VMOU
B.A. English -2020-21
EG -03
Poetry and Drama-II
Max
Marks: 30
Note: The Question paper is divided
into three sections A, B, and C. Write Answer as per the given instruction.
Section ‘C’
(Long Answer Questions)
Note: Answer any two questions. You
have to delimit each answer maximum up to 400 words. Each question carries 06
marks.
7. Write a critical appreciation of
“Dover Beach”.
In his poem, Dover Beach, Mathew Arnold
compares the past, which was full of faith, with the present, which is devoid
of faith.
'Dover Beach' gives bitter expression
of Arnold’s loss of faith, and his growing pessimism. It has variety, beauty
and freshness, but it has neither love nor joy nor light nor peace. There is
nothing certain in it. Therefore, he compares men struggling in the world with
armies struggling on a plain at night. There is a sound of confused alarms and
struggles, but the soldiers are ignorant of what they are fighting for and why.
The first stanza opens with a calm,
bright moonlit sea which reflects the serene and peaceful mood of the poet. He
calls upon his companion to share the sweetness and tranquility of the night
air, but he is conscious of ‘the grating roar’ which disturbs the peace.
In the second stanza the poet
effectively uses a metaphor where the flow of human misery is compared to the
tides of the sea.
The poem falls into two parts. In the
first part, Arnold speaks of the resonances of sea waves on the pebbly shore.
In the second he speaks of armies struggling ignorantly at night. There is
perhaps not very clear connection between the earlier and the latter part.
Arnold, through 'Dover Beach',
describes the effects of industrialization of the 19th century England.
Victorian world was changing very rapidly with the growth of science and technology.
This poem condemns the loss of faith, religion and the meaning of life resulting
from the industrialization and advancement in science and technology.
Arnold describes the difference between
the appearance and reality of the Victorian world. It looks new and beautiful
like a land of dreams but in reality, this world does not really have joy,
love, light, peace, certitude or any help for pain. He describes the world as a
dark plain which is becoming even darker as the time passes. He compares the people
struggling and running in their ambitions to the armies fighting at night,
unknown of why and with whom they are fighting.
Although, this poem had shown the loss
of faith, religion and love of 19th century it is similar in the context of the
21st century as well. People have lost their faith in God. They are engaged in
commerce. They have become materialistic which has decreased their satisfaction
in life. They are more isolated and lonelier. The only way out of this disaster,
according to Arnold, is to love and to have a faith in one another and do
believe in God and live in reality rather than the land of dreams.
8. Write an essay on the element of
nostalgia in “The Deserted Village”.
Goldsmith's primary purpose in writing
"The Deserted Village" is to evoke a strong sense of nostalgia for
village life. He demonizes life in the city, suggesting that entire populations
of villagers are being lost to the city. Goldsmith uses idealized descriptions
of people, buildings, and the village itself to evoke nostalgia. He models
Auburn in part after his own childhood village of Lissoy, although some critics
thought he conflated Irish and English culture in his portrayal of the
fictional town. He even includes characters based on real-life members of his
old hometown. Goldsmith's brother, Rev. Henry Goldsmith, is the inspiration for
the poem's nurturing, riveting preacher. Thomas "Paddy" Byrne,
Goldsmith's first-grade teacher, is the poem's stern but kind schoolmaster, and
Catherine, a suffering widow in Lissoy, is the poem's "wretched
matron" hunting for watercress (an edible aquatic plant) for survival.
In order to give the poem a nostalgic
feel for all readers, Goldsmith uses type characters, which readers can easily
recognize and identify with. He uses the swain, for example, as a symbol of a
healthy, hardworking youth. He describes the "bashful virgin" in the
same way—she isn't a specific young woman, but a young woman with the virtues
any reader can recognize and respect. In this way, the author creates a sense
of nostalgia in all his readers, not just those who can immediately identify
with a country childhood. He describes the buildings in the same way, as filled
with charm: "The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm ... the busy mill, /
The decent church." No matter where readers grew up, they can recognize
and feel nostalgia for the "smiling village" of Auburn and its
inhabitants. When readers feel nostalgia, they also feel sorrow and indignation
at the destruction Goldsmith describes.
Goldsmith's nostalgia is a response to
the industrial age, which shifted emphasis from small, local economies to
large, centralized ones. In England the Industrial Revolution, or the First
Industrial Revolution, as it's sometimes called, occurred from 1760 to 1840.
The advent of steam-powered technology led to the development of massive
factories. The creation of these factories and the accompanying jobs meant that
there was a surge in population in the cities as people moved there in pursuit
of work. The population of England swelled from 9 million people at the start
of the 1800s to 36 million by 1911.
9. Critically examine the poem ‘The
Charge of the Light Brigade’.
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”
recalls a disastrous historical military engagement that took place during the
initial phase of the Crimean War fought between Turkey and Russia (1854-56).
Under the command of Lord Raglan, British forces entered the war in September
1854 to prevent the Russians from obtaining control of the important sea routes
through the Dardanelles. From the beginning, the war was plagued by a series of
misunderstandings and tactical blunders, one of which serves as the subject of
this poem: on October 25, 1854, as the Russians were seizing guns from British
soldiers, Lord Raglan sent desperate orders to his Light Cavalry Brigade to
fend off the Russians. Finally, one of his orders was acted upon, and the
brigade began charging—but in the wrong direction! Over 650 men rushed forward,
and well over 100 died within the next few minutes. As a result of the battle,
Britain lost possession of the majority of its forward defenses and the only
metaled road in the area.
In the 21st century, the British
involvement in the Crimean War is dismissed as an instance of military
incompetence; we remember it only for the heroism displayed in it by Florence
Nightingale, the famous nurse. However, for Tennyson and most of his
contemporaries, the war seemed necessary and just. He wrote this poem as a celebration
of the heroic soldiers in the Light Brigade who fell in service to their
commander and their cause. The poem glorifies war and courage, even in cases of
complete inefficiency and waste.
This poem deals with an important
political development in Tennyson’s day. As such, it is part of a sequence of
political and military poems that Tennyson wrote after he became Poet Laureate
of England in 1850. The poem does not speak of individual troops but rather of
“the six hundred” and then “all that was left of them.” Even Lord Raglan, who
played such an important role in the battle, is only vaguely referred to in the
line “someone had blundered.” Interestingly, Tennyson omitted this critical and
somewhat subversive line in the 1855 version of this poem, but the writer John
Ruskin later convinced him to restore it for the sake of the poem’s artistry.
Although it underwent several revisions following its initial publication in
1854, the poem as it stands today is a moving tribute to courage and heroism in
the face of devastating defeat.
10. What does the appearance of the new
moon in the lap of old moon signify? And critically examine the poem
‘Dejection: An Ode’.
Dejection: An Ode is a personal poem,
in which the poet expresses the distress of his soul. The poet bewails, that he
has lost the creative energy, which Nature had given him at the time of birth.
The poem begins with a quotation from
the grand old ballad of Sir Patrick in which it is stated that the presence of
the old moon in the lap of the new moon foretells the coming on of rain and
storm. At this moment Coleridge sees the old moon in the lap of the new moon
and says that if the poet who wrote the ballad of Sir Patrick was correct in
his forecast of weather this night. As the poet is thinking like this, the wind
develops into a storm and the rain starts falling fast in a slanting direction,
producing a loud noise.
Coleridge turns his attention to the
tumultuous weather. Within this raging storm, he is able to hear the less
frightful sounds of a child looking for her mother. Although it is now
midnight, Coleridge has no intention of going to sleep. However, he wishes for
“Sleep” to visit his Lady and to use its healing powers to lift the Lady’s
spirits and bring her joy. Coleridge concludes the poem by wishing the Lady
eternal joy.
The stanzas of “Dejection” are metered
in iambic lines ranging in length from trimeter to pentameter. The poem,
"Dejection" was originally a "verse letter" to Sara
Hutchinson, a woman, with whom Coleridge was desperately in love. Coleridge
makes use of concrete imagery and comparison to describe the atmosphere and the
state of his mind accurately and vividly. Describing the nature of the storm,
that is raging out-side, the poet says, that the more appropriate places for
such type of storm are a bare cock, a mountain lake, a high Pinegrove, or a
haunted house.
The poet uses vigorous and forceful
imagery to describe the sounds produced by the storm, which are compared to the
mad rushing to a defeated army, with the groans and cries of trampled and
wounded soldiers all round. He compares these sounds of the storm with the
frightened screaming of a terrified child who has lost its way home and
wandering in a lonely forest near its home.
Coleridge’s mention of the healing
powers of sleep in the last stanza and his claim that he will not go to sleep
tonight (and most likely cannot because of his depression) both suggest that
dreams offer a portal to happiness. This implication could be the reason why Coleridge
wishes for his beloved Lady to have a peaceful night of sleep.
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