Major Themes of Emily Dickinson's Poetry.

Main topics

 

Miss Dickinson dealt with a variety of themes in her poetry - Nature, love, pain and suffering, death and immortality, God and Christ, poetry as art, and so on. The spectrum of topics in her poetry is thus very wide. Each of these themes has been treated in a large number of poems, and therefore it is possible to consider each group separately.

 

Nature's cure

 

In some of her poems, Miss Dickinson adopted a conventional approach to nature, praising her as "the gentlest mother" who soothed and comforted her bruised children. But she did not last long with this approach. She generally believed that nature mocks man rather than comforts him. Some of her poems emphasize the decaying and destructive power of nature. Some poems, such as "The Morning after Wo" and "That First Robin I Was So Afraid," analyze nature's betrayal of those hearts that loved her most. In the poem "Apparently No Surprise", in which he refers to the frost killing the flower, he even questions whether nature has any meaning at all. She was also affected by the destructive force of natural winds, rains and storms. Her genuine enthusiasm for the beauty of nature is mixed with an awareness of its innate mystery and strangeness. Unsure of any clear correspondence between God, nature, and man, she remains a skeptic who both admires and doubts. It is not worth seeing the divine spirit in the objects of nature or treating nature as a moral teacher and guide. But he shows unusual skill in recording vivid sense impressions. She described the sunrise and sunset in a single remarkable sentence: "Flaming in gold and fading in purple." She wrote notable poems about birds such as the oriole ("One of those touched by Midas") and the blue jay ("Without a brigade all year round"). Her most famous nature portrait is that of a hummingbird in the poem "The Way of Evanescence." Besides being a realistic record of vivid details about the bird's behavior, the poem "The Bird Descended from a Walk" also shows the great distance between man and nature. Miss Dickinson was much attracted to the neglected and grotesque creatures of nature such as the rat, fly, bat, frog and spider. Her poem "The Narrow Guy in the Grass" deals with a snake and shows the horror and horror that a snake's presence can evoke. In this poem, Miss Dickinson shows her awareness of nature's hostility towards man, even though she believes that nature is merely indifferent overall. Several of her poems deal with the seasons - "Light Exists in Spring", "As Imperceptible as Sorrow". "These are the days when the birds return," "There's a certain slant of light," "Bronze-a Blaze," and "Further in summer than the birds" are also among her memorable nature poems.

 

Healing with Love

 

It is generally agreed that Miss Dickinson had at least one personal experience of love and that it led to serious disappointment. The origin of most of her love poems can be found in this personal experience, although the poems can be appreciated without knowing the biographical details. Some of her love poems are psychological studies of repressed desire. Such is "In Winter in My Room," in which the conscious mind denies and rejects the compulsive pressures of the subconscious. Poem. "My Life has stood-a Loaded Gun" deals with the explosive changes that the passion of love causes to the heart. The entire poem here is driven by the concept of an active hunter man who has a passive woman. Once gone, it returns to an inactive state, the state of the weapon it is compared to. Some poems deal with erotic expectations, using the bee-flower image to express physical desire, as in "Come Slowly—Eden" and "The Bee, His Polished Carriage." Two poems—"I am seconded" and "Dare you see a Soul?"—express the writer's enthusiasm and triumph as she imagines herself a real wife and speaks of the superhuman intensity of her passion. The largest group among her love poems are those that deal with the actual meeting of lovers. "His voice is at the door again" is typical for this group. Her most artistic love poems are those dealing with brides and marriage. In these poems, the writer sees herself as the bride of God or Christ. "Of all the souls that stand, they make" is perhaps the best of the many poems dealing with heavenly marriage. Other memorable poems in this category are "My Right of White Suffrage" and "Divine Title-is Mine". It is said that no other American poet of the nineteenth century, neither Whitman nor Poe, ever matched the intensity of Miss Dickinson's love lyrics. She infused her personal relationship with a religious meaning that turned biography into art.

 

The theme of pain and suffering

 

A large number of Miss Dickinson's poems deal with pain, its nature, its stages, its effects on the human soul, etc. These poems dealing with misery, anguish and despair throw much light on the nature of Miss Dickinson's own mind and soul. For her, the knowledge of pain was a touchstone for estimating the depth of the human soul. "I Measure Every Grief I Meet" is a poem that introduces her philosophy of pain and analyzes its specific characteristics. This poem tells us that real pain becomes such an essential part of our being that its departure causes a deeper loneliness in the soul. The poem "It Was Not Death Because I Arose" explores the state of shock and numbness that extreme grief causes. The poem deals with the chaos of tortured emotions and the wretchedness of despair. Another poem, "The First Day's Night Became," contemplates the courage needed to endure the initial shock and the relief of coping with the pain of the first day. However, when another day of pain comes, the mind collapses and realizes that the same effort must be made daily for the rest of life. Perhaps her best poem about pain is "After great pain comes formal feeling." Here, the numbed reaction of the soul after a debilitating shock illustrates a fundamental law—namely, that pain is an inevitable aspect of human existence. The stages of pain in this poem move from a funereal atmosphere, centered on the images of ceremony and tombs in the first stanza, to the mechanical wooden world of the second stanza, and finally to the frozen death of the third stanza, where the leaden imagery culminates. in the snowy empty wasteland. This, then, is the way a human being experiences pain, by the complete death of the senses and the freezing of all hope and activity.

 

The Mystical Themes: Themes of Death, Immortality, God, Etc.

 

One of Miss Dickinson's unique contributions to American literature is her poetic treatment of the themes of death and immortality. She wrote more than 500 poems on these topics. The scope of her poetic treatment of death ranges from a philosophical exploration of death's relationship to love to a somber reflection on its physical processes. She regarded death as a great unknown and continued to ponder its fascination and mystery. Some of her best writing about death deals with the feelings of a dying person or the physical experiences of the soul leaving the body. Such is "I Heard Flies Buzzing-When I Died", in which we see the contrast between the expectation of death and its realistic occurrence. Another poem in this category is "I Felt a Burial, in My Brain," which borders on the morbid in its depiction of the terrible struggle that brings about the separation of body from soul. The emphasis on feelings of dying and failing strength suggests the terrifying isolation of death. A notable poem in this group is "The Last Night She Lived," in which death is represented as a graceful departure into the sublime waters of immortality. But Miss Dickinson's best poem on the subject is "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," in which death is seen from various angles, and in which her views on death and immortality are rendered with artistic perfection. That Miss Dickinson was inclined to believe in immortality is evident from various poems, but she was always troubled by doubts. In one poem she wrote

 

The Only News I know, Is Bulletins all Day From immortality

 

The Only One I meet Is God-

 

Such poems show her belief in immortality and in God. She considered immortality to be "the subject of the flood". But her view of God is far from orthodox. "I know there is" represents her approach to God. But this assumption of faith in the opening line is qualified by the rest of the poem. until only doubts and an unorthodox attitude remain. In some poems he accepts God as a real personality worthy of respect, an all-powerful ruler. But in others, her attitude towards God is irreverent, calling him "an eminent clergyman", "a robber, a banker, a father" and accusing him of almost "duplicity". Some of her best poems about religion certainly make humorous comments on conventional piety and traditional beliefs. These include "Some Keep the Sabbath in Church" and "The Bible is an Antique Volume". However, many of her religious poems are characterized by a kind of balance between faith and doubt, even if some express unquestioning faith. The poem "I Taste Liquor Never Brewed" describes the ecstasy that accompanies an apparition. The "highest moments of the soul" tell us that few ever perceive a vision of immortality. Perhaps her best poem on the philosophical implications of this vision is "Behind Me-dips Eternity." In the poem "This World is No Conclusion" he explores the puzzling inability of philosophers and saints to prove the fact of immortality, although the opening line is an unequivocal statement of faith. The poem "Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers" is one of her best on the ambiguous relationship between death and immortality.

 

The Theme of Poetics

 

Miss Dickinson wrote at least fifty poems on the subject of art. Indeed, poetry as a subject competes with mortality as her deepest concern, if the criterion is a high level of poetic performance. She knew the pitfalls of fine art from her own experience, and in one remarkable poem, "Essential oils are pressed", she compared the poetic process to the extraction of perfume from rose-buds. Other noteworthy poems pertaining to the poetic art are: "The One who could repeat the Summer day", "Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat?" "I would not paint a picture", and "I reckon-when I count at all*".

 

 

Miscellaneous Poems

 

Obviously, not all of Mrs. Dickinson's poems can be categorized under the above headings—many fall into the miscellaneous category. Only a few can be mentioned here. "Success Counts the Sweetest" deals with the law of compensation. "What Soft Cherubs" is a satire about women in fashionable society. The theme of "I got an idea today" is the strange functions and powers of the mind. "The brain is wider than the sky", "The brain is in the groove". "Fighting Loud Is Too Courageous" talks about the courage to fight against emotional pain. "But the poet sings in the autumn" is an appeal to God for the gift of his "sunny" character, which includes God's will. "I am nobody! who are you?" It expresses opposition to propaganda and desire for fame and talks about two dead martyrs. It is not really possible to catalog poetry in this way. The list is very long.

Study Questions on John Keats' Poetry

1.Differentiate the two generations of the Romantic poets of the early nineteenth century, with special reference to Shelley and Keats.

 

2. Indicate the place of Keats in the Romantic Movement.

 

3.Write a note on Keats as a pure poet.

 

4. "With the great Odes, we are probably at the apex of Keats's poetic power." In the light of this dictum, trace the evolution of Keats's art till his achievement in the Odes.

 

5. "We can perceive a pattern in the development of Keats's poetry." Discuss this statement.

 

6. It has been said that Keats's development marks a drift from romantic egocentricity towards objectivity. Discuss the statement in the light of his poems Endymion, Hyperion and the Odes.

 

7. How would you justify that Keats was an escapist? Do you agree with the statement that Keats was a thinker ?

 

8. In the light of the poems of Keats narrate the elements of the sensuous, the intellectual and the spiritual in his poetry.

 

9."Keats is essentially a Greek among the English poets.” Discuss.

 

10.White a critical note on the Hellenism of Keats. Shelley said of Keats: "He is a Greek." Analyze the statement with reference to Keats's poems you have studied.

 

11.Write a note on the blending of the classical and the romantic in Keats's poetry.

 

12."Sensuousness is a paramount bias of Keats's genius." Elucidate.

 

13"Keats is a poet of perceptions rather than of contemplation." Discuss.

 

4."In his maturer works Keats's sensuousness is penetrated by sentiment and vitality." Elaborate. Write a critical note on the sensuousness of Keats.

 

15.Write a critical note on Keats's philosophy of Beauty.

 

16. The end of poetry for Keats was not the cult of beauty of an external nature cognisable as smell or touch or sight or hearing; his eyes are already set upon the beauty of sorrow and joy, a beauty of the moral being and of the spirit."  Discuss.

 

17.  "Keats's attitude to Nature is predominantly of a happy gazer at a delightful spectacle." Elaborate and discuss.

 

18. "Though other phases of Nature are not forgotten it is those of quietness and repose that Keats most affects.” Discuss this remark with reference to Keats's attitude to Nature.

 

19.Critically examine Keate's attitude to Nature and compare him with Wordsworth and Shelley in this respect.

 

20.Write a note on the medievalism of Keats.

 

21. The Narrative Poetry of Heats, with reference to “Isabella”, The Eve of St. Agnes”, 'Lamia' and The Eve of St Mark'.

 

22. Critically examine the narrative poetry of Keats with reference to "Tabella," "The Eve of St. Agnes", "Lamia" and "The Eve of St. Mark".

 

23. Analyze the distinctive features of Keats's imagery. Give illustrations from the prescribed poems you have studied.

 

 24. Write a short essay on the pictorial quality of Keats, giving illustrations from the poems that you have read.

 

25. Keats has been highly praised for his felicity of word and phrase. Discuss with illustrations.

 

26. Write an essay on Keats's imaginative quality of phrasing.

 

27.What are the qualities of Keats's poetry that account for in continued appeal to the modern reader?

 

28. "Had Keats left us only his Odes, his rank among the poets would not be lower than what it is." Discuss the greatness of Keats's Odes it the light of this remark.

 

29. Write a critical commentary on the structure of Keats's major Odes.

 

30. "The Odes of Keats show an equal balance of form and experiences". Discuss.  

 

31. "The Odes of Keats reflect his persistent endeavor for something beautiful and permanent in a transient world." Discuss and illustrate.

 

32. Show that the great Odes of Keats are a sequence showing an inter-relationship of mood and subject. Or

 

33.  "Keats's Odes grow directly out of inner conflicts." Explain.

 

34. The truth is that Keats's yearning passion for the beautiful is not a passion of the sensuous or sentimental poet. It is an intellectual and spiritual passion. Discuss.  Or

 

35. "Keats is without a rival as the poet of the richly meditative Ode." Discuss this remark with reference to the Odes in the text. 

 

36.Write a brief note on theme and imagery of the Ode on a Grecian Urn, and show that the statement "Beauty is truth, truth Beauty", is an integral part of the poem.

 

37. Write a brief note on Keats's sensuous imagery illustrating it with examples from Keats's poems.

 

38. Analyze the theme and structure of any one of the great odes of Keats.

 

39. Write a brief essay on Keats's development from a sensuous to a deeply contemplative poet. Or "With the great Odes, we are probably at the apex of Keats's poetic power". Trace the evolution of Keats's art till the achievement in the Odes.

 

40. Write a brief essay on Keats's notion of Negative Capability. Illustrate from his Odes.

 

41. What are the recurrent themes and motifs in Keats's famous Odes? Elucidate with illustrations.

 

42. Evaluate Keats's Odes as a "psychological document".

 

43. What are the different attitudes to death that have been dramatized in the Ode to a Nightingale ?

 

44. "In the Ode to a Nightingale, the world of mankind and the world of the nightingale are con trasted." Discuss. Or

 "The first stanza of the Nightingale Ode sets up a conflict which, progressively enriched, governs the structural and emotional pattern." Discuss.

 

45. "To Autumn shows that Keats's visior was that of a painter." Discuss. Do you find examples of such a vision in any of the other poems by Keats ?

 

46. In what sense does Ode to Autumn represent the perfection of Keats's sensuous art?Or

 

Evaluate Keats's ode To Autumn as a distinctive example of his concrete sensuous art.

 

47. Give a critical evaluation of the sensuousness of Keats's poetry. What is meant by saying that Keats was a mystic of the senses?  Or

 

"Keats thought with his senses." Elaborate. Or

 

"No great poet is merely sensuous; nor is Keats. He is profoundly concerned with the mystery and some basic questions of life, but he deals with them as a poet, not as as philosopher." Discuss.

 

48. "Keats never takes his dreams for reality or remains lost in them." Discuss with reference to Keats's odes. Or

 

"Keats is drawn to the creation of a dream world and yet he cannot help feeling the pressures of actual life." Discuss with reference to the Odes.

 

49. "Keats was obsessed by the close juxtaposition of joy and grief, delight and pain." Illustrate from the Odes. Or

 

Beauty and Mutability are recurrent themes in Keats's Odes. Elucidate.

 

50. Write a brief critical essay on Keats's notion that genuine poetry does not need to have a palpable design on the reader.

 

51. Make a critical assessment of Keats's theory of poetry as reflected in his Letters and as may be inferred from his poems.

 

52. Write an essay on Keats's imaginative quality of phrasing. Or

 

Keats bas been highly praised for his felicity of word and phrase. Discuss with illustrations.

 

53. What were the qualities that made Keats great and that distinguished him from his great comrades? Illustrate your answer from the poems prescribed.

 

 

 

Mystical elements in Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Amitav Ghosh's River of Smoke: A Detailed Summary and Analysis

River of Smoke (2011), the second book of the Ibis trilogy, takes the readers to China between October 1838 and July 1839. As Sea of Poppies mostly takes place in India, River of Smoke takes place in various places up the Chinese Pearl River System, especially in Fanqui town, a settlement just outside of the vibrant international trading city Canton, “one of the most developed and populous cities in China in the early nineteenth century” (Batra). Like the previous book, River of Smoke is also divided into three parts: Islands, Canton, and Commissioner Lin. The protagonist of this book is a Parsi merchant from Bombay, Mr. Bahram Modi who sets off for Canton from Bombay with an enormous cargo of opium. Mr. Modi has come to that the Chinese government is shortly going to stop the opium trade in their country. But Mr. Modi believes that the Chinese government will not be able to do this and ultimately, the price of opium will go up and he hopes to make a huge profit on the market because he's done that several times before. So, he's on his flagship, which is called the Anahita, a very large trading ship built in the Bombay shipyard, which was among the best in the world. Apart from Mr. Modi, most of the other leading characters of the book come from the previous book, Sea of Poppies. The novel is narrated mainly from the perspective of four foreigners: Neel, Paulette, Robin, and Deeti. While the novel brings in many of the issues from the previous book, it introduces some new issues like the tension between the Chinese authority and the British and Indian opium traders, the British plant hunting in China, and the inner life of the traveling merchants. 

Islands: The novel begins with Deeti, the most powerful woman character that we find in Sea of Poppies. The section of the book initially narrates the parallel journey of three ships (Anahita, Redruth, and the Ibis) from India to China amid a cyclone that rages in the Bay of Bengal. In my discussion, I want to highlight the following issues from the first section of River of Smoke: memory as a narrative tool, connection with the past, narrative is taken over by Neel, rise of Bahram Modi (River 49), Neel and Ah Fatt meet in Singapore, dual life of Zadig and Bahram, hunting for native plants, Friendship between Bahram and Zadig, European plants hunters, Paulette and Robin friendship, etc.

The novel opens in Deeti’s shrine, which is “hidden in a cliff, in a far corner of Mauritius” (3). The time seems to be years after where Sea of Poppies ended. Now, Deeti has established a whole clan, which is known as La Fami Colver, after the name of their forefather Kalua. Soon Neel steps into the story. Amitav Ghosh uses two of his favorite narrative techniques in this section: memory and letter. The narrative is soon taken by Neel. The opium trade did not only help the British traders make great fortune. Many Indian also joined the trade and became rich overnight. Bahram Modi, a Parsi merchant, is one of them who made great fortune out of the opium trade in China. Bahram Modi lives a dual life: “his wife Shireen, in Bombay, and their two daughters; of his mistress, Chi-mei who had died some years before, in Canton; and of the son he had had with her” (River 29).

The narration also links Bahram with "Fitcher" Penrose, a horticulturist who wants to study China's medicinal plants. Though apparently both Bahram and Penrose have different missions, their aim is basically same because Bahram’s “opium trade and horticulturalist Fitcher Penrose's mercantile explorations to secure Chinese botanical curiosities for Europe” (Batra 326) are inspired by the same imperial mission. 

Canton: Ghosh uses the epistolary technique to tell much of book two and three. Main developments of the stories include the use of epistolary technique, Anahita’s  arrival at Canton, Chinese’s policy change about the British opium trade, Robin’s search for golden camellia, Allow’s meeting with Bahram and his execution by the Chinese, China’s first visible resistance to the opium trade, the traders’ annoyance with Captain Elliot’s promise to the Chinese authority about stopping the opium business, etc. 

Most of the impressions of the city (Canton) “in…the novel are conveyed through the painter Robin Chinnery and Bahram's scribe Neel on their tours out of the factory premises into Canton and its surroundings” (Batra 324). The Fanqui town turns out to be a true international business hub where people from around the word meet. Relationships between different races and nationalities are forged in the city. We can, for an example, talk about “the romantic relationships between the boat-woman Chi-mei and the Parsee opium trader Bahram Moddie; between the Bengali Asha-didi and her Chinese husband, Ah Bao (nicknamed Baburao); and between the Anglo-Indian painter Robin Chinnery and his Chinese counterpart Jacqua” (Batra 324). 

Commissioner Lin:

Chapter-13

The chapter focusses on the aftermath of riots in Canton and Captain’s Eliot’s role after the riot. Captain’s action is self-contradictory as it goes against the opium trade run by the British merchants. 

The saddest experience was that Chinnery’s friend Jacqua had his arm broken by the lascar rioters. 

Chinnery suddenly finds himself stranded by Jacqua’s boys, who verbally abuse him with racial prejudices against the fanquis. He feels like leaving Canton, which no longer welcomes him. 

Chinnery also describes the long cultural ties between Canton and India. It is found that “people from Hindustan, Arabia and Persia” (352) built temples in Canton, a land that is apparently forbidden to foreigners. 

The mass killing swept away all the foreigners from Canton. 

The Chinese are always suspicious about Europeans who tried to dupe them many a time and wanted to capture the Chinese lands. 

Baharam is so upset because of Allow’s (Ho Lao-kin) death and hallucinates Allow’s image. 

Charles King proposes Baharam to surrender all stored drugs to the Chinese authority. 

Lin Tse-hsu, the new governor, arrives at Canton. His title is Imperial High Commissioner (364).

Accidentally, Baboo Nab Kissin and Neel are reunited. It is revealed that Baboo helped him escape from the Ibis. Through Baboo, Neel also has come to know about the recent condition of his wife and son.  

Mr. Burnham and Mr. Bahram meet at Jardine’s great farewell party. Captain Elliot is hated by the foreign traders for his stand against the Opium trade. 

Mr. Jardine and Mr. Dinyar Ferdoonjee hypocritically accuse the Chinese of the smuggling and glorify the East India Company. The grand party ends with a quarrel between the English and Bombay traders.

Chapter-14

Robin meets Mr. Chan to deliver him the photos sent by Mr. Penrose. But Mr. Chan offers Robin to copy the Portrait of an Eurasian (drawn by Mr. Chinnery) for him.  Robin accepts the offer. 82-84

The traders propose to establish a settlement in the west China. Imperialism and coloniazation go hand in hand. 

Lin has arrived, and the traders are alerted. They decide not to move first and let the Chinese take the first move. 

The new commissioner has declared a decree putting a complete ban on opium, and an urgent meeting is summoned which ends in a decision of sending a representative to the commissioner with a request to extend some time to decide on the matters declared by the Chinese authority.

Chapter-15

The relationship between Robin and Pancqua deepens, and they work together in their artistic endeavors. Robin hands over the painting to Mr. Chan. Robin also takes opium upon Chan’s request and narrates Chan’s journey to London in opium-induced dream. 

Robin’s artistic life is disrupted by the turmoil in Canton. He also ponders on China’s thinking about the linkage between Christianity and opium. China thinks that there is a strong connection between Christianity and Opium. The opium traders debate over the surrender of opium to the Chinese authority. But finally, they decide to defer the situation further. 

Chapter-16

Paulette is asked to send five trees to Mr. Chan. She feels a motherly attachment to the trees. 

The committee still bargains about the surrender. They propose to surrender one thousand crates of opium, which is turned down by the commissioner. Instead, he orders to arrent Dent and Bahram. But upon Neel’s diplomacy, Bahram’s name was dropped from the list in the last minute. Dent refuses to surrender. Meanwhile, Captain Elliot has arrived at Capton. 

At one point, Neel succeeds to convince Capton that both the Chinese and the Indians are the equal victims of the Opium trade run by the British merchants. 

Chapter-17

Paulette succeeds in sending the precious plants to Canton through Baburao. 

The situation worsens as the Commissioner has decided to act against the traders. He issues no travel ban from Canton and decides to confront Mr. Dent, the biggest opium smuggler. 

The maidan is cleared and all Chinese are asked to leave the area. It is indicative of the Chinese action against the smugglers. A final warning is given by the commissioner to Captain Elliot, who hurriedly summons a meeting and convinces the traders to surrender the goods to the Chinese authority. 

Chapter-18

All goods are surrendered to the Chinese authority. 

Robin mentions the names of flowers that have been spread from Canton around the world. The commissioner sends a letter to Queen Victoria urging to stop opium trade to china. Bahram suffers from inward guilt and commits suicide in his hallucination. Neel meets paullete and Robin informs Paulette that Zachary is on his way to China. The novel ends with Neel’s conversation with Deeti who he informs that he visited Canton thirty years after the incident and found the city changed into a new look. A new foreign enclave was built whose name is Shamian island. It is also clear that the Europeans waged a war on Canton and did not stop smuggling opium to china. 

Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies: A Detailed Summary and Analysis

The first book of Amitav Ghosh’s the Ibis trilogy, Sea of Poppies (2008); which is divided into three parts: Land, River, and Sea; is hard to classify as a novel. History, which is a key “preoccupation(s) of his early work” (Arora 23), also plays a central role in the novel. But it can also easily be classified as a “nautical novel, travel, and adventure fiction” (Arora 21). The novel is set in 19th century India, more specifically in 1838 in Calcutta. Historically, the time was so crucial for the East India Company, because it was a budding moment for the company’s opium trade to China. The East India Company, which practically governed India from 1757, introduced opium cultivation in India at the beginning of the 19th century and forced the natives to replace their native cultivation with opium cultivation in many parts of the country. Sea of Poppies shows how this opium trade created a complex historical moment in India, when “the histories of slavery, Opium trade, British Empire and migration” (Arora 21) became interwoven. In my discussion of the book, I will touch upon these issues together with some other things like forced cultivation, environmental degradation, the deplorable condition of women, etc. which constitute the central themes of the book. I also intend to arrange my discussion according to the chapter division of the book. 

Land: The first book of Sea of Poppies, which is set along the banks of the great Indian river Ganges, mainly focuses on the following issues: Forced cultivation, Indentured laborers: lascars and coolies, fluid identity, British Imperialism, British Language policy, globalization, religious hypocrisy, British dependency on the monopoly of Opium, the factory system, environmental pollution, condition of women, connection between land and women, judicial tyranny, history from local perspectives, nature and human relationship, etc.

 

From the beginning of the novel, we see a tension between the British rulers and the native Indians. The first character we meet in the novel is Deeti, a housewife who is married to Hukam Singh, an ex-sepoy. In the book one, we observe how Deeti’s life has been variously destabilized by the visible and invisible British colonial policies. Deeti and her family are forced to cultivate opium, which provides them with just the minimum sustenance for their survival. Soon the novel is populated with “mongrel characters with complex histories” (Arora 21) who belong to different classes, religions, and geographical areas. We meet Zachary, an African-American freedman; Serang Ali, a lascar; Mr. Burnham, an English merchant; Raja Neel Ratan, a local Zamindar; Paulette, a French girl born and brought up in India; etc. The interesting thing about these characters is that they bear a fluid identity. Zachary, who was treated no less than a slave in Baltimore, has suddenly been treated as a white in India; the Lascars like Serang Ali, who contributed to the building of the British empire around the world, are treated as slaves; Mr. Burnham, a greedy religious hypocrite, is treated with high respects both by the Indians and the British; and Neel, a local Raja, finds himself in a difficult situation where he cannot fight with the larger than life colonial forces. The novel also narrates the dependency of the British empire on the opium trade and their inhuman treatment of the local people and environment for the production of opium. The novel exhibits “the destructive strategy of the (British) colonizers to accumulate wealth through ecological imperialism” (Amjad 30). The narration of the story gives us an alternative, local perspective to see the British colonization of India. The section ends with Kalua’s rescue of Deeti from the pyre. 

River: As the title of the section indicates, this part of the novel takes us to river. The Ibis is temporarily berthed in Kidderpore before she finally starts for China. I would like to highlight the following from this part of the book: British judicial policy, forced cultivation and shortage of foods, Caste, lascars and fluid identity, divide and rule, women double colonized, Neel is robbed of his property, dehumanization in jail, etc. 

This section of the book exposes another tyranny of the colonizers, namely, the judicial tyranny. Mr. Burnham has Neel, the Raja of Raskhali, arrested on a false accusation of forgery. At first, Neel is treated very well in the prison which gives a false impression that he will get justice in the court. However, soon the true intension of the court is visible, and Neel’s property is forfeited with a sentence of seven years banishment with labor. We also see the dehumanizing treatment of Neel in the prison, which is a symbol of the British tyranny. The section of the novel also focusses on the native food shortage as a direct result of the forced cultivation of opium in India. A good part of the novel is devoted to the portrayal of women characters from the lower level of the society. The suffering of these women, who already live in a patriarchal society, is worsen by the colonial policy, especially the opium cultivation which depends on the hard labour of women. Another important part of this section is the friendship between Jodu and Paulette and also between Paullete and Zachary. 

Sea: The final section of the book takes us to the see. The Ibis started for China with so many characters from so many different backgrounds on board. I want to highlight the following issues from this section: Resistance by women, the journey of the indentures, lascars and prisoners, transnational racism (468), Kalua’s resistance, the great escape, etc. 

The chief officials of the ship consist of Captain Chillingworth and other two mates, Mr. Crowle and Zachary, the first and second mates respectively. Zachary is maltreated by Crowle for his racial identity. Now, most of the major characters of the trilogy are on board: Neel, Zachary, Deeti, Paulette, Jodu, Babo Naba Kissin, Ah Fatt, Serang Ali, etc. One thing that hinges their identity is their uprootedness from their own palaces. In this way, they form parallel identities “each of them with their stories of displacement, who come together by chance and end up forming alliances that transcend social categories, time and the original spatial distances that divided them” (Alexandru 148). This section of the novel sheds lights on the great resistance shown by Deeti, Kalua and Ah Fatt to the authorities. The presence of Deeti and Kalua in the ship is soon discovered by Bhyro Singh, who wants to punish both Kalua and Deeti. Deeti has found out that she is pregnant with Kalua’s child. One day when Bhyro Singh tries to beat Deeti, Kalu rescues her again. But accidentally he has thrown one of Bhyro’s huards overboard, and as a result, Bhyro Singh tries to flog Kalua death. Kalua, however, manages to break free and kills Bhyro. Afterwards, Kalua is sentenced to death by Captain Chillingworth. Before the execution takes place, Kalu along with Neel, Serang Ali, Jodu, and Ah Fatt disappear on a stolen longboat, heading to Singapore. 

Jonathan Culler’s Theory of the Lyric: A Short Summary

Jonathan Culler’s Theory of the Lyric, which investigates the western lyric tradition as a whole- “from From the Greeks to the moderns”(vii), seems to be occasioned by his dissatisfaction with the current definition of lyric poetry, which he expresses at the start of the introduction: “Lyric poetry has a long history in the West but an uncertain generic status” (1). He thinks that the current study and position of lyric poetry both inside and outside the classroom has deteriorated. To him once the lyric was central to the literary study, which “has been eclipsed by the novel, perhaps in part because we lack an adequate theory of the lyric” (2). Moreover, he thinks that the current theories of lyric poetry give false models to students and encourage them to “think about lyrics in ways that neglect some of the central features of lyric poetry, both present and past” (3). With this back in his mind, Jonathan Culler has tried to theorize lyric poetry in the subsequent chapters. 

Chapter Three (Theories of Lyrics), which traces some dominant western theories of lyrics, questions the paradoxical nature of the western theory of lyrics. In a sense, this chapter also questions Jonathan Culler’s own theory of lyric that lyric is not an imitation. Drawing the references from Aristotle, Culler says that lyric is not imitative poetry because unlike narrative poetry it does not imitate human events. Culler finds a similar voice in the Hegelian theory of lyrics, “lyric is the subjective genre of poetry, as opposed to epic, which is objective, and drama, which is mixed” (92). But Hegel’s own idealistic interpretation of lyrics as well as the popular western pedagogical techniques of teaching lyric poetry contradict the view that lyrics are absolutely subjective poems, because if we accept that the speaker in a lyric poem “is a persona, then interpretation of the poem becomes a matter of reconstructing the characteristics of this persona, especially the motives and circumstances of this act of speech—as if the speaker were a character in a novel” (109). Analysis of Austin’s performative theory is another important discussion of this chapter. I think what Culler says about the illocutionary and perlocutionary nature of poetry that “the most important acts a poem performs are likely to be those not entailed by it” (130) is truly the essence of all lyric poems.

Chapter Five (Lyric Address), which is a kind of the extension of Culler’s 1975 essay on “Apostrophe”, analyzes the varieties of lyric addresses. I have found his theory of “triangulated address” (186) very interesting from a pedagogically perspective. He argues that the use of apostrophes, which directly address another while indirectly addressing the reader help give the poem its feeling of eventfulness. To him, the less ordinary the addressee, “the more the poem seems to become a ritualistic invocation” in which the reader participates (188). To discuss the pedagogical values of Culler’s chapters, I think the subjective-objective debate and the triangulated address are my two key takeaways from this week’s selections. I could personally relate these two things to my teaching of poetry in the classroom.

Bongenback’s “The Resistance to Poetry”: A Short Summary

Bongenback’s position, that what makes poets and poetry so powerful as well as entertaining is the way in which they resist themselves from power, meaning, relevance, wisdom, etc., is the compelling paradox the chapter “The Resistance to Poetry” seems to be built on. To support his case, Bongenback has drawn so many examples from the ancient Graeco-Roman to the present ages. Yeats’ advice to Pound, “Do not be elected to the Senate of your country,” (1) for example, is emblematic of how poets resist themselves from powerful social and political positions and want to remain in the margin, outside of the power. To Bongenback, however, “the marginality of poetry is in many ways the sources of its power” (1). Poems inspire our trust by not asking them “to be trusted” (1). They resist truth because they contain the language of self-questioning and metaphors that go against themselves and create disjunction (1-2). This could also be a key function of poetry, because “a poem’s obfuscation of the established terms of accountability might be the poem’s most accountable act” (1-2).

 

Bongenback seems to be searching for the things that inspire poets to write their poetry. Considering a wide array of poets, from Callimachus to Dickinson, what he finds is that most often these poets have resisted the temptation of being popular, and even explicitly relevant to their time and society. They consciously chose a secluded life and the assumption that poetry is irrelevant sometimes acted as a “liberating” (6) force for them. But at the end of the day, this resistance to being relevant has made them so relevant and entertaining to read. Finally, it can be said that poets’ self-resistance is the source of the reader's pleasure. In terms of the pedagogical value, Bongenback’s “The Resistance to Poetry” can open a wide range of implications for understanding and teaching poetry in general. One thing that strikes me is the chapter’s relevance to resistance poetry. Resistance poetry is a popular poetic genre around the world. It seems that most of the resistance poetry in one way or other is inspired by what Bongenback says in “The Resistance to Poetry”.

Rita Felski’s Uses of Literature: A Short Summary

Rita Felski’s Uses of Literature suggests the ways literature can be fruitfully read and enjoyed both inside and outside the literature classroom. The opening of Felski’s Uses of Literature resonates much of what Elaine Showalter and Bruns have said in their Teaching Literature and Why Literature? respectively to justify the existence of literature as a discipline. When the natural and social sciences enjoy a sort of monopoly on knowledge, “how do scholars of literature make a case for the value of what we do?, Felski asks. What follows next in the introduction is a quest for the answer to this question. Felski does not quickly jump in to blame anyone “for its (literature) own state of malaise” (2). She politely disagrees with those who say that ‘The rise of theory led to the death of literature, as works of art were buried under an avalanche of sociological sermons and portentous French prose” (2). But at the same time, she cannot accept the too much socio-centric and theoretical turn in literary scholarship. “Critical reading”, which she calls “the holy grail of literary studies” (3) has been overlooked by the literary theory that “has taught us that attending to the work itself is not a critical preference but a practical impossibility, that reading relies on a complex weave of presuppositions, expectations, and unconscious pre-judgments, that meaning and value are always assigned by someone, somewhere” (3). This deterministic attitude of literary theory has in fact made literature subordinary and now “the literary text is hauled in to confirm what the critic already knows, to illustrate what has been adjudicated in other arenas” (8). Moreover, most readers including the students of literature “have no interest in the fine points of literary history” (11) and “are still expected to find their own way into a literary work, not to parrot the interpretations of others” (11). All these seem to Felski’s spirited defence of the critical reading.

Felski argues for the readers’ engagement with ordinary motives of reading, which she explains drawing a parallel between phenomenology and engaged reading (17). Felski’s new-phenomenological approach to text consists of four modes of textual engagement: recognition, enchantment, knowledge and shock. Towards the close of the introduction, Felski calls for a compromise between the literary theory and critical reading saying that “there is no reason why our readings cannot blend analysis and attachment, criticism and love” (23). Thus, she has taken a middle course that combines “a willingness to suspect with an eagerness to listen” (22). I think Felski has not spoken specifically about anything for poetry. But she has mentioned poetry in many a place to talk about literature in general.

Terry Eagleton’s How to Read a Poem: A Short Summary

If anyone judges Terry Eagleton’s How to Read a Poem by its cover, they are sure to fall into a trap by thinking the book yet another how-to pedagogical manual with an agenda to explicitly teach how to read and teach poetry. However, this observation of mine does not mean that the book is without any pedagogical goals. The book has pedagogical goals, which are, however, presented in a way that differs from the pedagogical goals of teaching poetry we have seen in the selections of the previous weeks. Eagleton’s observations about poetry, which are mostly influenced by his own theory of poetry, are polemical in nature. He starts chapter-2 with a succinct definition of poetry, which he develops throughout the chapter drawing comparisons and contrasts to prose, morality, fiction, and pragmatism. While the chapter has several implicit pedagogical values, my most favourite takeaway pedagogical lesson from this chapter is his assertion not to limit the meanings of poetry that “A poem is a statement released into the public world for us to make of it what we may. It is a piece of writing which could by definition never have just one meaning” (32). I think unlike chapter 2, chapter-5 has more explicit pedagogical goals. Here Eagleton develops his observations and suggestions through dialogues and questions, which are very much instructional in tone. I agree with what Sam has said in his discussion that Eagleton has taken a middle course between extremes of purely subjective and objective approaches to poetry.

Terry Eagleton has not said anything explicitly as to how to teach poetry or how to discuss the observations he has shared about poetry in a poetry class. However, the things he has discussed poetry frequently occur in a poetry classroom or poetry workshop. In this case, I find chapter 5 to be more like an instructional guidebook for poetry teachers and students. To discuss the subjective and objective approaches to poetry, he takes an example of the poem Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning (103) and also “mood, address, implication, connotation, symbolism, sensibility, rhetorical effect and the like” (105). He also explores the nuances of Tone, Mood and Pitch (114) and shows us how enjambment as a device could be used to pace up verses e.g. Shelly's Ode to the West Wind (119). To sum up, the way Eagleton models the interpretations of the elements of poetry in the contexts of various poems in this chapter sets an example for the poetry teachers and students as to how to read a poem.

Needless to say, Eagleton’s discussions exclusively focus on poetry in these two chapters. What he says about the language and approaches to poetry and also the elements of poetry establishes the idea that poetry is distinctive from of literature and, of course, requires a distinctive pedagogy. The opening of the chapter-2, “A poem is a fictional, verbally inventive moral statement in which it is the author, rather than the printer or word processor, who decides where the lines should end” (25) clearly sets the stage for exclusive discussion poetry in this and also following chapters. His blunt and bold opening gives the message that the language of poetry is not special, rather poetry makes the language special. 

Bruns' Why Literature? A Short Summary

The subtitle of the book, “The Value of Literary Reading and What It Means for Teaching” clearly defines the pedagogical goals Bruns sets in her Why Literature?: how to uphold the value of reading literature while teaching it in the classroom. Much like Elaine Showalter’s Teaching Literature, Bruns’ Why Literature? starts with the common question faced by the teachers and students of literature, what is the justification of studying literature? There are a lot of answers are in the market. However, Bruns is not satisfied with the rationales given by others for reading literature during the recent years. According to her, these rationales have been put forward “without clear-cut notions of why it is worthwhile to read literary texts” (2). She says that even the “teachers of literature lack an adequate conception of the value of literary reading”, which ultimately results in “leaving students little motivation to read literary texts outside of school” (3). So, her main pedagogical goal is to discuss how teachers of literature can overcome the “inadequacies in literature instruction in their own classrooms” (3) by instilling “in students a sense of the value of literature” (4) they read both inside and the outside of their classrooms.

Bruns has a lot of suggestions and recommendations about how to achieve these goals in the literature classrooms. At first, Bruns sees the value of literature in its being of a “transitional object”. She writes: “Literary texts, then, function as ideal transitional objects because they are transactional in nature — between text and reader” (33). The literature teachers can help students experience this transitional potential of texts. In order to do so, teachers must value the personal encounters the students have with the texts they read (9). The students’ personal experiences with the texts are often overlooked and hence they do not bring the “meaningful experiences reading texts or, at least, may prevent them from bringing into their coursework reports of the meaningful reading experiences they've had outside of class” (4). Bruns suggests that teachers should involve students as "co-inquirers," respecting and trusting their readings of texts as valid. She talks about two kinds of approaches that are key to gaining the most out of the reading experiences: immersion and reflection. According to her, these are integrated parts of a whole reading dynamic, without which one can neither enter nor resurface a literary text.

Bruns talks about all forms of literary texts. Here she does not say anything exclusively on the pedagogical techniques of teaching poetry.

Hirsch’s “How to Read a Poem” and Perrine’s “Sound and Sense”: A Comparison

Hirsch’s “How to Read a Poem” and Perrine’s “Sound and Sense”, which are written as “know-how” manuals for reading and enjoying poetry, have both explicit and implicit pedagogical goals. I think not only poetry teachers, students, and aspiring poets but also the general readers of poetry can hugely benefit from these two books for teaching as well us understanding poetry.

To Hirsch, a poem is created, interpreted, and enjoyed in a relationship between the poet, the reader, and the poem. Through the excellent metaphor of “message in a bottle”, Hirsch says that the poets and readers are like “strangers” (3) who communicate “through a text, a body of words” (4) and their “relationship is not “a static entity but as a dynamic unfolding” (5). I think Hirsch’s key pedagogical goal lies in this attitude to poets, poetry, and readers. There is a silent message for the practitioners of poetry, both inside and outside of the classrooms, that a poem, such as a lyric has an enduring appeal because it is read, enjoyed, and deciphered by its readers in different ages and contexts, which give different meanings to it. While teaching poetry, this awareness of the free play of interpretations of poetry will inspire a teacher to invite the students to come forward and participate in the open, multifarious interpretation of a poem. Perrine’s “Sound and Sense” has clearly stated pedagogical goals. The exercise questions he has added after the poems are helpful both for teachers and students in the poetry classroom. But the book also can be self-studied for understanding poetry. Perrine sounds almost similar to Hirsch when he says “They (poets) create significant new experiences for their readers…in which readers can participate and from which they may gain a greater awareness and understanding of their world” (4). Thus, both Hirsch and Perrine focus on the uniqueness of poetry in terms of its relationship to the readers and the language it uses to make meanings. And the way they describe this relationship and also the language of poetry has both explicit and implicit pedagogical lessons for teachers, students and readers of poetry.

Both Hirsch and Perrine suggest some methods for preparing the readers and students for understanding and enjoying poetry. Hirsch does not write anything explicitly on pedagogical methods of poetry. To Hirsch, the reader is the ultimate destination of a poem. But to enjoy a poem, the reader must “crave it” (7) and seek “it out the way hungry people seek food” (7). While teaching poetry, a teacher can work on activating this desire in their students. Moreover, to Hirsch poetry reaches to our innermost self and electrifies our senses by moving “us through the articulations of touch, taste, and scent” (24). I think here lies an implicit message for the teachers of poetry that they not only teach poetry but also work on how to uncover the hidden beauty of a poem. Perrine, on the other hand, suggests some methods for teaching and understanding poetry. He discusses the elements of poetry and also exemplifies the use of these elements in poems followed by exercise questions. These methods can help both teachers and students to be familiar with the content, purpose, and language of poetry in general.

Both Hirsch and Perrine agree on the point that poetry is unique and uses a special kind of language. Though Hirsch does not openly compare poetry with other literary genres, the way he defines poetry makes it a distinctive form of literature that also requires a distinctive pedagogy. Hirsch mostly defines poetry as a soul-making activity, because “it gets so far under the skin, into the skin” (6). Moreover, poetry works on senses and through figurative language like a metaphor. So, teaching poetry requires a special kind of pedagogy that activates spiritual and sensual awareness of reading poetry in readers and introduces them to its special language. To Perrine, poetry is both similar and different from other forms of literature. As a literary piece, poetry is similar to other forms of literature. But what makes poetry distinctive from other forms of literature is its language, because poetry is “the most condensed and concentrated form of literature” (9). Perrine also talks about different poetic devices and techniques which are essential for reading and enjoying poetry.

Elaine Showalter's Teaching Literature: A Short Summary

Elaine Showalter's Teaching Literature: A Short Summary

What should be the primary pedagogical goals of/for the teachers of literature? The question has never been out of scholarly interest since literature was introduced as a subject in universities. The question has become even more important and central to teaching literature since B. S. Bloom introduced the taxonomy of educational objectives in 1956. Now, almost every field of learning faces the common question: What are the goals, objectives, and outcomes of what you are going to teach or learn? In this case, the teaching literature is not an exception. Elaine Showalter has also taken up this question in her Teaching Literature, a book that we can call Showalter’s Taxonomy of teaching literature.

Elaine Showalter has, through examples and anecdotes, tried to address the question in Teaching Literature, especially in Chapter-2: Theories of Teaching Literature. At the beginning of the chapter, she agrees that like the definition of literature, the goals of teaching literature cannot be universally defined: “If we can’t agree on a definition of literature, can we agree on the goals of teaching literary texts? Probably not” (22). To her, the inability to “articulate a shared vision of our goal that that can provide a sense of ongoing purpose and connection” (24) of teaching literature is one of the present anxieties of literature teachers. To ES, the goals of teaching literature have not always been the same. Different ages and movements have set different goals of teaching literature: to make “people better human beings” (22), “to moralize, civilize, and humanize” (22), and “to engage in a significant relationship with others” (23).  According to ES, these goals are still relevant to teaching literature. However, several literary and critical movements have defined the goals of teaching literature differently during the 20^th century. New criticism set the goal to isolate “the texts from historical contexts and subjective interpretation” (23), during “the 1960s and 1970s, teaching literature became a political act” (23) and during the 1970s, teaching literature became a branch of philosophical inquiry about signification, representation, aporia, and ideology” (23). According to ES, apart from these explicit goals, the implicit goal that is always relevant is that literature is “important not only in education but in life” (24). On page 26, ES lists 12 explicit goals of teaching literature, which can be summarized in her own language: “Overall, our objective in teaching literature is to train our students to think, read, analyze, and write like literary scholars, to approach literary problems as trained specialists in the field do, to learn a literary methodology, in short to “do” literature as scientists “do” science” (25).

What are the methods by which the author advocates achieving these goals? I think an implicit answer to this question is found in the opening chapter of the book, where ES describes the seven leading anxieties that are commonly experienced by literature teachers. One must overcome these anxieties to become a good literature teacher. However, the explicit answers to the question of how these goals can be achieved are found in Chapter-2. She, at first, says that literature teachers are often baffled when they are “asked to describe our (their) pedagogical theory” (27). Moreover, teachers often are not consistent and conscious about the theory they apply in teaching literature (27). ES has suggested three theories or methods which are again subdivided into several approaches: “subject-centred theories, teacher-centred theories and student-centred theories” (27). Apart from these theories, ES also talks about creating a “personae or the teaching self” (38) in literature classrooms. 

Poetry, as a distinctive piece of literature, requires a special pedagogy, which is not or cannot be used in teaching other forms of literature such as dramas and novels. According to ES, for teaching poetry the instructors need “to combine a range of techniques and methods” 64). Teaching poetry also involves awareness about the audience on the part of the instructors. One must “ask herself about the intended audience of learners- beginners, advanced, majors, graduate students, dabblers, artists, scientists” (64). ES discusses how the three pedagogical approaches she has just mentioned (“subject-centred theories, teacher-centred theories and student-centred theories”) can be tailormade by the instructors to teach poetry well in classrooms. To say in brief, in the subject-centred approach to teaching poetry, the instructors have to decide how to teach “the subjects of poetics, metrics, and prosody” (65). They also should focus on the figurative language, genres and background of the poetry they will teach (66-67). In a teacher-centred approach to teaching poetry, teachers should read the poems aloud, which helps learners engage in the poems more. In a student-centred approach, students should be involved in poetry which is sometimes absent in a teacher-centred approach. In this approach, asking students to memorize poems also can be (a good pedagogical tool” (69). Sometimes, instructors even ask students to compose poems in their poetry courses. Thus, poetry demands a distinctive pedagogical approach to teaching.