English Notes

“The Altar” is an example of a shape poem, a poem whose lines are arranged in the shape of their subject matter. The lines of “The Altar” are shaped like an altar. Pretty cool, huh? This kind of verse is also sometimes called visual poetry. Let me stop now and clarify that visual poetry (the good kind, anyway) is not made simply by randomly chopping up lines anywhere so that they can be put into a certain shape. Not at all. The skill required to make a shape poem will be heard by the ear when reading it, not merely seen on the page. To see (or rather hear) what I mean, for those listening to the audio, listen as I read it now. You can hear the lengthening, shortening, lengthening lines pile up on one another and into a tall structure with a broad face and equally broad base--held together by a slender, sturdy post. Both effect is achieved by the varying number of poetic feet in each couplet. The rhythm for each line is iambic, but the meter changes throughout. The couplets follow this ...

इस भव्य आभार के लिए आपका बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद। अकादमिक रिकॉर्ड के इस सम्मेलन में मेरी निरंतरता और ईमानदारी के लिए आपने मुझे यह बहुमूल्य उपहार दिया है। इस सम्मान के लिए मैं एक बार फिर अपने पूरे दिल से आपको और आपके इस संस्था के सभी सदस्यों को धन्यवाद देता हूँ। यह मेरे लिए वास्तव में अमूल्य है... उपहार के रूप में दिए गए किसी भी सम्मान की कोई कीमत नहीं होती। आपका यह साकारात्मक पहल शिक्षक और शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में एक प्रसंशनीय प्रयास है।

‘The Flower’ by George Herbert describes how the changing of the seasons impacts a speaker’s outlook on life and relationship with God. The poem begins with the speaker celebrating the arrival of spring. This is something, he relishes every year as it brings about a great mental and emotional transformation during present starta. During the winter months, like a flower, he is shriveled up in the ground finding comfort where he can. When spring comes, life improving and God’s opinion of the world improves, he grows up towards heaven. This is his most important goal in life, to prove himself to God. The speaker imagines what it will be like in heaven and knows that he would do anything to get there. He doesn’t imagine there could be anyone of the planet feeling any differently than he. He did so what he wanted in his life to prove himself as a super thought. 

It’ is a poem written by English metaphysical poet John Donne . It is published in 1633, the poem is viewed as exemplifying Donne’s wit and ironical approach. It is addressed to one friend from another, but concerns itself with the complexities of romantic love: the speaker presents love as so all-consuming that lovers forgo other pursuits to spend time together. In this sense, love is asceticism, a major conceit in the poem. The poem’s title serves a dual purpose: while the speaker argues that his love will canonise him into a kind of sainthood, the poem itself functions as a canonisation of the pair of lovers. New Critic Cleanth Brooks used the poem, along with Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man ” and William Wordsworth’s “ Composed upon Westminster Bridge , September 3, 1802”, to illustrate his argument for paradox as central theme to poetry. The Holy Sonnets also known as the Divine Meditations or Divine Sonnets are a series of nineteen poems by the English poet John Donne (...

It’ is an erotic metaphysical poem ( posthumously in 1633) by John Donne (1572–1631). The exact date of its composition is unknown ; but it is probable that Donne wrote this poem in the 1590s when he was a young law student at Lincoln’s Inn, before he became a respected religious figure as Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral . The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them. The speaker tries to convince a lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent. His argument hinges on the belief that bodily fluids mix during sexual intercourse. According to Laurence Perrine, this poem, along with many other of Donne’s poems, solidifies his place in the literary movement, creating what is now known as metaphysical poetry. Although the term was not found until after his death, it is still wide...

Metaphysical Poetry is a style of poetry that has used complex figurative languages, paradoxes and philosophical approach. It has been originated in the 17th century in England having such features as intellectuality, sharp images, complications of spirit or religion. The poetry is rich in complexity or a combination of two dissimilar images. Imaginative figures had been taken from different fields of knowledge as History, Geography, Astronomy, Alchemy, Mathematics, etc. John Dryden was the first to use the term “Metaphysic” in his criticism. Samuel Johnson widely extended it to a group of poets. In “The Lives of The Poet”, Johnson stated that “about the beginning of the 17th century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets”. Both John Dryden and Samuel Johnson had been used the term “Metaphysical” in a negative sense to criticize the poets. After that the term widely used by John Donne, Andrew Marvel, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert and Richard Crashaw. ...

Sweetest Love I Do Not Goe" is a metaphysical poem written by John Donne and published posthumously in 1633 in Songs and Sonnets. After boaring in life, It was written to comfort his wife Anne More, before leaving her on a journey. There are some important points to understand well in this love poem:-  Reason for Leaving his wife:- The speaker clarifies that he is not leaving because he is tired of her, nor is he looking for a better love anywhere. Instead, he views his temporary departure as a "feigned death" (a practice run) to prepare them for the ultimate or an unavoidable separation of actual death. Separation is also a type of spiritual death between wife and husband.  The Sun used as Metaphor in the stanzas:- He compares his journey to the daily cycle of the sun. Just as the sun sets every evening and rises again the next day, he promises to return. He adds that he would return even faster than the sun because he possesses human reason, desire, and the emotional ...