged down by two long bouts of illness. In 1937, he went into a comatose condition, which relapsed after a period of three years. After an extended period of suffering, Tagore died on August 7, 1941 in the same Jorasanko mansion in which he was brought up. Legacy Since Rabindranath Tagore changed the way Bengali literature was viewed, he left an everlasting impression on many. Apart from many of his busts and statues that have been erected in many countries, many yearly events pay tribute to the legendary writer. Many of his works were made international, thanks to a host of translations by many famous international writers. There are five museums dedicated to Tagore. While three of them are situated in India, the CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

140 English Literature - I remaining two are in Bangladesh. The museums house his famous works, and are visited by millions every year. Through his writings, Tagore fiercely criticizes the practices that derogate people with a tag of nationalism. His characters are depicted compactly and come across deftly to manifest the constraints and imperfections within the context of its set up. His works majorly explores the sense of humanity and empowers the ostracized sections and their rights in family and society. What Should Nationalism Do? Tagore opined that nationalism should fetch good to people. It is always possible when patriotism drives along with the national economy and spreading humanity for fellow person in society. Tagore strongly held an opinion that half of the social problems of India, could it be sectarianism, violence, hatred, religious issues, has resulted from lack of education. The impact of hegemony of nationalism and nationalistic ideology was widespread and overpowering in contemporary period when Tagore evolved as a writer. The established practice of nationalism affected Tagore intensely in a span of time. The prevailing tendency compelled him to pen down his thoughts and spread out the message of humanity over any other man made social-political institutions. The mercurial nature of Tagore visiting the several places and meeting people shaped his outlook of nationalism. Exploring to many cultures during his visits made him a fierce critic of nationalism and jingoism that polarize people and keep them in a restricted shell. Personal to Political, Political to Personal Tagore changed the trends in selecting subjects ranging from personal to political in his compositions. These changed patterns are frequently evident in his novels, stories, songs, dance- dramas, and essays. Tagore, known for his songs, had written eight novels and four novellas and many essays. His writings are reflective and forceful. Treatment of literature to empower the marginalized sections of the society is an evident characteristic of his writings. Tagore traveled numerous places across the world and his thoughts are fascinated by the world he explored. His works majorly advocate the sense of humanity and explores and empowers the ostracized sections and their rights in family and society. Being brought up in an affluent educated family, Tagore was socialized with the elite lifestyle. His early education and ambiences fundamentally CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Where the Mind is Without Fear 141 stimulated him. Tagore’s less priority to the formal classroom education, unfastened him the new horizon. His education was highly accomplished by traveling, acquaintances, and private tutors. His exposures to the different cultures, religions and classes had been immense. His recurrent visit to the different places, inside or outside India, broadened his views and made him a world citizen. He preached and practiced humanity. Though he associated himself with different cultures, it did not cease him from loving and embracing ‘others’ ideas and ideologies. Amartya Sen, emphasizing acceptance of Tagore by people of other region and religion, writes “Muslim citizens of Bangladesh (had) a deep sense of identity with Tagore and his ideas. Nor from choosing one of Tagore’s songs …Tagore’s own description of his Bengali family as the product of “a confluence of three cultures: Hindu, Mohammedan, and British”. (“Tagore and His India” 2001.) “Pacifism” Tagore, who promulgated compassion, held the outlook in inconsistency of nationalism. His traveling to the different places including UK, the US, Iraq and Iran not just brought the vicissitudes in his beliefs, it also brought him to the contacts of Romain Roland and other pacifists. In an interview with Einstein, Tagore relates human emotions and science. He while relating the human tendency of dominating others and the same phenomenon in science, he states ‘Our passions and desires are unruly…And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization?’ (Tagore, The Religion of Man, Appendix II 222-225) Binding Cultures Tagore heralded the new thinking in literature of binding cultures, communities, celebrating ideas and gulfing countries and communities. Though he denounced nationalism, he believed in the strength of the country. Just like any other common citizen of a country, he too coveted the progress and prosperity of a country. He, while on a visit to Iran in 1932, wrote “... Asia will solve its own historical problems…but the lamp they will each carry on their path to progress will converge to illuminate the common ray of knowledge.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932) CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

142 English Literature - I It is baffling in the kind of world where people are reserved by different illusions like religion, religion, caste, creed, race and communities. Amidst this Tagore was accepted by people with different practices. Deep understanding of Sanskrit and Persian helped to strengthen the root of his philosophy. This also helped to fuse the different ideas of binary opposition and learn and propagate the message of humanity. Nationalism: Gandhi vs Tagore When it comes to Nationalism, two renowned personalities, Mahatma Gandhi and Tagore,’s ideas and ideologies were compared and contrasted profoundly in India. It was Tagore who popularized the title ‘Mahatma’ that describes Gandhi, still both of them were acutely critical of many things. In one of the efforts to do so, Amartya Sen throws light upon the major belief of Tagore that can also be reflected as one of the differences that Tagore had with Gandhi pertaining to a few issues. Tagore had a broader outlook of life. Rather being a person of constrained attitude, he believed in life of reasoning. Amartya Sen, claiming the same writes, “Tagore greatly admired Gandhi but he had many disagreements …including nationalism, the role of rationality and of science, and the nature of economic and social development. These differences … with Tagore pressing for more room for reasoning, and for a less traditionalist view. (“Tagore and His India” 2001). Tagore was disenchanted about the developments in India during the Independence movement. He resented the political inefficiency to eradicate the problems of poverty and hunger in India. It exacerbated when the social conditions were fueled by different religious matters. This was perceptible during the Partition of India where hundreds of people belonging to the two major communities Hindu and Muslim were being harassed and killed. In a letter he wrote to Leonard Elmhirst in 1939, Tagore noticed the communal and sectarian violence that builds the wall between people. Tagore writes in the letter, “It does not need a defeatist to feel deeply anxious about the future of millions who…are being simultaneously subjected... To the seething discontents of communalism.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore 1932, p. 515) CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Where the Mind is Without Fear 143 On Religion Tagore’s beliefs on religion are enthralling and mystique. His thoughts were not fanatical, but he believed in god and had striking contemplations about birth and death. The essence of religiosity can be abundantly seen in his writings. Gitanjali could be an epitome of his religious beliefs where he fuses direct connections with god and freedom to attain it with pure love and joyousness. Exposure to varied sets of practices and religion could be a swaying factor that not just moulded his thoughts, but also facilitated in his writings. His beliefs are simple just like his writings where there was focus on charity, comradeship and human love, “Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship …?! He is there where the tiller is tilling …He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust”. (Tagore, Gitanjali, 2013). Being one of the highly invited recourse persons in the world, there had been many instances where Tagore not just disheartened the audience but many of them were resentful. Due to his straightforwardness and plain explanation of the ideas and things around common lifestyle, many were dismayed. Amartya Sen writes, “Some of the ideas he tried to present were directly political…People came to his public lectures …., expecting ruminations on grand, transcendental themes; when they heard instead his views on the way public leaders should behave, there was some resentment...” (Tagore and His India, 2001). Freedom Tagore had firm belief in freedom. His thoughts and his ideas wherewith were based on proper reasoning. “Gitanjali” is the best known work for demonstrating Tagore’s idea on how freedom brings light to life and empowers life, he also urges the nation to be a heaven for freedom. His reserved views on patriotism and cultures also stemmed out from the same belief. Tagore’s propagation of same view is clearly expressed in Gitanjali’s verse, ‘‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high….; ……Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” (“Tagore, Gitanjali,” 2013) Due to his steadfast view on freedom, Tagore disallowed all types of violence that would mortify civilization. He resented any of the fanatic view or irrational thinking that could CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

144 English Literature - I deliberately bring mutilation to fellow citizen. Nationalism too was not an exception. His stances against nationalism or sectarian violence in the name of religion were crystal clear. This could be possibly resulted from association of country’s past. According to Tagore blind, association of any country with its past is meaningless and treacherous. Handing over power to a person could it be higher caste person, or Brits, could welcome bad consequences. Isaiah Berlin writes, “but against cosmopolitanism …. English stood on their own feet, and so must Indians. …he denounced the danger of ‘leaving everything to the unalterable will of the Master,’ be he brahmin or Englishman.” (Berlin, 265) A Universal Citizen Many a time, it is proven that Tagore was a universal citizen. His countrymen rather live in a constrained wall of narrow-mindedness, he desired them to explore the different ways of life. Familiarization of different cultures, according to Tagore, not just benefits people to bridge a gap but also admits varied cultures and celebrate it. In Tagore’s letter to his son-in-law Nagendranath Gangulee, who went to the U.S. for further studies in 1907, he stresses the blending of cultures and tradition, “…you must know America too..., one begins to lose one’s identity and falls into the trap of becoming an Americanised person contemptuous of everything Indian.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932) In spite of the fact that Tagore was against viciousness in the name of nationalism and sectarian violence, he always loved his country. In an interview with Einstein, he hoped that country like India needs its own time and course for attaining growth, thus he stood by the opulence of the nation. The incident of Amritsar in April 13, 1919 where about 379 people were brutally massacred by British, Tagore openly writes a letter to C.F. Andrews to express his resentment. He even relieved the Knighthood to protest against 1919 incident. (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932) Tagore’s Patriotism and Nationalism Tagore had dissimilar beliefs on nationalism compared to Gandhi. Gandhi propagated Swarajya, thus influencing people to be part of Indian freedom movement. The rejection of the CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Where the Mind is Without Fear 145 West was the core of Gandhi’s ideology, whereas Tagore had the different stance. Tagore though was against British administration, he kept a safe distance from the idea of rejection of the West. This, he believed might build a wall of denunciation and abhorrence. Focusing on Indigenous could narrow down the ideas and the people in their rationale. He was afraid that rebuff of the West or grandeur of one’s own past, could result in detestation towards other religions like Christianity, Parsi, Islam, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. In 1908,in a letter replying to Abala Bose, the wife of a great Indian scientist, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Tagore writes, “Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. …and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932) Tagore stood by the patriotism that becomes ladder to the subjugated and he considers patriotism should enable the marginalized in society to progress along with the nation. Whenever Tagore pondered over such issues, he admired the great efforts of Japan, a country once admired for its true spirit for its land which decreed people of Japan to grow. The outlook of Japanese also sculpted the nation as the strongest economy. But the same admiration vanished when Tagore witnessed Japanese spirit turning into ominous for its citizens as well as for the rest of the world. Japan, a country once Tagore considered as an epitome for true patriotism, became the thing of rejection due to its blind sentiments. In a reply to a letter written to Japan domiciled Indian revolutionary, Rash Behari Bose, Tagore writes, “…that Japan’s new strength would be consecrated in safeguarding the culture of the East against alien interests. But Japan has ... has now become itself a worse menace to the defenseless peoples of the East.” (Tagore, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, 1932) Tagore opined that nationalism should fetch good to people. It is always possible when patriotism drives along with the national economy and spreading humanity for fellow persons in society. But Japan’s nationalism was questioned by Tagore when it demonstrated the vigorous role in the wars with China and its participation in World Wars. Tagore intensely believed that the CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)