INDIAN LITERATURE yb: ENGLISH LITERARY REVIEWS

LOVE MATRIX - JOHN DONNE AND FRANCIS BACON
John Donne (British poet 1572-1631) wrote love and metaphysical poetry. In his poems "Canonization", "Good-morrow", "Valediction of my name in the Window" elevated love to Platonic heights. "And by these hymns, all shall approve Us canonized for love ;" - (Donne in Canonization). He considered lovers as saints. Francis Bacon (British writer 1562-1626) wrote critical essays. "Of love" is one of them. According to it, "there is not one, that hath been transported to the mad degree of love: which shows that great spirits, and great business, do keep out this weak passion." According to this wise persons need not give much value to passion. [Notes: Personal lives of Donne and Bacon may have their own skeletons in the cupboard. A biographer of Donne described him as young rake (immoral person). Bacon was accused of sodomy. We are looking only to literary side.] Now, here is a graph which shows the sexual-asexual moral-amoral ends of LOVE. Platonic Love : Deals with non-sexual relationships. Usually between one aged and one young person. Passionate Love : Deals more with sexual aspects, often found in newly found couples. When the age advances far, only Platonic love may be left. Gopika Love : This love is described in the Epic Maha Bhagavata. Thousands of gopikas are milk maid women. In their love towards Lord Krishna, they leave their husbands in the midnight and reach the river Yamuna. There is nothing sexual in this. Whether the love is moral or amoral is a question of interpretation. Adultery and paid sex work: There is much of body work and little of exchange of hearts. Same couple may be in different states of love depending on the psychological situations they place themselves in.

LOVE MATRIX - JOHN DONNE AND FRANCIS BACON

John Donne (British poet 1572-1631) wrote love and metaphysical poetry. In his poems "Canonization", "Good-morrow", "Valediction of my name in the Window" elevated love to Platonic heights.

"And by these hymns, all shall approve
Us canonized for love ;" - (Donne in Canonization).
He considered lovers as saints.

Francis Bacon (British writer 1562-1626) wrote critical essays. "Of love" is one of them. According to it,
"there is not one, that hath been transported to the mad degree of love: which shows that great spirits, and great business, do keep out this weak passion."
According to this wise persons need not give much value to passion.

[Notes: Personal lives of Donne and Bacon may have their own skeletons in the cupboard. A biographer of Donne described him as young rake (immoral person). Bacon was accused of sodomy. We are looking only to literary side.]

Now, here is a graph which shows the sexual-asexual moral-amoral ends of LOVE.

Platonic Love : Deals with non-sexual relationships. Usually between one aged and one young person.

Passionate Love : Deals more with sexual aspects, often found in newly found couples. When the age advances far, only Platonic love may be left.

Gopika Love : This love is described in the Epic Maha Bhagavata. Thousands of gopikas are milk maid women. In their love towards Lord Krishna, they leave their husbands in the midnight and reach the river Yamuna. There is nothing sexual in this. Whether the love is moral or amoral is a question of interpretation.

Adultery and paid sex work: There is much of body work and little of exchange of hearts.

Same couple may be in different states of love depending on the psychological situations they place themselves in.

JOHN MASEFIELD

WHAT DO BRITISH VESSELS CARRY NOW-A-DAYS? (JOHN MASEFIELD'S BIRTH DAY)

June 1, today is the birthday of John Masefield, the British Poet Laureate 1930-1967. He had close connections with US visiting Yale and Oxford Universities and receiving honorary doctorates from them. A gifted speaker, he addressed American soldiers, winning their acclaim in the process.

Masefield worked as a sailor while in youth and had great appeal for the poetry of the Seas.

Sample: A brief analysis of the poem "Cargoes". He compares three ships arriving from three countries with their varying cargo.

1. From Ophir (New South Wales, Australia - first paying goldmine in Australia ): apes, cedarwood, ivory, peacocks, sandalwood, and sweet white wine.

2. From Isthmus (Panama): The Spanish ship is bringing amethysts, cinnamon, diamonds, emeralds, gold moidores* and topazes.

3. From the Channel: The vessel is salt-caked and smoke stacked. Cargo: cheap tin trays, coal, firewood, iron ware, road-rail, pig-lead.

Direct meaning we get is that the British vessel was dirty and carrying abominable things which are cheap. (Original poem can be seen at wikipedia.org.

Indirect indication is: Distant colonial countries send beautiful and valuable cargo.

Today: What do the British vessels carry?

*gold moidore = Portuguese/Brazillian gold coin popular during the 19th Century.

Back to Contents HEDONISM VS ASCETISM SHAKESPEARE & BUDDHA comparison
Does not Comparing Shakespeare and Buddha lead to a conflict between hedonism and ascetism? Possible, when hedonism (living to derive maximum pleasure from life or drinking life upto sediment) and the ascetism are taken as mutually exclusive. How such conflict can be avoided? Often, there may not be any conflict at all. Pl. see the picture. In a continuum the pleasure and pain are the two poles of the same mind. They may not be like light and darkness. Every individual may be anywhere between -90 degrees to +90 degrees. Individuals during their life time may be moving several times hither and thither on the line. What is the Northern extreme of exuberance? The perfectly exuberant man will be ready to invite the pleasure and pain eagerly. He laughs and weeps like a child depending on the position he is placed. What is the Southern extreme of stoicism? The perfect stoic is like a stone. He is tight lipped. His tear sacs are dry, not because they have been exhausted of tears, but because he prides himself in being tear-free. Bhagavad Gita unfortunately envisioned this type of fellow as a man of steady wisdom. Then who is a man of steady wisdom? You can see from the picture, the man of steady wisdom is equidistant from pleasure, pain, stoicism and exuberance. His central position does not mean that he is static and inert or a cat on the wall. He lives as per natural instinct. He does not lose his natural poise. His shift from position to position will also be natural as the situation demands. He will be enthusiastic but not a fanatic. Can Shakespeare be considered as Buddhist? There is much hype around the writings of Shakespeare. Much hype around the life of Buddha. No hype around the life of Shakespeare. If we assume that Buddhist literature composed by the disciples of Buddha really reflect his teachings, then it will be difficult to say that Buddha himself was a real Buddhist in tune with his precepts.

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HEDONISM VS ASCETISM
SHAKESPEARE & BUDDHA comparison

Does not Comparing Shakespeare and Buddha lead to a conflict between hedonism and ascetism?

Possible, when hedonism (living to derive maximum pleasure from life or drinking life upto sediment) and the ascetism are taken as mutually exclusive.

How such conflict can be avoided?

Often, there may not be any conflict at all.

Pl. see the picture. In a continuum the pleasure and pain are the two poles of the same mind. They may not be like light and darkness. Every individual may be anywhere between -90 degrees to +90 degrees. Individuals during their life time may be moving several times hither and thither on the line.

What is the Northern extreme of exuberance?

The perfectly exuberant man will be ready to invite the pleasure and pain eagerly. He laughs and weeps like a child depending on the position he is placed.

What is the Southern extreme of stoicism?

The perfect stoic is like a stone. He is tight lipped. His tear sacs are dry, not because they have been exhausted of tears, but because he prides himself in being tear-free. Bhagavad Gita unfortunately envisioned this type of fellow as a man of steady wisdom.

Then who is a man of steady wisdom?

You can see from the picture, the man of steady wisdom is equidistant from pleasure, pain, stoicism and exuberance. His central position does not mean that he is static and inert or a cat on the wall. He lives as per natural instinct. He does not lose his natural poise. His shift from position to position will also be natural as the situation demands. He will be enthusiastic but not a fanatic.

Can Shakespeare be considered as Buddhist?

There is much hype around the writings of Shakespeare. Much hype around the life of Buddha. No hype around the life of Shakespeare. If we assume that Buddhist literature composed by the disciples of Buddha really reflect his teachings, then it will be difficult to say that Buddha himself was a real Buddhist in tune with his precepts.

Back to Contents" PRONUNCIATION, SPELLING, SEMANTICS - TUG OF WAR BETWEEN LEXICOGRAPHERS AND NETIZENS
Spur:--- Guardian Newspaper report by Patrick Burkham, titled "Mangled by the Cut-and-Paste Culture". According to the report, the Oxford English Corpus - Oxford lexicographers are concerned that the traditional phrases are being mis-spelled on the NET. REVIEW AND COMMENT We should be grateful to the American English for making the language easier, functional and lively without being fussy. There is a triangular tug of war among: pronunciation and spelling; spelling and semantics; pronunciation and semantics. Semantics is the part of linguistics which deals with the meanings of the words. A living language is used by the people for speaking and writing. English is a geographically extensively used language, but it is not learnt intensely. Words in a living language are like stones in a mountainous river which has rapid current. The stones get smoothened and round with afflux of time. Words also get smoothened in pronunciation and spelling with chronological erosion and geographical expansion. Meanings may change moderately or drastically. Thus all the three pronunciation, spelling and semantics are subordinate to the TIME AND SPREAD. Alphabet and the script are the tools to represent oral ideas in writing. In strict sense spelling should be subordinate to pronunciation. The effort to standardise and ossify spellings will only widen the gap between written and spoken versions of the same language. Trying to stop the change in the meaning of the word also may not fructify. HOW TO PREVENT THE USE OF A WORD IN AN ERRONEOUS SENSE? The OEC (Oxford English Corpus) is in custody of a database of a billion words. They might have identified a few thousands of words which are misused in the internet. Taking for example the phrase 'strait jacket' selected by them, where they found that netizens are using the incorrect phrase of 'straight jacket' , there is a need to identify globally implementable solutions which are less abrasive, expensive, fussy and palatable. WHAT COULD BE IMPLEMENTABLE SOLUTIONS? Coining of new words with different sounds. For example, the words 'strait' and 'straight' have same sounds. People preferred the complex spelt phrase 'straight jacket' though it is semantically erroneous, only because they might have felt that words with difficult spellings are the usually correct words. Just as a sex worker uses more cosmetics and creams than a natural person, words may use more number of redundant LETTERS which are not part of pronunciation and are nothing but appendages. To eliminate these redundancies, the word 'STRAIGHT' may be pruned and re-spelt as 'STRAIG' with all the letters spelt. Elimination of redundant spellings not only make the pronunciation more realistic and phonetic, but also reduce the burden of the language users who have little time to carry dictionaries on their shoulders and carry out decision making exercise before choosing every word, though that may be more appropriate. This is because where is the time for business managers, employees, Govt. officials, professionals students, technocrats to be word searchers and researchers? IMPORTANT The OEC or the Oxford dictionary or anybody else cannot impose new spellings. They can only suggest. It is for the netizens ultimately to use them or ignore them.

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PRONUNCIATION, SPELLING, SEMANTICS - TUG OF WAR BETWEEN LEXICOGRAPHERS AND NETIZENS

Spur:--- Guardian Newspaper report by Patrick Burkham, titled "Mangled by the Cut-and-Paste Culture".

According to the report, the Oxford English Corpus - Oxford lexicographers are concerned that the traditional phrases are being mis-spelled on the NET.

REVIEW AND COMMENT

We should be grateful to the American English for making the language easier, functional and lively without being fussy.

There is a triangular tug of war among:
pronunciation and spelling;
spelling and semantics;
pronunciation and semantics.

Semantics is the part of linguistics which deals with the meanings of the words.

A living language is used by the people for speaking and writing. English is a geographically extensively used language, but it is not learnt intensely.

Words in a living language are like stones in a mountainous river which has rapid current. The stones get smoothened and round with afflux of time. Words also get smoothened in pronunciation and spelling with chronological erosion and geographical expansion. Meanings may change moderately or drastically.

Thus all the three pronunciation, spelling and semantics are subordinate to the TIME AND SPREAD.

Alphabet and the script are the tools to represent oral ideas in writing. In strict sense spelling should be subordinate to pronunciation. The effort to standardise and ossify spellings will only widen the gap between written and spoken versions of the same language. Trying to stop the change in the meaning of the word also may not fructify.

HOW TO PREVENT THE USE OF A WORD IN AN ERRONEOUS SENSE?

The OEC (Oxford English Corpus) is in custody of a database of a billion words. They might have identified a few thousands of words which are misused in the internet. Taking for example the phrase 'strait jacket' selected by them, where they found that netizens are using the incorrect phrase of 'straight jacket' , there is a need to identify globally implementable solutions which are less abrasive, expensive, fussy and palatable.

WHAT COULD BE IMPLEMENTABLE SOLUTIONS?

Coining of new words with different sounds. For example, the words 'strait' and 'straight' have same sounds. People preferred the complex spelt phrase 'straight jacket' though it is semantically erroneous, only because they might have felt that words with difficult spellings are the usually correct words. Just as a sex worker uses more cosmetics and creams than a natural person, words may use more number of redundant LETTERS which are not part of pronunciation and are nothing but appendages.

To eliminate these redundancies, the word 'STRAIGHT' may be pruned and re-spelt as 'STRAIG' with all the letters spelt.

Elimination of redundant spellings not only make the pronunciation more realistic and phonetic, but also reduce the burden of the language users who have little time to carry dictionaries on their shoulders and carry out decision making exercise before choosing every word, though that may be more appropriate. This is because where is the time for business managers, employees, Govt. officials, professionals students, technocrats to be word searchers and researchers?

IMPORTANT
The OEC or the Oxford dictionary or anybody else cannot impose new spellings. They can only suggest. It is for the netizens ultimately to use them or ignore them.

Back to Contents ROBERT BROWNING
Today, May 7, is the birth anniversary of Robert Browning, English poet, 1812-1889. An elaborate chronology of Browning's life can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning. WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE LIFE OF ROBERT BROWNING? 1. At an early age of 12 he wrote a book of poetry. He destroyed it as he could not find a publisher. Consequently, we lost an opportunity to read what he would have thought at such an early age. -- As writers even we may find paucity of buyers for our works. The lesson is : better we not destroy. 2. Browning tried his hand in drama, but did not achieve much success. -- (Comment:) We have to see the environment of drama, when he wrote. Favourable environment facilitate success of even mediocre dramas, while receptivity may be poor when people are enamoured with something which they consider as more worthwhile. Thus failure does not necessarily mean, lack of substance in the work. 3. Browning's magnum opus was "The Ring and the Book" - a 12 volume poetry. 20,000 lines. A commercial and literary success. (Comment): Today, how many people will have time to read 20,000 lines of poetry? 4. Why do later works of writers are not extensively read? This happened in Browning's case also. Does creativity no longer ooze? Do they take readers for granted just as politicians take voters for granted.

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ROBERT BROWNING

Today, May 7, is the birth anniversary of Robert Browning, English poet, 1812-1889.

An elaborate chronology of Browning's life can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE LIFE OF ROBERT BROWNING?

1. At an early age of 12 he wrote a book of poetry. He destroyed it as he could not find a publisher. Consequently, we lost an opportunity to read what he would have thought at such an early age. -- As writers even we may find paucity of buyers for our works. The lesson is : better we not destroy.

2. Browning tried his hand in drama, but did not achieve much success. -- (Comment:) We have to see the environment of drama, when he wrote. Favourable environment facilitate success of even mediocre dramas, while receptivity may be poor when people are enamoured with something which they consider as more worthwhile. Thus failure does not necessarily mean, lack of substance in the work.

3. Browning's magnum opus was "The Ring and the Book" - a 12 volume poetry. 20,000 lines. A commercial and literary success. (Comment): Today, how many people will have time to read 20,000 lines of poetry?

4. Why do later works of writers are not extensively read?

This happened in Browning's case also. Does creativity no longer ooze? Do they take readers for granted just as politicians take voters for granted.

Back to Contents THOMAS HARDY'S HERO IN MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE
JUNE 2, (1840) today is the birthday of Thomas Hardy, memorable English writer of the Victorian Era. We shall recall two of his writings. One peculiar thing about his last rites is worth noting. His heart was buried at Stinsford. His other remains were buried at the poets' corner in the Westminster Abbey. (See www.wikipedia.org/wiki/thomas_hardy for more details. 1. Mayor of Casterbridge (1886): This novel has a rural setting. The hero (protagonist) Michael Henchard is not like a traditional hero. Some-what villainish. Initially he works as an agricultural labourer. He is addicted to alcohol. The circumstances forces him to sell his wife (Susan) and the only child (Elizabeth Jane) to a sailor, Newson. The child dies. He and his wife live separately for more than 18 years. He settles in another village. His fortunes change. He becomes rich and the mayor of the village. He develops second relationship with Lucette, but does not marry her. Susan has another child from the buyer (Newson), with the same name Elizabeth Jane. Susan and Jane come to Henchard's village, searching for him. Henchard does not want his village to know his ignoble past of selling wife and child. Tactfully, he remarries Susan and comes nearer to Jane, thinking that she is his daughter. Henchard has corn business. Farfrae is the Manager of it. Henchard and Farfrae develop differences in business. Farfrae opens his own shop. Susan dies, giving him a closed cover to be opened on the wedding day of Jane. Henchard comes to know that Jane is not his child, but Newson's child. He distances himself from her. Henchard's business fortunes turtle; he becomes as poor as when he sold Susan. Farfrae becomes the Mayor. Farfrae also develops relationship with Lucetta. When Henchard is away from the town Farfrae and the villagers conduct a mock trial of Henchad and Lucetta parading their effigies. This is called Skimmity-ride. Unable to bear the agony, Lucetta dies. Farfrae starts courting Jane. Henchard does not approve. Henchard opens Susan's envelope and learns that his original daughter Jane died. The living Jane is the daughter of Susan's buyer Newson. Henchard distances himself from Jane. Newson comes to visit his daughter Jane. Henchard sends him away telling him that Jane died. Newson goes back disappointed. Jane meets Newson and comes to know the truth that her father was Newson. Henchard attends Jane's wedding with Farfrae, with an intent to reconcile himself. He finds Newson at the wedding and leaves the village hurt, as he did not want to trouble her again. Jane sets out in search of Henchard. Henchard died. During his last days he was taken care of by Abel Whittle his former employee, whom he wanted to fire once. Whittle conveys to Jane, Henchard's message that nobody should remember him. 2. Far from the madding crowd.

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THOMAS HARDY'S HERO IN MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

JUNE 2, (1840) today is the birthday of Thomas Hardy, memorable English writer of the Victorian Era. We shall recall two of his writings.

One peculiar thing about his last rites is worth noting. His heart was buried at Stinsford. His other remains were buried at the poets' corner in the Westminster Abbey. (See www.wikipedia.org/wiki/thomas_hardy for more details.

1. Mayor of Casterbridge (1886):

This novel has a rural setting. The hero (protagonist) Michael Henchard is not like a traditional hero. Some-what villainish. Initially he works as an agricultural labourer. He is addicted to alcohol. The circumstances forces him to sell his wife (Susan) and the only child (Elizabeth Jane) to a sailor, Newson.

The child dies.

He and his wife live separately for more than 18 years. He settles in another village. His fortunes change. He becomes rich and the mayor of the village. He develops second relationship with Lucette, but does not marry her.

Susan has another child from the buyer (Newson), with the same name Elizabeth Jane.

Susan and Jane come to Henchard's village, searching for him.

Henchard does not want his village to know his ignoble past of selling wife and child. Tactfully, he remarries Susan and comes nearer to Jane, thinking that she is his daughter.

Henchard has corn business. Farfrae is the Manager of it.

Henchard and Farfrae develop differences in business. Farfrae opens his own shop.

Susan dies, giving him a closed cover to be opened on the wedding day of Jane.

Henchard comes to know that Jane is not his child, but Newson's child. He distances himself from her.

Henchard's business fortunes turtle; he becomes as poor as when he sold Susan.

Farfrae becomes the Mayor.

Farfrae also develops relationship with Lucetta.

When Henchard is away from the town Farfrae and the villagers conduct a mock trial of Henchad and Lucetta parading their effigies. This is called Skimmity-ride. Unable to bear the agony, Lucetta dies.

Farfrae starts courting Jane. Henchard does not approve.

Henchard opens Susan's envelope and learns that his original daughter Jane died. The living Jane is the daughter of Susan's buyer Newson. Henchard distances himself from Jane.

Newson comes to visit his daughter Jane. Henchard sends him away telling him that Jane died. Newson goes back disappointed.

Jane meets Newson and comes to know the truth that her father was Newson.

Henchard attends Jane's wedding with Farfrae, with an intent to reconcile himself. He finds Newson at the wedding and leaves the village hurt, as he did not want to trouble her again.

Jane sets out in search of Henchard.

Henchard died. During his last days he was taken care of by Abel Whittle his former employee, whom he wanted to fire once.

Whittle conveys to Jane, Henchard's message that nobody should remember him.

2. Far from the madding crowd.

Back to Contents ENGLISH LANGUAGE -SECOND PERSON PRONOUNS
"You" is the 2nd person pronoun in English. Used both in singular and plural numbers. Same when used between equals and unequals. In the old English there used to be a pronoun "thou". Used in singular. At that time there was a choice between "thou" and "you". When a person wanted to show respect to the other man he was choosing "you". Between equals or while conversing with God he was using "thou". Sanskrit and English both belong to the Indo-European group of languages. Now, see the similarities in using the second person pronouns: Sanskrit : tvam. English : thou; Sanskrit : yuvam. English : you. Even today Sanskrit is continuing both the pronouns. Often we may land in a perplexing situation whether to use tvam(thou) or yuvan(you), as it will reflect on the degree of respectability of receiver of our communication. Since, English uses the respectable plural "you are", it is a safer language. One always shows courtesy and receives courtesy. TEACHER STUDENT RELATIONS In Sanskrit, the teacher (guru) is kept on a higher pedestal and it is sinful to use the word tvam(thou) singular while referring to or speaking to the teacher. Such disciple will be reborn as a demon in a desertlike waterless forest. This is, too extreme a threat. Now it can provoke laughter. In the Western Colleges and Universities, there seems to be a custom of the student and the teacher moving so freely that they may smoke together, exchange drinks or play a game on an equal footing. Today's education has become more egalitarian in teacher - student relations. SANSKRIT VERSE gurum tvam krutva hum krutva guru saannithya bhaashan'a: aran'yee nirjalee dees'ee sambhaveet brahma raakshasa:. Pronunciation note: Letters followed by ' apostraphe have a retroflex sound. (gist: A person who addresses teacher in singular number or becomes irate towards teacher will be reborn as a demon in a desert jungle.

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE -SECOND PERSON PRONOUNS

"You" is the 2nd person pronoun in English. Used both in singular and plural numbers. Same when used between equals and unequals.

In the old English there used to be a pronoun "thou". Used in singular. At that time there was a choice between "thou" and "you". When a person wanted to show respect to the other man he was choosing "you". Between equals or while conversing with God he was using "thou".

Sanskrit and English both belong to the Indo-European group of languages. Now, see the similarities in using the second person pronouns:

Sanskrit : tvam. English : thou;
Sanskrit : yuvam. English : you.

Even today Sanskrit is continuing both the pronouns.

Often we may land in a perplexing situation whether to use tvam(thou) or yuvan(you), as it will reflect on the degree of respectability of receiver of our communication. Since, English uses the respectable plural "you are", it is a safer language. One always shows courtesy and receives courtesy.

TEACHER STUDENT RELATIONS

In Sanskrit, the teacher (guru) is kept on a higher pedestal and it is sinful to use the word tvam(thou) singular while referring to or speaking to the teacher. Such disciple will be reborn as a demon in a desertlike waterless forest. This is, too extreme a threat. Now it can provoke laughter. In the Western Colleges and Universities, there seems to be a custom of the student and the teacher moving so freely that they may smoke together, exchange drinks or play a game on an equal footing. Today's education has become more egalitarian in teacher - student relations.

SANSKRIT VERSE

gurum tvam krutva hum krutva
guru saannithya bhaashan'a:
aran'yee nirjalee dees'ee
sambhaveet brahma raakshasa:.

Pronunciation note: Letters followed by ' apostraphe have a retroflex sound. (gist: A person who addresses teacher in singular number or becomes irate towards teacher will be reborn as a demon in a desert jungle.