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HERE I LOVE YOU - Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

Here I Love You Here I Love You (1924) is an evocation of a romantic mood. The poem is split into six stanzas of uneven lengths. The stanzas range from three-six lines, with no rhyme scheme. The speaker in this poem loves his departed beloved. He passionately recalls the sweet moments he spent in her company. The pathos of separation is centralised by the poet’s skilful handling of “here” and “there” by using two sets of contrasting pictures. This romantic poem is held together by a series of brilliant and startling (surprising) images of love and death.   The speaker is sad because of his separation from his girlfriend/beloved. His beloved is not with him. She is far away. The speaker uses ‘here’ to suggest this mortal world and ‘there’ to suggest out of this world. She is beyond his reach. She is beyond mortal’s reach. He feels alone in this mortal (physical) world. But his love for her is still the same as in the past. He passionately recalls the sweet moments he spent in her c...

THE STRONGER - August Strindberg (1849-1912)

Characters : MME X ., an actress, married BOB  (Husband) MLLE Y ., an actress, unmarried (Amelia) A WAITRESS SETTING: The corner of a ladies' cafe, two little iron tables, a red velvet sofa, and several chairs. The Stronger , a one-act play by August Strindberg explores the power dynamics between two women, X and Y . It is universally considered a classical short play and a monodrama of great psychological insight (depth). The play represents a triangular situation in which two actresses—one married, Mrs X, and one unmarried, Miss Y—meet accidentally at a café while Christmas shopping and begin considering their past competition in love for Mrs X’s husband. The play is unique in that the subject of the discussion, the husband, never appears, and for the fact that only one of the women, Mrs X, speaks, while the other, Miss Y, merely reacts.  The play is simple. Two characters of the play are two women simply called Mrs X and Miss Y. Here we can see the role and position ...

THE USE OF FORCE - William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

Characters : Doctor Mathilda (Daughter) Father (Mr Olson) Mother (Mrs Olson) The story The Use of Force written by William Carlos Williams is presented as a struggle of will between the two main characters : an adult doctor, who finds himself increasingly unable to maintain his professional attitude, and a sick girl who fights throughout her examination. The simplistic saying “Violence is never the answer”, is disproved by the action of this story.  The story shows a conflict between the doctor and a determined child patient who has been suffering from fever ( diphtheria , a fatal illness if left untreated) for three days. The narrator of this story is a doctor who is called to check on a new patient Mathilda by her mother Mrs Olson. Mrs Olson, the patient's mother, takes him into the kitchen where the fully-dressed child is sitting on her father's lap (the sick child is being kept in the kitchen by the stove, to keep her warm). The doctor looks things over and finds tha...

PROFESSIONS FOR WOMEN - Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Summary : Virginia Adeline Woolf (1882-1941) was an English novelist and essayist, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. She was one of the leaders in the literary movement of modernism.  The speech of  Professions for Women  was given in 1931 to the Women’s Service League by Virginia Woolf. It was also included in  Death of a Moth  and  Other Essays  in 1942. Throughout the speech, Virginia Woolf brings forward a problem that is still relevant today:  gender inequality .   Woolf’s main point in this essay was to bring awareness to the phantoms (illusions) and obstacles women face in their jobs. Woolf argues that women must overcome special obstacles to become successful in their careers. She describes two hazards she thinks all women who aspire to professional life must overcome: their tendency to sacrifice their own interests to those of others and their reluctance (hesitancy) to challenge c...

THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS - Brigid Brophy (1929-1995)

In the essay The Rights of Animals , the essayist Brigid Brophy urges human beings to treat animals with due respect. She suggests people not exploit animals for any reason. She wittily argues that the responsibility of human beings is to behave decently toward animals. She asserts that our relationship with animals is one of unremitting (continual) exploitation and argues that we are under a moral obligation to respect their rights and spare them pain and terror.   The essayist observed that "the exploitation of the other animal species by the human-animal species is the most unscrupulous, the cruellest, the most nearly universal and the longest-lasting exploitation of one class by another class in the history of the world. And the pattern of mental blind spots that allows us to do it is a pattern very easily adaptable to any other of the (fashionable) tyrannies ... “   Brophy notes that while many political activists include animal rights in their political agenda, others fe...

JUST LIKE GEORGE BERNARD SHAW - James Herriot (1916)

Characters : James Herriot (A veterinary doctor/narrator) Mr Casling (a 60 years old man/owner of Casling Farm/has 2 sons) Alan and Harold (30 years old sons of Casling) Calf (whose leg is broken and Herriot came for its treatment) In this passage from The Lord God Made Them All, James Herriot, the Yorkshire, England, veterinarian and writer, describes a day when he would have been wise to remain silent. In The Lord God Made Them All , James Herriot includes a series of narratives that recount his veterinary practice from just after World War II until the early 1960s.   Herriot remembers talking with farmers who are not at all well-read. He once made a comment about a cow with a broken leg, since he had read in the newspaper that George Bernard Shaw had broken his leg as well. The farmer ended up believing that Shaw was a friend of Herriot’s, and the veterinarian believes that there was probably an amusing comment at the farmer’s dinner table that evening.  

ROOT CELLAR - Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)

Theodore Roethke’s  Root Cellar  is a motivational poem that spreads the message to live and thrive even through the worst, deadly scenarios in life. One should not lose hope and grow along the way, clearing all the obstacles that may come. To describe this concept, Roethke describes a root cellar/greenhouse where all the plants are on the brink (verge) of dying. Foul odours filled the place, making it impossible for one to breathe. In fact, none can imagine living in that place. However, the plants still fight for the light, struggling for existence.  Roethke begins his poem “Root Cellar” on a very disgusting note. It is set in an old dank (damp) cellar or greenhouse that belonged to the poet’s father. In the beginning, the poet exclaims, “ Nothing would sleep in that cellar ,” stating that the place is too awful for human sharing. The cellar is “ dank as a ditch ,” meaning it is too gloomy for the eyes. Roethke uses such words to evoke the senses of dirt, filth, and abs...

ON WARTS - Lewis Thomas (1913-1993)

Warts are non-cancerous skin growths that develop on different parts of the body and come in various forms. They are caused by viruses. Warts are contagious (spreadable) and very common: Most people will have one at some point in their lives. Although they can affect people of any age, warts are most common among children and teenagers. Warts are wonderful structures. They can appear overnight on any part of the skin, like mushrooms on a damp lawn, full-grown and splendid in the complexity of their architecture. Viewed in stained sections under a microscope, they are the most specialised of cellular arrangements, constructed as though for a purpose. They sit there like turreted (small towers extending above a building) mounds (rises/mounts/hills) of dense, impenetrable (unsolvable) horn, impregnable (secure), designed for defence against the world outside. In a certain sense, warts are both useful and essential, but not for us. As it turns out, the exuberant (excited) cells of a wa...

THE IDEAL OF CRAFTSMANSHIP - C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)

Summary: C. Wright Mills was a social-conflict theorist who argued that a simple few individuals within the political, military and corporate realms actually held the majority of power within the United States and that these few individuals made decisions that resounded throughout all American lives. The major focus of Mills's work was the subjects of social inequality, the power of elites and their control of society, the shrinking middle class, the relationship between individuals and society, and the importance of historical perspective as a key part of sociological thinking. Through this essay, the essayist defines craftsmanship and provides six- features associated with craftsmanship: According to the writer, craftsman works for pleasure. He gives whole attention to the quality of the product. To create, he forms the image of the product first in the mind. Then, he produces the product spontaneously. For him, creating art is primary, whereas money or reputation or salvation i...

THE COMPANY MAN - Ellen Goodman (1941)

In this essay, Goodman describes a man who died at fifty-one. Main Character - Phil Supporting Characters:   Helen (Spouse) 1st Child: Son: Hard-working executive in a   manufacturing firm down South 2nd Child: Daughter: 24 years and newly married. She lives near her mother 3rd Child: Son - high school graduate   He died at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning Goodman tells the story of Phil, a hard-working businessman who eventually worked himself to death.  She uses the name ‘ company man ’ to show how Phil was not just a man but was an extension of his work.  In the essay, Goodman uses Phil’s name only a handful of times.  By not saying his name, she uses Phil as a symbol for all businessmen and women who work themselves to literal death. One of the most powerful lines in the essay is the last line.  At the end of the narrative, Phil’s boss begins to look for a replacement for him on the day of the funeral and asks, “ who’s been working the hardest? ”  Goo...

EVELINE - James Joyce (1882-1941)

Summary:  The story ‘Eveline’ by James Joyce is about a young Irish woman who is of nineteen years of age. The story is narrated in the third person by an anonymous narrator. In the story, Eveline plans to leave her abusive father and poverty-stricken existence in Ireland, and seek out a new, better life for herself and her secret lover Frank (a sailor). She wants to start her new journey of a better life with Frank and wanted to shift to Buenos Aires, Argentina.   In this story, James Joyce depicted a realistic version of Dublin at his time. He highlights the theme of memory, responsibility, decisions, conflict, escape, guilt, paralysis and letting go (or rather the inability to let go). The story exhibits the contemporary Irish people’s inability to move. They fear starting a fresh new life. The writer captures Dubliners’ longing for the past. They fail to move ahead because of their past life in Dublin. The situation is the same with Eveline. The protagonist, Eveline is a ...

CHAPTER 4: Electronic & Other Messages