On His Blindness

The sonnet “On His Blindness” is perhaps one of the best and most popular of Milton’s sonnets. It is indeed a pearl in the ocean of English literature. It is a great sonnet of lofty tone and noble theme. It was written in 1655. Strength of mind, power of will and determination, patience; all these traits stood him in good stead when blindness slowly came over his.What made him so sad was that the gist of poetry which had been given to him could not be used to advantage when he was suffering from blindness.

"On His Blindness" is a Petrarchan sonnet, a lyric poem with fourteen lines God judges humans on whether they labor for Him to the best of their ability. For example, if one carpenter can make only two chairs a day and another carpenter can make five, they both serve God equally well if the first carpenter makes his two chairs and the second makes his five. If one carpenter becomes severely disabled and cannot make even a single chair, he remains worthy in the sight of God. For, as Milton says in the last line of the poem, "they also serve who only stand and wait."

Here Milton bows down in humble submission to the will of God. The tone of patience and humility has perfectly mingled with that of great dignity. The poem is a human document, a revelation of the struggle in Milton’s own soul. It starts with a note of regret. Then there is a mood of doubt and questioning which however melts in the final attitude of complete resignation. The beauty and exaltation of moral feeling raise the poem to a great height. The poem is full of allusions to the bible.

The extreme simplicity of the language is its peculiar attractive. Two lines are wholly, several others are nearly, monosyllabic. It is a sonnet of Petrarchan type. But there is no division between the octave and the sestet-which is the characteristic of Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. There is a break in the middle of the eighth line.The poet’s subsequent submission charms the readers. The monologue is simply fascinating. The league used is both easy and catchy. The metre, note and cadence is perfect.

Daffodils

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads. One day poet was walking near a lake suddenly he saw a large number of daffodils. They were moving their heads gently in the cool breeze. The waves of the lake were also dancing. But the dance of flowers surpassed the shining waves. The poet was over joyed and kept on looking at them but could not guess how rich he had grown a their sight. Since then his lonely hours are filled with joy at the mere recollection of these flowers.

The poet says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive,” the memory flashes upon “that inward eye  That is the bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the daffodils.”

This simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon, revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, this time with a particularly spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet’s wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely,bored,or restless.The characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory—the daffodils “flash upon the inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude”—is psychologically acute, but the poem’s main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas. The speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud and the daffodils are continually personified as human beings, dancing and “tossing their heads” in “a crowd, a host.” This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of Wordsworth’s most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing.Throughout Wordsworth’s work, nature provides the ultimate good influence on the human mind. All manifestations of the natural world—from the highest mountain to the simplest flower—elicit noble, elevated thoughts and passionate emotions in the people who observe these manifestations. Wordsworth repeatedly emphasizes the importance of nature to an individual’s intellectual and spiritual development. A good relationship with nature helps individuals connect to both the spiritual and the social worlds. Wordsworth praised the power of the human mind. Using memory and imagination, individuals could overcome difficulty and pain. The transformative powers of the mind are available to all, regardless of an individual’s class or background. This democratic view emphasizes individuality and uniqueness. Throughout his work, Wordsworth showed strong support for the political, religious, and artistic rights of the individual, including the power of his or her mind. Throughout his poems, Wordsworth fixates on vision and sight as the vehicles through which individuals are transformed. Memory allows Wordsworth’s speakers to overcome the harshness of the contemporary world.

Intimations of Immortality

In Wordsworth’s poetry, childhood is a magical, magnificent time of innocence. Children form an intense bond with nature, so much so that they appear to be a part of the natural world, rather than a part of the human, social world. Their relationship to nature is passionate and extreme: children feel joy at seeing a rainbow but great terror at seeing desolation or decay. The speaker in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” believes that children delight in nature because they have access to a divine, immortal world. As children age and reach maturity, they lose this connection but gain an ability to feel emotions, both good and bad. Through the power of the human mind, particularly memory, adults can recollect the devoted connection to nature of their youth. Memory allows Wordsworth’s speakers to overcome the harshness of the contemporary world. Recollecting their childhoods gives adults a chance to reconnect with the visionary power and intense relationship they had with nature as children. In turn, these memories encourage adults to re-cultivate as close a relationship with nature as possible as an antidote to sadness, loneliness, and despair.

The speaker begins by declaring that there was a time when nature seemed mystical to him, like a dream, "Apparelled in celestial light." But now all of that is gone. No matter what he does, "The things which I have seen I now can see no more."

In the second stanza the speaker says that even though he can still see the rainbow, the rose, the moon, and the sun, and even though they are still beautiful, something is different .Something has been lost. But yet I know, where'er I go,  That there hath past away a glory from the earth." The speaker is saddened by the birds singing and the lambs jumping

In the third stanza. Soon, however, he resolves not to be depressed, because it will only put a damper on the beauty of the season. He declares that all of the earth is happy, and exhorts the shepherd boy to shout.

 In the fourth stanza the speaker continues to be a part of the joy of the season, saying that it would be wrong to be "sullen . While Earth herself in adorning,  And the Children are culling  On every side, In a thousand valleys far and wide." However, when he sees a tree, a field, and later a pansy at his feet, they again give him a strong feeling that something is amiss. He asks, "Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream?"

The fifth stanza contains arguably the most famous line of the poem: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." He goes on to say that as infants we have some memory of heaven, but as we grow we lose that connection: "Heaven lies about us in our infancy!" As children this connection with heaven causes us to experience nature's glory more clearly. Once we are grown, the connection is lost.

 In the sixth stanza, the speaker says that as soon as we get to earth, everything conspires to help us forget the place we came from: heaven. "Forget the glories he hath known, and that imperial palace whence he came."

In the seventh stanza the speaker sees (or imagines) a six-year-old boy, and foresees the rest of his life. He says that the child will learn from his experiences, but that he will spend most of his effort on imitation: "And with new joy and pride  The little Actor cons another part." It seems to the speaker that his whole life will essentially be "endless imitation."

 In the eighth stanza the speaker speaks directly to the child, calling him a philosopher. The speaker cannot understand why the child, who is so close to heaven in his youth, would rush to grow into an adult. He asks him, "Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke  The years to bring the inevitable yoke,  Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?"

In the ninth stanza (which is the longest at 38 lines) the speaker experiences a flood of joy when he realizes that through memory he will always be able to connect to his childhood, and through his childhood to nature

In the tenth stanza the speaker harkens back to the beginning of the poem, asking the same creatures that earlier made him sad with their sounds to sing out: "Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!" Even though he admits that he has lost some of the glory of nature as he has grown out of childhood, he is comforted by the knowledge that he can rely on his memory.

 In the final stanza the speaker says that nature is still the stem of everything is his life, bringing him insight, fueling his memories and his belief that his soul is immortal: "To me the meanest flower that blows can give  Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

The structure of the Immortality Ode is also unique in Wordsworth’s work; unlike his characteristically fluid, naturally spoken monologues, the Ode is written in a lilting, songlike cadence with frequent shifts in rhyme scheme and rhythm. Further, rather than progressively exploring a single idea from start to finish, the Ode jumps from idea to idea, always sticking close to the central scene, but frequently making surprising moves, as when the speaker begins to address the “Mighty Prophet” in the eighth stanza—only to reveal midway through his address that the mighty prophet is a six-year-old boy.

"Ode; Intimations of Immortality" is a long and rather complicated poem about Wordsworth's connection to nature and his struggle to understand humanity's failure to recognize the value of the natural world. The poem is elegiac in that it is about the regret of loss. Wordsworth is saddened by the fact that time has stripped away much of nature's glory, depriving him of the wild spontaneity he exhibited as a child

Saki's The Open Window

Saki's short story "The Open Window" is the story of a practical joke. Saki's work is an examination of the conflict between what the central character knows to be true (reality) and what he believes (imagination). Saki suggests that it is difficult to determine the difference between the two. It is Mr. Nuttel who falls for the practical joke, and also the reader. The story begins with Framton Nuttel coming to the Sappleton house; he needs to rest his nerves. His sister, who thinks he should socialise while he is there, has given him letters of introduction to families in the neighbourhood who she got to know when she was staying there a few years previously.Framton goes to visit a Mrs Stapleton, and while he is waiting for her to come down, he is entertained by her fifteen-year-old niece. The niece tells him that the French window is kept open, even though it is October, because her aunt's husband and her brothers were killed in a shooting accident three years ago, and Mrs Stapleton believes they will come back one day.

When Mrs Stapleton comes down she talks about her husband and brothers, and how they are going to come back from the shooting soon, and Frampton, believing she is derranged, tries to get her to distract her by talking about his health. Then, to his horror, Mrs Stapleton points out that her husband and brothers are coming, and he sees them walking towards the window, with their dog. He thinks he is seeing ghosts, and runs away. Mrs Stapleton can't understand why he has run away, and when her husband and brothers (who of course are not ghosts) come in, she tells them about the odd young man who has just left. The niece explains that Frampton Nuttal ran away because of the spaniel, he is afraid of dogs since being hunted by a pack of pariah dogs in India. The niece enjoys making up stories about people.

Themes:

Vera tells a very convincing story to Mr. Frampton Nuttel, she is so authentic in her description that his frame of reality about the family is created through her story. The point of this theme is that what Vera fabricates becomes his belief. Frampton Nuttel expected to see three ghosts come through the window, so when he saw the men coming towards the house, he could not get out of there fast enough.

Vera obviously deceives Frampton Nuttel when she tells him tall tale about her aunt who waits for the return of the hunting party lost in the marsh. She shows how her sweet and innocent nature is but she is actually a mischievous and slightly cruel character. Her imagination is brilliant and overpowering that everyone is tricked by her tall tale. Her quick thinking attitude.  Horror stories at short notice were her speciality. She is aided by her imagination to create the disturbing story to Mr. Nuttel. She also deceives Mrs. Sappleton by telling her the reason why Mr. Nuttel runs away when the hunting party comes back.

The author deliberately tries to confuse the readers into thinking that Mrs. Sappletonâs husband and children are ghosts. This adds mystery to the story as the readers attempt to find out what really happened in the story. Also, I think it explores how the correct use of foreshadowing techniques can make a story suspenseful and really believable.The most important symbol in âThe Open Windowâ is the open window itself. When Mrs. Sappletonâs niece tells Mr. Nuttel the story of the lost hunters, the open window comes to symbolize Mrs. Sappletonâs pain and heartbreak at the loss of her husband and younger brother and is a representation of the tragedy. When the truth is later revealed, the open window

"The Face of Judas Iscariot by Bonnie Chamberlain,

"The Face of Judas Iscariot" by Bonnie Chamberlain, is a story narrated to the author by an old prist. It is a story about humanity. Many centuries ago, a great  painter was asked to paint a mural for a Cathedral in a Sicilian town. The subject was the Life of Christ. The artist worked hard for many years. The painting was almost complete except for the two most important figures- the figures of the Christ Child and Judas Iscariot. He searched far and wide for people who could be models for these two figures. he began to search for a representative model of each. For Jesus, he naturally wanted to find a model that presented a very innocent and merciful image. He spent considerable time search-ing for a model for Jesus and finally found the innocence and peace he wanted to capture on the face of a boy that was playing at a nearby river bank .Although the boy's face was dirty, it was the face of an angel.

The artist now needed a model for the portrait of Judas. He was very worried that he would die before he completed his masterpiece.     He continued his search but he could not find anyone who fitted his imagination of Judas. . However, he could not easily find a representative model for Judah Iscariot. He was searching for a model that portrayed insincerity, vulgarity, and cruelty on a single face. The story of the incomplete masterpiece spread far and wide. Many men who believed that their appearance was wicked came forward to be models. But the artist was not satisfied. He wanted his judas to be a man whose life had been destroyed by greed and just.

One afternoon when the artist was at the tavern, he found his model. A lean, wretched- looking man staggered in, begging for wine. The man's face seemed to bear the mark of every sin known to mankind.     The artist was thrilled at having found his model. He inquired about him and discovered that he was both a thief and a murderer. He asked for the cooperation of a corrections officer in order to get this criminal to be a model for his painting. Eventually the artist was able to create the desired image of Judas Iscariot by using the prisoner as his model. He worked at great speed to complete his painting. As the work progressed, a change came over the model. The dazed, lazy look on his face was replaced with a strange tension. He was horrified to look at the evil in the face that was being painted. The painter wept bitterly and finally said that several years ago he had been the model for the Christ Child. Now he was the model for Judas also!

 It was indeed ironic that a man who as a child had the face of an angel, now has a face that was completely evil. The suggestion is that man is born innocent. But slowly he becomes wicked and losses his innocence. This is a story about all of us.