Subodh Bhattarai (English & Communication Notes - BBA/BBS/BBBS/BHM/BIM/BMS/MBA/MBS & +2)

Robert Frost (1874-1963) The poem Mending Wall was written and published by Robert Frost in 1914 in an influential collection of poems titled North of Boston . Throughout much of his career, a time when many Americans felt alienated by increasingly innovative poetry, Frost was an unusually popular poet. This is due in part to the fact that, while other writers tended to abandon the qualities of poetry of the previous century, Frost's work maintained many of poetry's more traditional conventions. Frost famously insisted, for example, that poetry should be written with formal meter, while many contemporary writers had already abandoned this convention. This doesn't mean, however, that Frost's poetry was straightforward or traditional in content or perspective, as Mending Wall illustrates. The poem is loosely written in  blank verse , meaning unrhymed lines consisting of five iambs in each line. Iambs  are metrical feet that have two syllables, one unstressed...

Gerard Manley Hopkins THE TEXT To a young child   Margaret, are you grieving [1]   Over Goldengrove [2] unleaving [3] ?   Leaves, like the things of man, you   With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?   Ah! as the heart grows older   It will come to such sights colder   By and by, nor spare [4] a sigh   Though worlds of wanwood [5] leafmeal [6] lie;   And yet you will weep know why.   Now no matter, child, the name:   Sorrow’s springs are the same.   Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed   What heart heard of, ghost guessed:   It is the blight [7] man was born for,   It is Margaret you mourn for. [1] Grieving: Being sad [2] Goldengrove: A place whose name suggests an idyllic play-world, orchard [3] Unleaving: Losing the leaves, being bare [4] Spare: Withhold [5] Wanwood: Pale trees [6] Leafmeal: Disorganized state [7] Blight: Destructive...

About Whitman: Walt Whitman (31 May 1819- March 26 1892) was an American poet and essayist. He achieved immense fame after the publication of his poetry collection, Leaves of Grass , in 1855. Having worked as a printer’s devil, he had self-published his poetry collection and kept revising it till the end of his time. He continues to be a favorite among litterateurs for his unique outlook. He was a humanist, and swung between transcendentalism and realism in his art. He is called the father of free verse even though he has not invented it, and it is in his poetry that free verse achieves its full potential. His work boldly asserts the worth of the individual, and the oneness of all humanity. Whitman's defiant break with traditional poetic concerns and style exerted a major influence on American thought and literature. Born near Huntington, New York, Whitman was the second of a family of nine children. His father was a carpenter. The poet had a particularly close relationsh...