An Essay on Man- Alexander

Pope
In these lines the man is placed face to face with his
identity, without parody the good God.
Section I (1-52): Section I argues that man should not pry into
Gods affairs but rather study himself, especially his nature,
powers, limits, and frailties.
She actually intends for man to understand his place in
the universe, the classical meaning of Know thyself is
that man should look inwards for truth rather than
outwards. Having spent most of the first epistle
describing mans relationship to God as well as his fellow
creatures, Popes true meaning of the phrase is clear. He
then confuses the issue by endeavoring to convince man
to avoid the presumptuousness of studying Gods
creation through natural science. Science has given man
the tools to better understand Gods creation, but its
intoxicating power has caused man to imitate God. It
seems that man must look outwards to gain any
understanding of his divine purpose but avoid excessive
analysis of what he sees. To do so would be to assume
the role of God.

An essay on Criticism
An epigram is a short statement similar to making a point
in prose, but it is used specifically in verse.
"An Essay on Criticism" is directed not to the reader, but
to the would-be critic.
It is written in a type of rhyming verse called heroic
couplets.
Not only does this piece provide the budding critic with
sound advice as well as criticism, it also provides an
insight into the "chief literary ideals of Pope's age."
One epigram notes that often mistakes are singularly
made, affecting only the individual, but mistakes take on
enormous ramifications when placed in verse.
A Fool might once himself alone expose,
Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose.
This is his first warning, for the epigrams in this piece
deal primarily with advice for the would-be critic, along
with warnings and pointers. Another epigram notes that it
is hard to find genius in poets, but rarer still to find a
critic with good taste. Here Pope sets his sights
specifically on the critic.
In Poets as true Genius is but rare,
True Taste as seldom is the Critick's Share;

Another example is Pope's advice regarding poets and

critics, and who should "judge" and teach others. He
states that poets and critics are inspired from the same
place: Heaven. Those who would judge, write and teach
must prove themselves able by excelling themselves,
being good writers. For without the ability to do these
things well, one cannot hope to justly or accurately judge
the efforts of others.

Sir Roger de Coverley

Sir Roger was initially conceived of as an aging
Restoration rake. In the old days he. . . was what you call
a fine gentleman, had often supped with my Lord
Rochester and Sir George Etherege, fought a duel upon
first coming to town, and kicked Bully Dawson in a public
coffeehouse for calling him youngster.
By the time of THE SPECTATOR, however, he had been
mellowed by years of unrequited love for a perverse
beautiful widow of the next county to him, and had
become that quaint and lovable representative of the Tory
landowning class, an amiable but rather ineffectual
anachronism who was to stand as the most popular and
the best remembered of the many characters.
Steele, se pare, a fost creatorul lui. Asta a fost copil
creierul Sir Richard poate fi dedus din faptul c n cele
nou contribuiilor Steele Sir Roger triete cel mai
independent ca un personaj. Desigur poveste de dragoste
bun cavaler a fost creaia lui Steele.Frumos i pervers
vduva este introdus, mpreun cu cavalerul nsui; apoi,
n lucrri 113 i 118, povestea plin de patruzeci ani Sir
Roger de frustrare la minile ei este desfasurata.

A valediction Forbidding
Mourning- by John Donne
the title reflects the content of the piece: a farewell. The
poem is thus in the tradition of the cong damour, a
consolation when lovers part.
The poem begins with the image of virtuous men mildly
accepting death. The separation of body and soul is so
gentle that those friends surrounding the dying cannot
tell whether the men are alive or not. So, Donne says,
should he and his beloved part, because they do not want
to reveal the quality of their love to the uninitiated. Here,
then, is the first reason to forbid mourning.
Through a series of elaborate metaphors, Donne offers a
second reason. When an earthquake occurs, causing only
small cracks in the ground, everyone is disturbed and
regards the event as ominous, but when planets move
apart, though the distances are great, no harm results.
Earthly lovers, Donne continues, cannot accept
separation; they fear it as people do earthquakes,
because sensory and sensual stimuli make up the
entirety of their affection. Donne and his beloved,

however, who love spiritually as well as physically, are

less troubled by being apart. Their two souls, being one,
remain united even when their bodies are apart, just as
gold stretches thinly without breaking.
Even if the lovers retain their individual souls, they are
divided only like the two parts of a compass used to
describe a circle, linked at the top and working in unison.
When the compass draws a circle, one point remains
stationary in the center but leans toward the other, and
by remaining firmly in one place, the fixed point
guarantees that its partner will complete its circuit. So
the beloved will, by remaining at home, ensure Donnes
return; since he will certainly come back, mourning is
inappropriate.

The Constant Lover- Sir John

Suckling
The intent in this poem was to amuse the audience .
For most people, love is a very serious subject. Sir John
Suckling consider love a teasing. The constant lover is
about a man who was in love three days, and thinks that
he may still be in love for three more days, but only if
things continue going the way he wants. The speaker
states, Out upon it! I have Loved for three whole days
together;/ And am like to love three more, / If it prove fair
weather. The speaker's loyalty to his beloved does not
seem very strong since it depends on an uncomplicated
relationship. Most relationships are complicated at some
time or another; even the good ones. In the second
stanza, the speaker states, Ere he shall discover/ In the

whole wide world again/ Such a constant lover. The

speaker is saying that if a more constant lover than he
could be discovered, that time would stop. The speaker's
claim is ironic because three days is not a long time to be
in love with someone. The speaker's focus on the
woman's beauty reveals how shallow he is when he
states, Had it been but she, / And that very face, / There
had been at least ere this/ A dozen in her place.The
speaker states his love is the reason that he's been
faithful. The only reason for his faithfulness to her is
because her beauty has kept his interest. This shows how
superficial the speaker really is. To truly love someone,
you must love who he or she are on the inside and the
outside. One doesn't love a person just because they are
beautiful. The speaker has been in love for three days,
and only expects to still be in love only if things continue
to go his way. The speaker states the main reason he is in
love is because of the woma...

The Definition Of Love

Andrew Marvell
The poem constitutes an exploration of love by depicting
two perfect yet irreconcilable loves the love of the
speaker, and the love of his lover. These two loves are
perfect in themselves and they face each other in an
opposition of perfection, but, according to the speakers
formulation, that same condition prevents them from
meeting in the physical sphere.

In the first stanza, the speaker makes an odd and striking

claim that his love is so unique and rare it must have
been born of Despair and Impossibility, which is a
surprisingly dark and tragic formulation of love. The
speaker goes on to explain that only despair could have
revealed this love to him, because it shows both the utter
perfection of the love he feels, and at the same time, the
impossibility of its physical fulfillment. Hence, the speaker
constructs an oxymoron Magnanimous Despair as
an attempt to bring his reader closer to understanding
the nature of his love.
Marvell further develops the speaker's frustration at
being separated from his beloved in stanza three, where
the speaker elaborates upon the role of Fate. The speaker
claims that his perfect love would lead him to the place
where his extended soul is fixed,However, Fate actively
prevents this by erecting an iron wedge between the
two lovers.
In the final stanza, Marvell delivers two definitions of the
speakers love: it is both the conjunction of the mind
and the opposition of the stars. This two-part definition
encapsulates the divided nature of their love. On one
hand, the image of conjunction suggests proximity and
harmony, while the image of opposition implies that their
love can never be fully realized. This idea implicitly refers
to the power of Fate in the physical universe, which in this
case, prevents the lovers from meeting on the plane of
material embodiment.

On Shakespeare- John Milton

On Shakespeare is a sixteen-line epitaph written in
iambic pentameter and divided into heroic couplets, an

unusual meter for John Miltons poetry. In English verse,

the heroic couplet was not a smoothly honed stanza until
after Miltons poetic career had concluded. The poem was
originally published under the title An Epitaph on the
Admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare, though the
title Milton used in the 1645 edition of his lyric poems has
been accepted ever since. The epitaph is related to the
classical epigram, a brief lyric that includes pithy wit and
polished verses. An epitaph, usually a brief poem, deals
with a serious or philosophical subject in a witty manner.
The poems were often written on the occasion of a death,
as in Miltons An Epitaph on the Marchioness of
Winchester. The genre designation suggests a
tombstone inscription, though few known poetic epitaphs
actually served that purpose. William Shakespeares own
four-line epitaph, inscribed on his gravestone in
Stratfords Holy Trinity Church, represents a notable
exception. In Miltons lengthy epitaph on the marchioness
of Winchester, he describes her family background,
details the circumstances surrounding her death, and
proclaims her heavenly reward for suffering. However,
since Shakespeares death occurred fourteen years
before the composition date, Milton makes no allusion to
death and mourning in the poem commemorating him.
Instead he centers upon the immortality that art offers.

To a Louse- Robert Burns

In stanza one, Burns, sitting in church sees a louse crawling upon
a Lady's bonnet in church. Now, I reckon in Burns' time, most
people would have little visitors most of the time, but a fine lady?
And in church? Oh dear! Notice how Burns refers to the louse as a
'ferlie' which means a wonderful little creation. He always had
time to marvel at Nature. He's amused by the cheek of the louse
in daring to crawl where it does, but he thinks it won't get much
of a meal from this particular host.
In stanza two, he lets it all go on the poor little louse - but he's
obviously hiding his own amusement.- "How dare you set your
foot upon her/ So fine a lady! Go somewhere else and seek your
dinner/ On some poor body". The louse will get a better meal if it
sticks to the poor man's house, and the third stanza elaborates on
that. You don't need to understand Ayrshire dialect to guess at
what a 'beggar's hauffet squattle may be. You know what a squat
is? There's still plenty folk have to live on the streets. Obviously,
the louse will find plenty company in the beggar's squat, there are
'shoals and nations' of louse-land living there!
In stanza four, the louse finally obtains his objective, the top of
the bonnet, having passed through the fatt'rils . What a climb for
the little guy! And then in stanza five, he sticks out his nose like a
grozet .
Stanza six is where the fashion terms get a bit complicated.
In stanza seven, Burns laughs inwardly at 'Jenny' who tosses her
head and preens herself, while all around her are pointing, and
winking at the smart wee louse, which has climbed right to the
top of the bonnet, and is surveying the whole congregation.
So, the final message. If only we could see ourselves from the
point of view of others, we wouldn't spend so much time making
complete fools of ourselves. It reminds me a bit of what Atticus
Finch says to Jem in To Kill A Mockingbird, that you can't really
understand a person until you can walk about in their shoes.
Burns is really poking fun at us all - fashion freaks everywhere. We
spend ages, and fortunes, prettying ourselves up in the latest

looks, but if only we could see what other people do when we

strut into their presence!

The Tiger- William Blake

The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome
tiger what kind of divine being could have created it:
What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful
symmetry? Each subsequent stanza contains further
questions, all of which refine this first one. From what part
of the cosmos could the tigers fiery eyes have come, and
who would have dared to handle that fire? What sort of
physical presence, and what kind of dark craftsmanship,
would have been required to twist the sinews of the
tigers heart? The speaker wonders how, once that
horrible heart began to beat, its creator would have had
the courage to continue the job. Comparing the creator to
a blacksmith, he ponders about the anvil and the furnace
that the project would have required and the smith who
could have wielded them.

The Lamb- William Blake

The poem begins with the question, Little Lamb, who
made thee? The speaker, a child, asks the lamb about its
origins: how it came into being, how it acquired its
particular manner of feeding, its clothing of wool, its
tender voice. In the next stanza, the speaker attempts
a riddling answer to his own question: the lamb was
made by one who calls himself a Lamb, one who
resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb.
The poem ends with the child bestowing a blessing on the
lamb.

Illustrate the characteristics of Cavalier poetry through textual analysis

The Cavalier are a group of poets associated with the Court as cavaliers,
not only in the sense of being Royalists in opposition to the Puritan
Roundheads, but also as Renaissance Courtiers, having accepted the ideals
of the Renaissance gentleman popularised by Castigliones The Courtier: at
once a lover, soldier, wit, man of affairs, musician and poet. Moreover, poets
like Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, Richard Lovelace and Robert Herrick
were fervent admirers of Ben Jonsons lyric verse, whose eloquence and
elegance they tried to imitate in their own artful poems.
The characteristic theme of their verse is love. Yet its treatment differs from
the Elizabethan praise of an abstracted and idealised beauty, being more
carefree, flippant, and often sexual. The dichotomy between Art / Nature is
also present in much Cavalier poetry, which often contains pastoral scenery
and images, drawn from a combination of a nostalgic English past and
classical mythology. Most poems are also hedonist, embodying the very
essence of the Latin carpe diem (seize the day) philosophy, while the dark
side of the poems is provided by the sense of impending decay or death
implied in the theme of transience.

Illustrate the characteristics of Metaphysical verse through textual analysis

Metaphysical Poetry discuss the uses of metaphors of colonization in

metaphysical poetry and Milton. "Movement across or through space
becomes a process of colonization of that space." During the period of
Milton's Paradise Lost as well as myriad of poets construction of an epoque
submerged in metaphysical literature, a number of significant events both
socio-political, entwined with a systematic religious metamorphism of the
sixteenth and seventeenth century led to a time of unrest and discovery....
The term was first applied by John Dryden when, in 1693, he criticised Donne
because he affects the Metaphysics in his amorous verses where nature
only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice
speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts. Dr. Samuel

Johnson consolidated the critique in the 18th-century, when he described the

far-fetched nature of their comparisons as a kind of discordia concors; a
combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in
things apparently unlike. It was only in the 20th-century that their poetry
was brought back to favour, when T.S. Eliot defended the style as fusing
reason with passion and showing a unification of thought and feeling.