An Essay on dramatic poesy 

Essay of Dramatic Poesie is a work by John Dryden, England's first Poet Laureate, in which Dryden attempts to justify drama as a legitimate form of "poetry" comparable to the epic, as well as defend English drama against that of the ancients and the French. 

It has written during the plague year of 1666, and first published in 1668. In presenting his argument, Dryden takes up the subject that Philip Sidney had set forth in his Defence of Poesie in 1580.

The treatise is a dialogue among four speakers: Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius, and Neander. The four speakers are Sir Robert Howard [Crites], Charles Sackville (then Lord Buckhurst) [Eugenius], Sir Charles Sedley [Lisedeius], and Dryden himself (neander means "new man" and implies that Dryden, as a respected member of the gentry class, is entitled to join in this dialogue on an equal footing with the three older men who are his social superiors).

On the day that the English fleet encounters the Dutch at sea near the mouth of the Thames, the four friends take a barge downriver towards the noise from the battle. Rightly concluding, as the noise subsides, that the English have triumphed, they order the bargeman to row them back upriver as they begin a dialogue on the advances made by modern civilization. They agree to measure progress by comparing ancient arts with modern, focusing specifically on the art of drama (or "dramatic poesy").

The four men debate a series of three topics: 

(1) the relative merit of classical drama (upheld by Crites) vs. modern drama (championed by Eugenius);

 (2) whether French drama, as Lisideius maintains, is better than English drama (supported by Neander, who famously calls Shakespeare "the greatest soul, ancient or modern");

 and (3) whether plays in rhyme are an improvement upon blank verse drama—a proposition that Neander, despite having defended the Elizabethans, now advances against the sceptical Crites (who also switches from his original position and defends the blank verse tradition of Elizabethan drama). 

Invoking the so-called unities from Aristotle's Poetics (as interpreted by Italian and refined by French scholars over the last century), the four speakers discuss what makes a play "a just and lively imitation" of human nature in action. This definition of a play, supplied by Lisideius/Sedley (whose rhymed plays had dazzled the court and were a model for the new drama), gives the debaters a versatile and richly ambiguous touchstone. To Crites' argument that the plots of classical drama are more "just," Eugenius can retort that modern plots are more "lively" thanks to their variety. Lisideius shows that the French plots carefully preserve Aristotle's unities of action, place, and time; Neander replies that English dramatists such as Ben Jonson also kept the unities when they wanted to, but that they preferred to develop character and motive. Even Neander's final argument with Crites over whether rhyme is suitable in drama depends on Aristotle's Poetics: Neander says that Aristotle demands a verbally artful ("lively") imitation of nature, while Crites thinks that dramatic imitation ceases to be "just" when it departs from ordinary speech—i.e. prose or blank verse.

A year later, the two brothers-in-law quarrelled publicly over this third topic. In Dryden's "Defence of An Essay of Dramatic Poesy" (1669),where Dryden tries to persuade the rather literal-minded Howard that audiences expect a play to be an imitation of nature, not a surrogate for nature itself.

Wordsworth's preface to lyrical ballads

Bridge Course:- 

Wordsworth's Preface

William Wordsworth born on 7th April 1770, Cockermouth, Cumberland, England and died on 23rd April 1850, Rydal Mount, Westmoreland. He was the second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson. Wordsworth's father was a legal representative of James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale. He is one of the pioneers in beginning the romantic moment with Samuel Tyler Coleridge (1772-1834). Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on 23 April 1850. The Monarch of that time was Queen Victoria. He was Preceded by Robert Southey and Succeeded by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Mary Hutchinson was considered as his wife. He has one girl child named Dorothy "Dora" Wordsworth. 

His major works are as following :- 

Lyrical Ballads (1798)

The Prelude(1850)

The Excursion (1814)

Michael (1800)

The Lucy Poem (1798)

Ode on the intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood(1807)

Sonnets by William Wordsworth (1838)

Here is a video on William Wordsworth, maybe it helps you to understand him more clearly.

1 - WHAT IS POETRY?

"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."

- William Wordsworth 

That means one cannot plan a poem, it comes naturally with overflowing powerful feelings. According to Wordsworth, there are four stages in the creation of poetry of a true poet:-

Observation

Recollection

Contemplation

Creation

The poetry which has all this stages perfectly it gives immense joy to the poet and he shares it with his readers. Blake, he also reject aristotelian doctrines of poetry by saying that plot, or situation, is not the first thing but it is this strong feeling that matters.

WORDSWORTH'S POETIC THEORY :-

Wordsworth was profoundly influenced by the French Revolution it's slogan 'Liberty, equality, and fraternity.' The three magic terms were one of the triggers for Wordsworth to break away from the rule bound poetry of the previous Neo-classical age into a whole new poetic theory of 'inner evidence of sensation and spontaneous feeling.'

Found the need of writing the preface in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads to respond to the question raised to his advent of a new type of poetry. which is preface he has put for his point of you and remove the bitter criticism of his poems. Secondly, he made readers aware about the different type of poetry he had composed to make them understand his poetry. Lastly, he wanted to re-establish Shakespeare in Milton over 'frantic novels, sickly and stupid German tragedies, and flood of idle and extravagant stories in verse'. 

2 - WHY DOES WORDSWORTH SAY 'WHAT' IS POET? RATHER THAN WHO IS POET?

Wordsworth gives a voluminous explanation on the meaning of the word 'poet' and 'what is poet?' rather than 'who is poet?' he says a poet is a man speaking to man, affluent with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and delicacy, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, who knows how other man are feeling, who knows how my writing affect them, and a more capacious soul. Who deeply knows and who rejoices, more than other men in the spirit of life, habitually urged to create volition, passion and situations where he does not find them. 

William Wordsworth speak about it in preface of Lyrical Ballads that,

"He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them."

R.A. Scott-James calls it 'The Summum Bonum of the poet's life'. 

Through this lines Wordsworth gave his point of view that poet should be one who know to write on that Something comes from the heart. The general people don't have that sense and inner understanding. A poet is more happy and delightful than the ordinary person. And he should know to make how to make volition where he does not find it. He should please with his own passion. And most importantly he should have the great knowledge of human nature and personality that how my writing affect everyone. 

Here is a video on this topic coverd by Professor Dilip Barad and Dr. Sanjay. 

3 - WHAT IS POETIC DICTION? WHICH SORT OF POETIC DICTION IS SUGGESTED BY WORDSWORTH IN HIS PREFACE? 

In his works Preface to Lyrical Ballads an essay, he addresses his point of view and meaning of poetic diction. 

If we look at the dictionary meaning of poetic diction it simply means 'choice of words' which used as a style by or in the particular poet and poem. Here Wordsworth, poetic diction means, 'a selection of language really used by men' specially man of 'humble and rustic life' to make the poetry more interesting, popular among common readers and to give poetic pleasure to all. He avoids poetic diction of the previous age, he doesn't support the idea of using artificial metaphors and other figure of speech or any other device to decorate the poem or to make the style higher. 

Wordsworth also described that there is no difference between language of prose and poetry. The arrangement or order of words used in the best poetry can also be found in the prose. Only the use of metre can differentiate the difference between the poetry and prose. According to him, readers can easily follow the rules of metre. It does not make any interference with the passion of readers. 

4 - I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

The poem I wondered lonely as a cloud also know as Daffodils. The poem does describe the beauty and power of the flowers. Daffodils ultimately turns out to be a beautiful, dramatic lyric on the poets spiritual conversation in the company of nature. Daffodils based on a real life experience of the poet and his sister Dorothy helps him to write it. This poem was composed in 1807.

The poet narrates his experience when he used to wander as a cloud on the highest pick of hills and vales. During his wandering he happened to see a lot of yellow flowers which tall stems and long narrow leaves. They were Daffodils. There were spread around lake, beneath the trees. When he saw the Daffodils he feels like Daffodils are dancing with the breeze. It also shows that daffodils enriches the beauty of nature. Than Wordsworth compared daffodils with shining star. In a milky way there are thousands of stars like that there were large number of Daffodils. The Daffodils were becoming more and more beautiful and shining brightly with flashes of light. 

In last the poet says his personal experience. When he is alone lying in his sofa and having serious mood, suddenly he thinks of his past experience of looking Daffodils. This experience gives him a lot of pressure, bliss and happiness. He immediately forgets that he is alone and having serious mood. And that's how he tells us that only nature has that capacity to convert human being from unhappiness to highest bliss. 

Through this poem and brief introduction of the poem that what in this poem and how it came to existence clearly shows the poetic creed of Wordsworth. His belief that poetry must be with full of emotions and spontaneity. He described his highest emotions in this poem. 

Post truth era

Post-truth is a term that refers to the 21st century widespread documentation of and concern about disputes over public truth claims. The term's academic development refers to the theories and research that explain the historically specific causes and the effects of the phenomenon.

While the term was used academically and publicly before 2016 (post-truth politics).

The news which newspapers and  social media all are spreading can be wrong they are spreading it for their use and foolish people continues to spread it forward without any concern.

 

Some people will tell that nothing is true in the world but truth Exists only falsehood has to be invented.

 For that context we do need to think by our own proper way rather than any other person or fake resources.It may happen that the person himself was unaware about the lie he has spoken It is good to check the information which is correct.

Theme of ambition in the play Mackbeth

 Theme of ambition :

                Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare.Central theme of this play is ambition,

Many people or research scholars may consider lady Macbeth as forth witch,but here one thing should be noticed that... everyone is having ambitions in their mind, consciously or unconsciously here three witches awakens desire for becoming the king in the mind of Mackbeth.

No one can change the perspective of another person, after his will was awakened by witches, and after getting little progress his ambition grew up more.

When the thing is about ambition,we should not forget about the ambition of lady Macbeth for that she was also willing to become the queen.

Thing is that Lady Macbeth is having a strong will power than her husband Mackbeth and was also able to make her desire true by any way,that virtues were bounding Mackbeth to not kill the king and lady Macbeth was watching her father in the face of the king so she was having soft corner only for her father.

If we take ambition as ambition that Mackbeth had been made a to do list but he was waiting for someone to encourage him.

 

At the second point as we all are human beings and if we think about King Duncan he never hurts Mackbeth in the play  also  was having more trust on Mackbeth there was no need to kill the king because he was having good post in the army of king Duncan.

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spencer : 

We are having Elizabethan Age in our syllabus and Dilip Barad sir had given a task to write a blog on it and I have selected Edmund Spencer for writing my blog

Edmund Spenser :

Edmund Spencer is a famous name in English literature because Spenser was being called as 'Poet's poet' by Charles Lamb in his essay.Spencer introduced his own style of writing which many poets have followed that is why he is known as poet's poet.

 

 Biography of Spencer: Spenser's early life and parentage we know little, except that he was born in East Smithfield, near the Tower of London, and was poor. His education began at the Merchant Tailors' School in London and was continued in Cambridge, where as a poor sizar and fag for wealthy students he earned a scant living.

Here in the glorious world that only a poor scholar knows how to create for himself he read the classics, made acquaintance with the great Italian poets, and wrote countless little poems of his own. Upon his friend Harvey's advice he caxme to London, bringing his poems;and here he met Leicester, then at the height of royal favor, and the latter took him to live at Leicester House.Although Chaucer was his beloved master, his ambition was not to rival the Canterbury Tales, but rather to express the dream of English chivalry, much as Aristo had done for Italy in Orlando Furious to fall in love and to record his melancholy over the lost Rosalind in the Shepherd's Calendar.Here he finished the Shepherd's Calendar, and here he met Sidney and all the queen's favorites. Here is an introduction of Edmund Spencer in this link.

https://youtu.be/kQCD-x4tJGc

In 1580, through Leicester's influence, Spenser, who was utterly tired of his dependent position, was made secretary to Lord Grey, the queen's deputy in Ireland, and the third period of his life began. He accompanied his chief through one campaign of savage brutality in putting down an Irish rebellion, and was given an immense estate with the castle of Kilcolman, in  Munster, which had been confused chatted from Earl Desmond, one of the Irish leaders. His life here, where according to the terms of his grant he must reside as an English settler, he regarded as lonely exile.

That banished had myself, like wight forlore, Into that waste, where William J long was quite forgotten

Spenser's Works :

The Faery Queen is the great work upon which the poet's fame chiefly rests.The original plan of the poem included twenty-four books, each of which was to recount the adventure and triumph of a knight who represented a moral virtue. Spenser's purpose, as indicated in a letter to Raleigh which introduces the poem, is as follows:

To portrait in Arthur, before he was king, the image of a brave Knight, perfected in the twelve private Morall Virtues, as Aristotle hath devised; which is the purpose of these first twelve bookes: which if I finde to be well accepted, I may be perhaps encouraged to frame the other 1 part of Political Virtues in his person, after that he came to be king.

Each of the Virtues appears as a knight, fighting his opposite vice, and the poem tells the story of the conflicts. It is therefore purely allegorical, not only in its personified virtues but also in its representation of life as a struggle between good and evil. In its strong moral element the poem differs radically from Orlando Furioso, upon which it was modelled.

 

Spenser completed only six books, celebrating Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy. We have also a fragment of the seventh, treating of Constancy; but the rest of this book was not written, or else was lost in the fire at Kilcolman. The first three books are by far the best;and judging by the way the interest lags and the allegory grows incomprehensible, it is perhaps as well for Spenser's reputation that the other eighteen books remained a dream.

Importance of the Shepherd's Calendar :  

The publication of this work, in 1579, by an unknown writer who signed himself modestly "Immerito," marks an important epoch in our literature. We shall appreciate this better if we remember the long years during which England had been without a great poet. Chaucer and Spenser are often studied together as poets of the Renaissance period, and the idea prevails that they were almost contemporary. In fact, nearly two centuries passed after Chaucer's death, years of enormous political and intellectual development, and not only did Chaucer have no successor but our language had changed so rapidly that Englishmen had lost the ability to read his lines correctly.!

This first published work of Spenser is noteworthy in at least four respects :

 First, it marks the appearance of the first national poet in two centuries; second, it shows again the variety and melody of English verse, which had been largely a tradition since Chaucer; third, it was our first pastoral, the beginning of a long series of English pastoral compositions modelled on Spenser, and as such exerted a strong influence on subsequent literature; and fourth, it marks the real beginning of the outburst of great Elizabethan poetry. 

 In this below link there is an introduction of Edmund Spencer 

https://youtu.be/Om-siupeY7Q 

It is Spenser's idealism, his love of beauty, and his ex quisite melody which have caused him to be known as "the poets' poet." Nearly all our subsequent singers acknowledge their delight in him and their indebtedness. Macaulay alone among critics voices a fault which all who are not poets quickly feel, namely that, with all Spenser's excellences, he is difficult to read. The modern man loses himself in the con fused allegory of the Faery Queen, skips all but the marked passages, and softly closes the book in gentle weariness. Even the best of his longer poems, while of exquisite workmanship and delightfully melodious, generally fail to hold the reader's attention. The movement is languid; There is little dramatic interest,The very melody of his verses sometimes grows monotonous, like a Strauss waltz too long continued. We shall best appreciate Spenser by reading at first only a few well-chosen selections from the Faery Queen and the Shepherd's Calendar, and a few of the minor poems which exemplify h dreadful melody. At the outset.

        

  

life of pi

Life of pi is a novel by Yann Martel 

Life of pi is also an adopted movie directed by Ang Lee.

There is a protagonist named 'Piscine Molitor' who named himself as Pi Patel when he was a child he learned from his father that Animals are Animals he should not be in infancy that they are your friend, they can make you their food.

Pi was believing in many religions, his father was not that much religious like him and the root of his religious thinking was coming from his mother with the myths of Lord Vishnu.

By the storm in the sea, Pi lost his family and was having some animals only because of hunger animals eat each other and Richard Parker (A Bengal tiger remains with Pi) 

After survival two journalists asked to Pi about his journey and he told what was actually there but it was not believable to other person except Pi then,

 Pi supplies this alternative version of his journey, that aboard the lifeboat with him were his mother, the French cook from the ship, and a crewman. The crewman had a badly broken leg and the cook insisted on amputating it, gaining the cooperation of both Pi and Pi's mother. After the amputation, the crewman died a slow and painful death. Then the cook revealed that the only reason he amputated the leg was to use it for bait. Pi's mother, outraged and sickened by the act, railed against the cook, especially when he began to eat the crewman, which Pi insists neither he nor his mother took part in. Pi's mother and the cook quarreled, but they eventually became relatively civil shipmates. The turning point came when a turtle escaped capture and the cook hit Pi. Pi's mother then became violent towards the cook and directed Pi to leave the lifeboat for a raft that was tethered to the lifeboat. Pi watched as the cook decapitated his mother and threw the severed head to Pi on the raft. In the end, Pi stabbed the cook to death.

Two things are much significant here in the movie:

                                                                

1. The tiger and 

 2. Island.

Significance of the tiger: In our world, there are many things that man cannot believe and if one is believing others will tell him that it is very dangerous.

 Here in the novel tiger can be considered as God that even if you are having faith for the God simply, your society would teach you to keep fear of God.

Another is science that who is having less knowledge of science will tell you to stay away from it.

- About the matter of science and religion you have to discover your own knowledge and after having true knowledge we would have no need to be afraid of them as Pi deals with Richard Parker in the novel.

Significance of an Island : 

Island is a symbol of things which are coming without any affords. There is one sentence by Gujarati poet Kalapi,  "પોષતું તે મારતું, શું એ ક્રમ નથી કુદરતી?" that means anything which is coming without any afford will take itself away one day.

A tale of a tub

Today I told everything to his father !

Today I told everything to his father !

I told everything to his father today !

That is trapping my people...

His father is living in my neighborhood,

Where life's entire truth lies.

Tell me one thing uncle...

If you are that much simple,

Why don't you tell anything to your son ?

Is he totally different than you ?

O...for your sake please say " no"

Why he is following every of his friends?

My people were hungry and tired...

Though they were dancing and singing infront of your son !

If he would sing or dance with them,

I might have no problem.

He was there only by video calling

And our fortune, network never came !

His father told...

Enjoy parties without opening your eyes,

My son is very busy that " He will never attend his parties".

 - Vaishnavi  

Frankenstein

We are having Frankenstein by Marry Shelley in our syllabus of M.A with English literature and language.

Victor Frankenstein is a central character in this novel.

As every child loves his or her mother victor was also the same but he lost his mother while giving birth to a baby and he was having much interest in biology,the branch of science  and he decided that no one should die and started working on it.

                 That thing was illigal to do that kind of experiment though he done it with the help of his professor and at last he becomes successful but his creation was much ugly than he thought of including Victor no one of the society was there to accept his creation.

Because of his diformity de formility that creature suffered a lot, everyone judged him on the basis of his outer look.After observing society that how everyone is living their lives he went to the forest because society hurted him a lot.In a forest there was one family and with observing that family and their conversation on the Bible he learns to communicate.

              One thing is that, creature helped that family in farming and when no one was there in the house he entered one blind,old man was there and he behave in a a good way with creature, it's much significant here that creature was a dream for Victor though he didn't accept him and old man accepted him without seeing him.

As a part of society ae have many people who are different than others in some ways, rather than supporting everyone hurts them,even it the person is blind he will get blind life partner definitely doesn't matter how much different they are by mind.

 There is one lady named Parul she is not having her hands from knee and leg also still she is able to write and having good handwriting than a person who is having hands she can cook without any help of any device or person every household work and even in study she is doing better than all of us so can we judge her because she is not having hands ?

Always there is one villain in everything : Narrow mindness,not society or any person is bad but their way of behaving matters only. 

The rape of the lock

Hello everyone !

The rape of the lock is mock heroic narrative poem by Alexander Pope and as a student of literature we should do critical analysis of the poem.As our Vaidehi madam have been assigned us to write about it, if you are having any suggestions then I am waiting for concern product of mind 😅.

    I think Clarissa is the protagonist Character of this poem,of course it's have Belinda in the centre bt to me a woman who had concern only on her hair nd silly enjoyment, can't be protagonist.

There is one cruel side of Clarissa that she gave scissors to cut Belinda's lock of hair but one should not hurt others who are not having proper knowledge, there are many other ways to make them realise.

There are many concepts of the beauty in our earth ! 

In one movie "Hasi to phasi" female protagonist is having lots of skills but her uncle never accepted her because she was not having beautiful hair and manners of cultured girl in his eyes.

Man protagonist realised that real concept of beauty but unfortunately in life there are very less people are there to understand and apply !

Atleast in that particular movie female protagonist was that much lucky that no one was expecting social behaviour from her that she has to be married,in another movie "Miss India" female protagonist is so called beautiful fortunately and was having a great passion towards her goal of business but everyone was expecting her to be marry she has to leave her home for her goal of life still many girls are suffering from this so called concept of the beauty.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342170659_Women_and_Empire_in_Alexander_Pope's_The_Rape_of_the_Lock_A_rereading

There is one article on the rape of lock in the concept of women and empire where there is one statment for women which I liked more is"Innocent, beautiful and silly"

If women have respact for herself than they have to understand that they can be everything they want rather than innocent, beautiful and silly.

That's all I mean thank you for your beautiful visit 😊

Sheetala Saatam

 Sheetala Saatam: As a part of study students who are pursuing MA with English literature have to study one satirical text by Dryden ' A tale of a tub'   with the reference of that text our Ma'am has assigned one task to us. That when we were studying our famous festival of Sheetala Saatam was coming and as 'A tale of a tub' is religious satire we have to make analysis of our festival and of course we should always have a look at our life that practices we are following are really useful or not.    https://www.timesnownews.com/spiritual/religion/article/shitala-satam-today-all-youneed-to-know-about-thisfestival/805033 

That is the link of introduction about sheetala Saatam that why it's celebrated.

That is the image of maata Shitala which is created by so called religious people. It's okay if it was only fiction that literature have but the dangerous thing is that people have been made it reality.

That is another thing that will make everyone laugh. This all things are not as much useful then why one should practice it to waste their time?

Everytime when one speaks in a way or questions it like Socrates made croud will repeat the same history.That the person is not having faith on religion but the thing is that people are not able to accept that the stories of religion are nothing more than fiction and they are trying to make it real.

Every religious practice is the same that if people are not obeying fake stories give them fear as the punishment.When co incidence happens they will never forget to connect it.As we have references of literature in one novel by Pannalal Patel "maanavi ni bhavai" The mother of the protagonist Character is widow and her son Kalu was child to handle the bullock and she when she was farming people of the village gathered and started to talking that now this woman has touched work of man rain will not come and instead of helping her they gave an amazing idea that if that lady will be killed then the rain will come otherwise not and were going to kill her but fortunately at the last moment, rain comes.

That good thing can not be in the reality and many people have to suffer there are many rituals which are totally useless but still we are practicing them with fear.

One mad person said that people will follow good manners only by fear otherwise not,fictions have been started to turn real and fakeness never stopped to spread that's all I wanted to tell 

Thank you for visiting.