The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by author Toni Morrison.
Morrison is an acclaimed African American novelist, Pulitzer, and Nobel Prize winner whose works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the US.
The novel, which takes place in Lorain, Ohio, tells the life of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grows up during the years following the Great Depression. Set in 1941, the story reveals that due to her mannerisms and dark skin, she is consistently regarded as "ugly". As a result, she develops an inferiority complex, which fuels her desire for the blue eyes she equates with "whiteness". The point of view of the novel switches between various perspectives of Claudia MacTeer, the daughter of Pecola's foster parents, at different stages in her life. In addition, there is an omniscient third-person narrative which includes inset narratives in the first person.

Due to controversial topics of racism, incest, and child molestation, there have been numerous attempts to ban the novel from schools and libraries.
In Lorain, Ohio, nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house is burned down by her unstable, alcoholic, and sexually abusive father. Pecola is a quiet, passive young girl who grows up with little money and whose parents are constantly fighting, both verbally and physically. Pecola is continually reminded of what an "ugly" girl she is by members of her neighborhood and school community. In an attempt to beautify herself, Pecola wishes for blue eyes – a standard that was perpetuated through the gifting of white, blue-eyed dolls throughout her childhood. Additionally, most chapters' titles are extracts from the Dick and Jane paragraph in the novel's prologue, presenting a white family that may be contrasted with Pecola's. The chapter titles contain sudden repetition of words or phrases, many cut-off words, and no interword separations.

The novel, through flashbacks, explores the younger years of both of Pecola's parents, Cholly and Pauline, and their struggles as African-Americans in a largely White Anglo-Saxon Protestant community. Pauline now works as a servant for a wealthier white family. One day in the novel's present time, while Pecola is doing dishes, drunk Cholly rapes her. His motives are largely confusing, seemingly a combination of both love and hate. After raping her a second time, he flees, leaving her pregnant.

Claudia and Frieda are the only two in the community that hope for Pecola's child to survive in the coming months. Consequently, they give up the money they had been saving to buy a bicycle, instead planting marigold seeds with the superstitious belief that if the flowers bloom, Pecola's baby will survive. The marigolds never bloom, and Pecola's child, who is born prematurely, dies. In the aftermath, a dialogue is presented between two sides of Pecola's own deluded imagination, in which she indicates conflicting feelings about her rape by her father. In this internal conversation, Pecola speaks as though her wish for blue eyes has been granted, and believes that the changed behavior of those around her is due to her new eyes, rather than the news of her rape or her increasingly strange behavior.

Claudia, as narrator a final time, describes the recent phenomenon of Pecola's insanity and suggests that Cholly (who has since died) may have shown Pecola the only love he could by raping her. Claudia laments on her belief that the whole community, herself included, have used Pecola as a scapegoat to make themselves feel prettier and happier.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness begins on the deck of the Nellie, a British ship anchored on the coast of the Thames. The anonymous narrator, the Director of Companies, the Accountant, and Marlow sit in silence. Marlow begins telling the three men about a time he journeyed in a steamboat up the Congo River. For the rest of the novel (with only minor interruptions), Marlow narrates his tale.

As a young man, Marlow desires to visit Africa and pilot a steamboat on the Congo River. After learning of the Company — a large ivory-trading firm working out of the Congo — Marlow applies for and receives a post. He leaves Europe in a French steamer.

At the Company's Outer Station in the Congo, Marlow witnesses scenes of brutality, chaos, and waste. Marlow speaks with an Accountant, whose spotless dress and uptight demeanor fascinate him. Marlow first learns from the Accountant of Kurtz — a "remarkable" agent working in the interior. Marlow leaves the Outer Station on a 200-mile trek across Africa, and eventually reaches the Company's Central Station, where he learns that the steamboat he is supposed to pilot up the Congo was wrecked at the bottom of the river. Frustrated, Marlow learns that he has to wait at the Central Station until his boat is repaired.

Marlow then meets the Company's Manager, who told him more about Kurtz. According to the Manager, Kurtz is supposedly ill, and the Manager feigns great concern over Kurtz's health — although Marlow later suspects that the Manager wrecked his steamboat on purpose to keep supplies from getting to Kurtz. Marlow also meets the Brickmaker, a man whose position seems unnecessary, because he doesn't have all the materials for making bricks. After three weeks, a band of traders called The Eldorado Exploring Expedition — led by the Manager's uncle — arrives.

One night, as Marlow is lying on the deck of his salvaged steamboat, he overhears the Manager and his uncle talk about Kurtz. Marlow concludes that the Manager fears that Kurtz is trying to steal his job. His uncle, however, told him to have faith in the power of the jungle to "do away" with Kurtz.

Marlow's boat is finally repaired, and he leaves the Central Station (accompanied by the Manager, some agents, and a crew of cannibals) to bring relief to Kurtz. Approximately fifty miles below Kurtz's Inner Station, they find a hut of reeds, a woodpile and an English book titled An Inquiry into some Points of Seamanship.

As it crept toward Kurtz, Marlow's steamboat is attacked by a shower of arrows. The Whites fire rifles into the jungle while Marlow tries to navigate the boat. A native helmsman is killed by a large spear and thrown overboard. Assuming that the same natives who are attacking them have already attacked the Inner Station, Marlow feels disappointed now that he will never get the chance to speak to Kurtz.

Far from the Madding Crowd

1)  Far from the Madding Crowd
At the beginning of the novel, Bathsheba Everdene is a beautiful young woman without a fortune. She meets Gabriel Oak, a young farmer, and saves his life one evening. He asks her to marry him, but she refuses because she does not love him. Upon inheriting her uncle's prosperous farm she moves away to the town of Weatherbury.

A disaster befalls Gabriel's farm and he loses his sheep; he is forced to give up farming. He goes looking for work, and in his travels finds himself in Weatherbury. After rescuing a local farm from fire he asks the mistress if she needs a shepherd. It is Bathsheba, and she hires him. As Bathsheba learns to manage her farm she becomes acquainted with her neighbor, Mr. Boldwood, and on a whim sends him a valentine with the words "Marry me." Boldwood becomes obsessed with her and becomes her second suitor. Rich and handsome, he has been sought after by many women. Bathsheba refuses him because she does not love him, but she then agrees to reconsider her decision.

That very night, Bathsheba meets a handsome soldier, Sergeant Troy. Unbeknownst to Bathsheba, he has recently impregnated a local girl, Fanny Robin, and almost married her. Troy falls in love with Bathsheba, enraging Boldwood. Bathsheba travels to Bath to warn Troy of Boldwood's anger, and while she is there, Troy convinces her to marry him. Gabriel has remained her friend throughout and does not approve of the marriage. A few weeks after his marriage to Bathsheba, Troy sees Fanny, poor and sick; she later dies giving birth to her child. Bathsheba discovers that Troy is the father. Grief-stricken at Fanny's death and riddled with shame, Troy runs away and is thought to have drowned.

With Troy supposedly dead, Boldwood becomes more and more emphatic about Bathsheba marrying him. Troy sees Bathsheba at a fair and decides to return to her. Boldwood holds a Christmas, to which he invites Bathsheba and again proposes marriage; just after she has agreed, Troy arrives to claim her. Bathsheba screams, and Boldwood shoots Troy dead. He is sentenced to life in prison. A few months later, Bathsheba marries Gabriel, now a prosperous bailiff.

Poem

Poem

1) Amoretti

2)  To His Coy Mistress


3)  Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope

Novel

Novel

1) Kim

Play

Play

1) Othello by William Shakespeare

Short story

Short story

1) The Monkey’s Paw: W.W. Jacobs

2) Reunion: W. St. John Taylor

One Act Plays:

One Act Plays:

1)A Marriage Proposal

2)  The Boy Comes Home: A.A. Milne

S.Y.B.A.

1) One Act Plays


2) Short story


3) Play


4) Novel


5) Poem

Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope

Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope



This first verse of Ode on Solitude begins the analogy that will carry through the poem, seen through the life of an anonymous man who is described as being an ideal for happiness. His deepest desires, the narrator notes, extends a few acres of his own land, where he is content to live and work. The inclusion of the word “parental” suggests that the land belongs to this man by inheritance, and therefore belongs solely to him. “Content to breathe his native air” could also be a commentary on being happy with what a person has, rather than constantly wishing for more (although this might not have been quite as significant an idea in 1700, when the poem was written, as it may be interpreted today).

The verse structure and rhyming pattern is established here; three lines of eight syllables each, followed by one line of four syllables, rhyming in an ABAB pattern. This persists up until the final two stanzas, at which point the final line lengthens to five syllables.

Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread,

Whose flocks supply him with attire,

Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

In winter fire.

This verse simply means that the man is self-sufficient. His land, now shown to be a farm, provides for all of his needs — his herds provide him with milk, he is able to bake his own bread. In the summer, his trees provide ample shade, and in the winter the wood from those same trees can be lit to keep him warm. He has no need of anything beyond his own land.

While this verse reads strangely, as “bread” and “shade” do not rhyme, it is important to remember that Ode on Solitude was written over three hundred years ago. During this period in Britain, “bread” was pronounced with a longer vowel sound. While word pronunciation is a difficult thing to estimate and predict throughout different eras of history, it makes sense to believe that at one point, “bread” and “shade” could be used as rhymes for one another.

Blest! who can unconcern’dly find

Hours, days, and years slide soft away,

In health of body, peace of mind,

Quiet by day,

The narrator considered this farmer blessed! Time almost doesn’t have meaning for this man; his world provides for all of his needs. Hours go by, days go by, years go by, and everything remains the same. The health the man is in at the beginning of this cycle is the health he remains in when it is finished. Peace of mind is normal for him — what is there to trouble him? It seems as though, in a world of peace and quiet, there is absolutely nothing that could disrupt the life of this farmer, and the narrator sees that as a high blessing.

Sound sleep by night; study and ease

Together mix’d; sweet recreation,

And innocence, which most does please,

With meditation.

This verse sees the start of the final lines being five syllables long, and continues the sentiment of the verse before it. The idea of innocence is introduced here, and is a fair way to describe a man who lives his life in isolation; he is innocent, which means he himself probably doesn’t appreciate the kind of life he leads in the same way the narrator, author, or reader does. It’s a strange idea and casts the character of the farmer in a different light. He could, in fact, be viewed as a naïve and ignorant individual, one who simply doesn’t know enough about the world, or he could be viewed as living the ideal life.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

Thus unlamented let me dye;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lye.

The narrator of the poem clearly agrees with the latter of the above sentiments — here he wishes for escapism, and begs for an unseen life, one where he may live in solitude until his dying days, which will come and go, unnoticed, unremarked, and unadorned, a perfect life of solitude and peace.

Historical Context
Because of the very mature concepts expressed by Ode on Solitude, particularly the bit about wishing to die alone, many might be surprised to learn that Alexander Pope wrote Ode on Solitude in 1700, at the age of twelve. At the time, Pope had just moved to a small estate by a forest, in a small village far from the main British towns. His family had been forced to live there because of their Catholic faith, and it could be here, in the village now known as Popeswood (named after Pope himself) that the young child found his ideals in solitude, undoubtedly being inspired by his new natural landscape, particularly the Windsor Forest.

4) When We Two Parted: Lord Byron
This poem is kind of like an upset guy's internal monologue when he finds out his old flame is dating somebody else: "OMG, I remember when we broke up. It was cold, your cheek was cold, and that kiss you gave me was so unaffectionate. You made a vow to me, and you didn't even bother to keep it. Sigh. I should have known I would feel like this now, just based on how our goodbye was. I can't even hear your name without getting upset. You'll never know how deeply I mourn your loss. If I meet you again, I will simply be quiet and cry."

To His Coy Mistress

 To His Coy Mistress


To His Coy Mistress has been rightly lauded as a small masterpiece of a poem, primarily because it packs so much into a relatively small space. It manages to carry along on simple rhyming couplets the complex passions of a male speaker, hungry for sexual liason with a lady, before all devouring time swallows them up.

Lines 1 - 20

The argument begins with an appeal to the coy mistress based on the idea that, if time and space were limitless, they could spend their days in leisure, she by the exotic Ganges river for instance, he by the ebb and flow of the Humber.

Sex needn't be a priority in this fantasy world. The speaker's ironic tone even allows for his love of the lady a decade before the old testament flood, and she could say no to his advances up to the time when the Jews convert to Christianity - which would never ever happen of course.

This tongue-in-cheek allusion to religious notions of the end of the world, plus the underlying urges for physical intimacy, have been too much for certain Christian groups and others in more modern times. They would like the poem to be banned from being taught in school, claiming that it would negatively influence their children and that it condones predatory male behaviour.
Years he would spend growing his love, like a vegetable grows slowly, rooted and strong, in the earth. And he could bide his time admiring her physical beauty - her eyes, forehead, breasts and other parts.

This imaginary scenario is a clever and slightly ludicrous set up. He is clearly in awe of her body and totally wants her heart but because she refuses to comply he introduces this idea of a timeless, boundless love. Time becomes a metaphor for love but is little more than a limitless resource.

Lines 21 - 32

But all of the previous means nothing because the reality is that the clock is ticking louder and louder. Time is flying. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. Don't look over your shoulder. Don't look ahead either because there is a vast desert - eternity.

The speaker's tone starts to alter, becoming more serious. The future isn't that bright - her beauty will be lost in the sands of time - even worse, when she's dead and buried only the worms will experience what he presently longs for. What a challenging image.

And there are some who think quaint honour is an obscure reference to the female private parts (quaint was used as a noun in pre-Elizabethan times). He too will perish, consumed by his own passion, nothing but a pile of ash.

The last couplet of this section is perhaps the most quoted and puts a seal on the message: Let's make love while we're still alive.

Lines 33 - 46

The final part of this poem concentrates on the rational summing up of what's gone before. Note the first two words: Now therefore,..it's as if the speaker is saying, Look I've given you two quite valid reasons for you to succumb, consequently this final effort will make you see sense.

Never has an adverb carried so much weight.

And the speaker has clearly thrown out the fantasies and wishes of the previous scenes. Gone are space and time and death, in their place is the all-consuming present. Just look at the use of the word now (3 times in lines 33-38), suggesting that the speaker cannot wait a second longer for his postponed fulfilment.

The emphasis is on the physical - skin, sport, roll and tear - the language being tinged with aggression and forceful energy.

Line 34 is controversial as many later versions change the word glew for dew whereas in the original it is definitely glew. So the poet used this word to further the image of youthfulness, as line 33 imparts. The word glew, now archaic, could be the old fashioned word for today's glue but this wouldn't make sense in the context of the couplet: Sits on thy skin like morning glue,; what makes better sense is to look for variants of either glow or glee - we still say the skin glows but do not often say the skin is happy. Her skin has a morning glow.
As the lines progress the intensity increases, the passion starts to burn, and when the images of two birds of prey emerge, devouring time (instead of the other way round) the reader is surely taken beyond mere pleasures of the flesh.
Some think the poet is using the symbols of alchemy to express the deep lying sexual chemistry implied in the second unusual image, that of a ball of sweetness to signify the union of male and female.

The iron gates could well be the barrier, the threshold, through which the speaker wishes to emerge. He sets the imperative. If they come together then who knows what will happen? Common sense and the logic of time will no longer dictate their lives.

Amoretti

 Amoretti


Amoretti is a sonnet cycle written by Edmund Spenser in the 16th century. The cycle describes his courtship and eventual marriage to Elizabeth Boyle.

Amoretti was first published in 1595 in London by William Ponsonby. It was printed as part of a volume entitled Amoretti and Epithalamion. Written not long since by Edmunde Spenser. The volume included the sequence of 89 sonnets, along with a series of short poems called Anacreontics and Epithalamion, a public poetic celebration of marriage. Only six complete copies remain today, including one at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and one at Oxford's Bodleian Library. "The volume memorializes Spenser's courtship of Elizabeth Boyle, a young, well-born Anglo-Irish woman, and the couple's wedding on June 11, 1594" In the sonnets of Amoretti Spenser succeeds in "immortalizing the name of his bride to be ... by devices of word play".

Amoretti has been largely overlooked and unappreciated by critics, who see it as inferior to other major Renaissance sonnet sequences in the Petrarchan tradition. In addition, it has been overshadowed by Spenser's other works, most notably The Faerie Queene, his epic allegorical masterpiece. C. S. Lewis, among the most important twentieth-century Spenser scholars, said that "Spenser was not one of the great sonneteers".However, other critics consider Spenser's sonnets to be innovative and to express a range of tones and emotions, and are much more skillful and subtle than generally recognized.

Othello

Othello by William Shakespeare

In the opening of the play, Roderigo, a young gentleman who loved and hoped to get Desdemona, is talking about the elopement of Desdemona with Othello, the moor. Roderigo and Iago go to inform about the incident to her father Senator Brabantio. When he hears it, he rages. Immediately, Iago leaves Brabantio and reaches to Othello to give the news of Brabantion's anger and his reaction.

Othello and Desdemona are called at the office of the Duke of Venice. There Brabantion accused Othello of seducing his beautiful daughter by magic. In defense, Othello

The Duke assigns Othello as the general of the defense forces against the Turks, and as per order, he must leave for Cyprus immediately. Desdemona too wants to go with Othello to Cyprus. But with the Duke's permission, Othello manages for Desdemona to follow him later in another ship with Iago and his wife Emilia. Othello mistakenly thinks Iago as a trusted friend of his.

On the next side, Roderigo is upset as his beloved is married to another man. Here, Iago convinces him that soon Desdemona will be fed up with Othello and he can have a chance to follow her. Iago is secretly planning to destroy the happiness of Othello and ruin him using Cassio as an instrument.

Iago is on his mission to ruin the life of Othello. He starts planting the seeds of doubt in the mind of Othello about the fidelity of Desdemona. Iago makes Othello believe that her lover is no one but Cassio, the junior of Othello. Iago then schemes in such a way that Cassio, fully drunk, gets a fight with Roderigo. Because of the fight, Cassio loses his job. Cassio is convinced by Iago that if goes and talks to Desdemona about his jobless situation, then Othello may reinstate him in his job. Iago himself manages the meeting between Desdemona and Cassio at Othello's house at night. Then, Iago brings Othello in the scene when Cassio is pleading Desdemona. In fear of his senior Othello, Cassio leaves hastily which is noticed by Othello. Desdemona immediately and enthusiastically begins to beg Othello to excuse Cassio and also requests him to give him back his job. The moment Desdemona and Emilia leave, however, Iago begins to plant seeds of doubt and suspicion in Othello's mind.

By now, Othello is in the grip of Iago's manipulation. He demands of Iago some proof that Desdemona is unfaithful. Iago uses the handkerchief of Desdemona, which she unknowingly dropped, as a proof of her infidelity. Iago creates so many fake and manipulated scenes to convince Othello that Desdemona is not happy and fair to him. She loves the white skinned Cassio. Convinced of his wife's betrayal and enraged and grief-stricken, Othello rushes into thoughtless action, making an agreement with Iago that he, Othello, will kill Desdemona, and Iago will dispose of Cassio.

Meanwhile, Roderigo and Iago attack Cassio in the street, but it is Cassio who wounds Roderigo. Iago rushes out and stabs Cassio in the leg. Othello, hearing Cassio's cries for help, believes that half of the revenge is completed and hastens to fulfil his task of killing innocent Desdemona. Desdemona is in bed when Othello enters. He tells her to pray a last prayer as he has no wish to kill her soul. Realizing that he plans to murder her, Desdemona protests her innocence of any wrongdoing. Knowing that he doesn't believe her, she begs him to let her live just a little longer, but he smothers her with a pillow.

When innocent Emilia, Desdemona's servant and Iago's wife, comes to know about the plot of her husband, reveals the truth in front of Montano and Gratiano. She explains how unknowingly Desdemona's handkerchief came into Cassio's possession. She is told to be quiet but she refuses to be quiet, and Iago stabs her. Cassio though wounded confirms Emilia's story. When all the truth is disclosed about the innocence and fidelity of Desdemona and the bitter truth of Iago's plot, Othello cannot bear the pain and stabs himself and falls on the same bed where Desdemona lies dead.

Reunion: W. St. John Taylor

Reunion: W. St. John Taylor

Main Theme

We do not choose our family
The first-person narrator writes early in the story, "He was a stranger to me [...] but as soon as I saw him I felt that he was my father, my flesh and blood, my future and my doom" (183). Our parents determine our genetics, which in turn help determine our personality, traits, and habits. Even though the narrator says "that was the last time I saw my father" (185), his father will "return" every time he finds himself acting similarly to his father.
Intelligent people can be the worst
The father has a secretary, shows up on time, and at different points speaks French, Italian, and German. We do not learn his profession, but the father projects an educated air, albeit one which is abusive to the service staff.
The "sorrows of gin"
Cheever struggled with alcoholism himself, and the character of the father indeed drinks gin. While the reader is left to make sense of why the father acts like a raging alcoholic, at a simple level this character does not know how to relate to his estranged son in any sort of healthy, normal way, so he fills the void with abusive interactions with waitstaff, to the mild horror of his son.

The Monkey’s Paw: W.W. Jacobs

The Monkey’s Paw: W.W. Jacobs

The short story involves Mr. and Mrs. White and their adult son, Herbert. Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend who served with the British Army in India, introduces them to a mummified monkey's paw. An old fakir placed a spell on the paw, so that it would grant three wishes. The wishes are granted but always with hellish consequences as punishment for tampering with fate. Morris, having had a horrific experience using the paw, throws the monkey's paw into the fire but Mr. White retrieves it. Before leaving, Morris warns Mr. White that if he does use the paw, then it will be on his own head.

At Herbert's suggestion, Mr. White flippantly wishes for £200, which will enable him to make the final mortgage payment for his house, even though he believes he has everything he wants. The next day his son Herbert leaves for work at a local factory. Later that day, word comes to the White home that Herbert has been killed in a terrible machinery accident. Although the employer denies responsibility for the incident, the firm has decided to make a goodwill payment to the family of the deceased. The payment, of £200, exactly matches the amount Herbert suggested his father should wish for.

Ten days after their son's death and a week after the funeral, Mrs. White, mad with grief, insists that her husband use the paw to wish Herbert back to life. Reluctantly he does so, despite a premonition of summoning his son's mutilated and decomposing body. An hour or so later—the cemetery being two miles away—there is a knock at the door. As Mrs. White fumbles at the locks in a desperate attempt to open the door, Mr. White, terrified of "the thing outside", retrieves the paw and makes his third wish. Thus, the knocking suddenly stops. Mrs. White opens the door to find no one is there. She wails in disappointment and misery.

The Boy Comes Home: A.A. Milne

 The Boy Comes Home: A.A. Milne


The Boy Comes Home Short Summary: It is a room in Mr. James house where Philip is sitting for breakfast after the usual hour as determined by Mr. James. Nobody can have breakfast aft 8:00. But Philip has just returned from war and wants his breakfast after that hour. He asks Marry, the servant, to get him something to eat. She is very afraid of the cook, Mrs. Higgins. But Philips orders her to go and get the breakfast. Aunt Emily enters and seems very caring about Philip. She asks about his stay in the trenches. Then we come to know that Philip does not like much of his uncle James because his strict rules and regulations. There comes Marry telling the aunt that Mrs. Higgins wants to talk to her. Philip asks her to come to the room. Mrs. Higgins comes and says: "Breakfast is at eight o'clock. It always has been as long as I've been in this house, and always will be until I get further orders." Here Philips says that he is just giving further orders for this. She retaliates and the matter reaches even to resignation. Philip cuts a cheque and fires her from her job. All of a sudden the attitude of Mrs. Higgins changes and she says: "If it's only a bit of breakfast, I don't say but what I mightn't get it, if I'm asked decent." Uncle James talks to his wife, Emily, that he wishes to talk to Philip; he seems unhappy over Philip's unpunctuality. He tells her: "I have decided that the best thing he can do is to come into the business at once." She asks her husband if he will ask him or just impose his decision upon him. The uncle replies: "What's the difference? Naturally we shall talk it over first, and--er--naturally he'll fall in with my wishes." The aunt tells her husband that "he doesn't seem somehow like a boy who can be told what to do. I'm sure they've taught him something". But Uncle James does not seem to listen. 

A Marriage Proposal

A Marriage Proposal

Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov, a long-time neighbor of Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov, has come to propose marriage to Chubukov's 25-year-old daughter, Natalia. After he has asked and received joyful permission to marry Natalia, she is invited into the room, and he tries to convey to her the proposal. Lomov is a hypochondriac, and, while trying to make clear his reasons for being there, he gets into an argument with Natalia about The Oxen Meadows, a disputed piece of land between their respective properties, which results in him having "palpitations" and numbness in his leg. After her father notices they are arguing, he joins in, and then sends Ivan out of the house. While Stepan rants about Lomov, he expresses his shock that "this fool dares to make you (Natalia) a proposal of marriage!" Natalia then realizes that Lomov wanted to marry her and immediately starts into hysterics, begging for her father to bring him back. He does, and Natalia and Ivan get into a second big argument, this time about the superiority of their respective hunting dogs, Guess and Squeezer. Ivan collapses from his exhaustion over arguing, and father and daughter fear he's dead, sending them into another round of hysterics. However, after a few minutes he regains consciousness, and Chubukov all but forces him and his daughter to accept the proposal with a kiss. Immediately following the kiss, the couple gets into another argument over their dogs.

Kim

1) Kim

Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim takes place in British India in the late nineteenth century. Kim, a thirteen-year-old,was raised by the keeper of an opium den in Lahore. Of Irish descent, Kim has the ability to blend into different cultures. Because of his affinity for language, he is known as “Friend of All the World.” He soon meets a Buddhist lama from Tibet, who has come to seek Enlightenment at the Holy River. Kim decides he will accompany him to help him find the river—its location is a mystery to all. He tells his friend Mahbub Ali that he is going, and Ali gives him papers to bring to an Englishman in Umballa. On the night of their departure, Kim sees two strangers poking through Ali’s things and knows that there is danger.

On the train ride to Umballa, Kim and the Tibetan meet people from all walks of life, who celebrate an array of customs and speak many languages. When they arrive, Kim finds the Englishman, a colonel, and delivers the papers from Ali. It is only then that he learns there is war brewing and suspects the papers are directly related. On the outskirts of Umballa, Kim and the lama meet an older Indian soldier who fought for the British years before. Kim pretends to foretell a war, but the man asks for more information, which Kim provides. The soldier joins Kim and the lama, and the trio travel to the Grand Trunk Road.

There, Kim is captured by an English regiment. When they discover that he is Irish, and that his father, Kimball O’Hara, fought with them, they refuse to let him travel with the lama. The lama leaves to resume his search for the Holy River. Kim is left with a drummer boy, who verbally and physically abuses him. Despite this, Kim manages to get a letter to Mahbub Ali. Father Victor, who travels with the regiment, reveals a letter that says the lama will pay for Kim’s education at St. Xavier’s, a Catholic school for white men. Ali arrives and tries to convince Kim that going to St. Xavier’s is what is best for him. The Colonel Creighton arrives next;he wants to eventually employ Kim as a spy.

Kim spends a year at St. Xavier’s and, that summer, disguises himself as a Hindu beggar to go and work with Ali. He learns that Ali is a spy for the British Army, and that Ali will train him to become a spy in the Great Game. When Kim later overhears two strangers planning to kill Ali, he warns Ali and saves his life. Creighton then sends him to stay with Lurgan Sahib, another spy and a hypnotist. He and ChunderMookerjee oversee Kim’s spy training before Mookerjee takes Kim back to St. Xavier’s and gives him a medicine kit. Kim has a successful year at school, and trains again during his breaks.

When Kim is sixteen, he is discharged from school and given a disguise as a Buddhist priest so he can begin working as a spy. Kim has an identity crisis but meets up with the lama again. When Kim helps disguise a man in the spy network, the lama believes he has become capable of casting spells, and warns Kim against using such powers for pride. Kim meets up with Mookerjee, who tells him that the northern border is under threat. Five kings ruling the independent regions beyond the border are allying with the Russians. Mookerjee asks Kim to help, so Kim convinces the lama that they have to travel north.

When Mookerjee catches up with the spies, he discovers that one of them is actually French. He convinces them that he is an emissary, sent to welcome them by the Rajah of Rampur. When he and the spies reunite with the lama and Kim, the Russian tries to take the lama’s drawing of the Wheel of Life. A fight ensues, and the French spy escapes with their luggage. Kim tells the Buddhist servants with the French spy that the luggage is cursed, and so is able to relieve them of it—and the papers it contains. The lama falls ill and decides he must return south, so Kim convinces a woman who attempted to seduce him to provide a litter to carry the lama. He also tells her that he is a white man.

After a twelve-day journey, they arrive, and Mookerjee takes the secret documents to the colonel. Kim had fallen ill but, upon recovery, he slips back into his identity crisis that leads to an epiphany. Instead of feeling that he does not have a place in the world, he suddenly feels that he belongs with everyone. The lama reveals to Kim that he attained Enlightenment while he fasted. He tells Kim that his search is at an end and that his spirit has found the Holy River.

Poem

1)Daffodils


2)La Belle Dame sans Merci

3)Fear No More

4) Ozymandias

Ozymandias

Ozymandias
The speaker recalls having met a traveller from an ancient land who told him a story about the ruins of a statue in the desert of his native country. The traveller said that two vast legs of stone stand without a body and near this, a massive crumbling and broken stone-head lies, which is half sunk in the sand. The statue has a bitter and cruel expression of ‘sneer and cold command’ and this indicates that the sculptor had understood the passions of his subject really well. It was obvious that the statue was of a man who sneered with contempt for those who were weaker than himself, yet fed his people because of something in his heart.

On the pedestal near the face, the traveler reads an inscription in which the ruler Ozymandias tells anyone who might happen to pass by, basically, “Look around and see how awesome I am!” But there is no other evidence of his awesomeness in the vicinity of his giant, broken statue. There is just a lot of sand, as far as the eye can see. The traveler ends his story.

Fear No More

Fear No More
The poem Fear No More is a reflection of the affliction that human beings have when they are on this earth.
It is a comparison between the living and the dead and how the dead have a better fate then the living.
It states that death is impartial and does not discriminate on basis of wealth, gender or social status.
Every atrocity that the living have to face in their life time is gone with death.
The only thing that matters is the deeds that a person has done during their life time.

La Belle Dame sans Merci

La Belle Dame sans Merci
La Belle Dame sans Merci" ("The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy") is a ballad produced by the English poet John Keats in 1819. The title was derived from the title of a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier called La Belle Dame sans Mercy.

Considered an English classic, the poem is an example of Keats' poetic preoccupation with love and death. The poem is about a fairy who condemns a knight to an unpleasant fate after she seduces him with her eyes and singing. The fairy inspired several artists to paint images that became early examples of 19th century femme fatale iconography. The poem continues to be referenced in many works of literature, music, art, and film.

Daffodils

Daffodils

Hey There! The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive,” the memory flashes upon “that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the daffodils.”

Drama

1)All my Son

2) Tughlaq

Novels

1)Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

2) Moby-Dick