Specimen Appreciation of the Poem
It means to evaluate and analyze a poem in order to have its better understanding.
Write it in the following way and in paragraphs.
v Name of the poem and poet.
(Write in short about
the poet and poem)
v Point out the poem’s rhyme scheme,
v The figures of speech & tone of the
poem.
v Write Central Idea of the poem in
brief (around 4-6 sentences)
(You
can conclude the appreciation of the poem with the message it conveys.)
1.1 Where the Mind is
Without Fear…
‘Where the Mind is Without Fear…’ is one of Rabindranath Tagore’s vastly read and discussed poems. It was originally composed in Bengali and later he himself translated it into English. This poem is from his Nobel Prize winning anthology ‘Gitanjali’. The poem is in a free verse form so there is no rhyme scheme. Through Personification, Metaphor, Symbolism. The poet has expressed his ideas of heaven of freedom. This is an inspirational poem. The poet wants his motherland to be ‘heaven of freedom’. He wishes that education should be free to all. It should not be restricted on the basis of the caste. According to the poet, in a free country every person should be fearless and should have a sense of self dignity. Education should not be restricted to the particular class only but everybody should be allowed to acquire knowledge. He emphasizes the unity of not only of his countrymen but also of the entire world. He thinks there should be no division among people based on their caste, creed, colour, religion or other baseless superstitions. In the poem the poet’s message is very clear. If all the people of a nation are not wise enough to lead a happy and peaceful life free from all evils, they cannot enjoy their freedom well. So to the poet, only political freedom is not so important unless you are fearless, self-dignified, knowledgeable, truthful, hard-working and broad-minded enough to enjoy it fully.
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1.4 All the world's a
stage
"All the world's a stage" is written by William Shakespeare. It is an excerpt from his play "As You Like It". It is also popularly known as ‘The Seven Ages of Man’. He has compared the stages in the life of man to roles an actor would play on the theater stage. There is no rhyme scheme but the poem is in iambic pentameter. Some significant figures of speech like Simile, Metaphor, and Personification are used in the poem. The poem's theme is that man is the ultimate loser in the game of life. He says "all the world's a stage and "all the men and women merely its players". Every player plays seven roles during his life. The first stage is that of an infant when he is a helpless child in his mother's arms. In the second role, he is a child who goes "creeping like a snail unwillingly to school". The third stage brings before us the lover who sings woeful ballads for his beloved. In the youthful age the man is full of energy and might. Soldier, the fourth stage arrives swiftly; here man seeks fame though it is temporary and short lived. Fifth role is of a middle aged man. He has round belly. He cites modern instances. In sixth age, man becomes very weak. In the last stage, the condition of man becomes very miserable. Now he has grown very old and weak. He has no relations. He has lost all. Shakespeare wishes to make us realize that the short life we spend in this world is not worth it if we have a close observation of it. Life is nothing more than a shadow. So, spend it bravely and eagerly. Be not a passer-by. The poem gives a message to all men and women how to live life fullest and make the most of what we have. The poem describes living life by accepting what is & leaving it with grace and dignity is the best way to play our part.
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2.1 Animals
‘Animals’ is written by Walt Whitman. He was an innovative and influential America poet of nineteen century. He is regarded as the father of Free Verse. The poet has described the simplicity of the animals and greed and complex nature of human beings. The poem has no rhyme scheme. It has been written in free verse. The tone of the poem is reflective. There are figures of speeches like- Repetition, Alliteration & Hyperbole are used skillfully to give a poetic effect. The central idea of the poem is that animals today are better than humans and lead a more satisfying life. The poet elaborates how humans have moved away from their natural lifestyle and degraded in terms of values and well-being. The poet has used negation, the things that animals do not do, to highlight the human actions that he dislikes. The poet reminds that humans had all of the qualities (tokens) mentioned in the poem earlier but they dropped them; animals adopted them. The poem tells us indirectly that if we want to improve human relationships we should observe and pick up qualities that animals now possess and which we might have once possessed but have carelessly given up on the path of evolution.
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2.4 The Pulley
The poem, ‘The Pulley’ is written by George Herbert. He was a priest by profession. He wrote religious poems with a lot of imagery and conceits. The poem is metaphysical. The poet shows the relation between the Creator (God) and his creation (man). The rhyme scheme of the poem is “ababa.” The tone of the poem is spiritual and serious. There are figures of speech such as Pun, Metaphor, Paradox, Synecdoche, Antithesis,, Repetition and Inversion in the poem. The central idea of the poem is about the creation of man and all his luxuries and blessing showered on him by his creator (God). He showered all other gifts except the gift of ‘REST’ so that man would seek God when all the treasures bestowed on him would tire him out. The Pulley” shows how God lifts man towards himself with the pulley of restlessness. God showers his worshipers with all his blessings, somewhere he holds them up with a pulley drawn, to be grateful to him in all our endeavours. The poem helps us to understand the true human nature and how God draws man to himself with a pulley drawn. It teaches us to be humble and to be happy with whatever God has given us with.
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3.1 Night of the Scorpion
‘Night of the Scorpion’ is written by the poet Nissim Ezekiel. The poet portrays a well-detached black and white snapshot of Indian village life with all its superstitious simplicity. The poet dramatizes battle of ideas fought at night in lamplight between a good -evil and darkness-light. The tone of the poem is reflective. The poem is composed in free verse without any rhyme scheme. There are many figures of speech like Simile, Metaphor, and Onomatopoeia. The poem depicts the superstitious attitude of the villagers, the rationalistic attitude of the father and the selfless love of a mother. The poet has created a picture of a religious village. His mother is stung by a scorpion. The villagers try to paralyze the scorpion. Many attempts are made to relieve the mother’s pain but all in vain. The poet watches helplessly but his father who is skeptical and rational, tries to save his wife by using medicines. The mother thanks God that she was stung and not her children. The poet narrates a simple yet thought provoking, deep idea that leaves an intense effect on the reader. The poet depicted the selflessness and unconditional love of a mother who is stung by a scorpion.
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3.4. The Will to Win
‘The Will to Win’ is written by Berton Braley, one of the most widely read American poets. He is known for his motivational and inspiring poems. The tile of the poem aptly revels the poem’s theme that a strong desire and resolution to succeed in something will definitely lead a person to success. The poem has a motivational and inspirational tone. The poem has no rhyme scheme. It is written in free verse. Antithesis, Tautology, Repetition and Alliteration are the figures of speech used in the poem. Climax has been used to stress the importance of desire to win. The poem reflects that a person is bound to have victory if one has strong and unshaken desire to have it. Nothing is impossible in this world to achieve, provided your will is firm. The poem gives the message that if one has the will to win, nothing is impossible. God always helps a person to achieve his goals who firmly determines to go for his aim. The entire poem is written in one complete sentence using conditional clauses. The poet begins each stanza with the word ‘if’, there by laying down a list of conditions necessary for achieving success. The poem motivates one to work with determination and a strong resolution to achieve one’s goals. It is not preachy and impractical. It make one believe in their inner power to overcome even difficult tasks. It makes one believe in their inner power to overcome even difficult tasks.
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4.1 A Thing of Beauty is Joy Forever
‘A Thing of Beauty is Joy Forever’ is written by John Keats the famous romantic poet. This phrase is taken from John Keats’ poem, Endymion, it is the opening line that begins the poem as ‘A thing of beauty is joy forever.’ The poem tells about how nature and its wonder mesmerize us and take away all the sorrow that surrounds us from time to time. The tone of the poem is reflective and philosophical. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ‘aabbcc’. There are various figures of speech used in the poem such as Metaphor, Alliteration, Antithesis and Imagery. The poet says that any beautiful things give us unending pleasure. According the poet, there is a difference between ordinary and beautiful object. The effects of ordinary objects are temporary but the effect of the things of beauty permanent. It does not fade with time and stay in our sense. No time and space can put an end to the effect of the beauty of objects. Beauty acts like the soothing and relaxing which helps all the creatures to sleep peacefully and enjoy good health. The poet names some of the eternal beauty things like the sun, moon, greenery, rivers, daffodils, and sheep. The stories of brave men who sacrificed their lives are also beautiful.
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4.4 The Height of
the Ridiculous
The poem “The Height of the Ridiculous” by ‘Oliver Wendell Holmes’ is one of the humorous poems. The poet describes his own experience of writing a poem that was so funny, it made his servant fall sick for ten days after reading it. The tone of the poem is humorous. The rhyme scheme used in the poem is ‘abcba’. In order to make this poem more effective the poet had used the figures of speech alliteration, repetition, tautology and hyperbole. The central idea of the poem is to simply entertain his audience. When the poet wrote down his poem, he was sure that people would find them funny. He himself started laughing on reading the poem. He laughed so hard that he thought that he would die. This in itself was ridiculous but the height of the ridiculous was when his servants on reading the poem laughed so hard that he burst out a few buttons and split his waist band. The servant fells into a fit of laughter from which he recovered after ten days. During this period his worried master kept an eye on him observing the effect of his humour, Holmes did not dare to write again. It is a fun to read the poem. The effect of the poet’s funny lines on people reached the heights of absurdity so the poem is called ‘The Height of the Ridiculous.’
Excellent guidance
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