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ENGLISH POETRY

                                          1.   LIKE AS THE WAVES

                                 – William
Shakespeare.

                  (
Critical summary given by Prof. T.P. Ashok, L. B. College, Sagar. )

In this sonnet, Shakespeare attempts to explore the
concept of time. According to Shakespeare, time is not static, but dynamic.
Movement is the very quality of time. The minutes do not stop, but move
continuously. The poet compares these minutes to the waves. Here, one is
reminded of the proverb: “Time and tide waits for none”. Expanding further, the
poet relates the nature of time to the nature of life itself, as change is an
essential quality of Life. Movement is an unavailable factor with time. It only
knows how to race forward. Shakespeare attempts to concretize this abstract
with the help of an image. For ex., everything that is young becomes old. In
this way the poet suggests a movement of time from childhood to old age.
Likewise here is a movement from light to darkness. The new born light will be
eclipsed soon. One may also think of the images of sunrise and sunset. Time
also leaves certain physical marks on the human body. It casts away all the
precious things of life. Beauty, strength, or glory will be crushed by the
cruel hand of time. Shakespeare now compares time to scythe which mercilessly
cuts everything down. The beautiful brow will be replaced by wrinkles.

But Shakespeare seems to be undaunted by the plot of
time. He believes that man has certain tools to counter this mighty, cruel
time. Normally time is uncontrollable; one cannot stop time. But Shakespeare
finds the crucial solutions in Art. Shakespeare thinks that his friend will be
immortal in his verse. Poetry has no death. Only in art man preserves his life,
his memories. Thus poetry emerges even stronger than death, stronger than time.
Time has no effect on great art. It can kill everything, but Art remains
forever.

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LITERARY CRITICISM

LITERARY TERMS

MIMESIS   :

According to Aristotle, all poetry is mimetic. Mimesis means imitation or representation.  Epic, tragic, comic and ditty romp – all these forms are imitative or representative.  This imitation or representation can be done in various aspects.  For instance, a real situation or an imaginary situation can be taken and represented.  And this can be done through any form such as epic, tragic or comic.  Plato objects the poet imitating an ideal world and he calls him ‘a liar’. A poet imitates reality without necessarily understanding it.  Plato’s objection, therefore, is that arts of imitation are twice removed from the truth.  According to him, the real artist, who knew what he was imitating, would be interested in realities and not in imitations.

CATHARSIS   :

‘Catharsis’ was first used by Aristotle. He meant by ‘Catharsis’ – the feeling that is aroused in the spectators after witnessing a tragedy.  A tragedy must excite pity and fear.  Thus a tragedy must enable us to leave the theatre with calmness in mind where all passions spent.  That means, the mind of the spectator must be purged.  Probably Aristotle meant it to be a kind of therapeutic (contributing to the cure of disease) value for tragedy.  Many critics do not agree with him.  I. A. Richards analyses this ‘Catharsis’ and opines that art balances the mind.  A Society that cultivates culture and art is more well-balanced and keeps a peaceful mind.  This is the cause of appreciating tragedy.  Hence Catharsis, according to him, is found in cultured societies.  His theory is, thus, a psychological theory.

HAMARTIA   :                                                                                                       

‘Hamartia’ etymologically means the missing of a mart (target) with bow and arrow.  In Greek drama it means, the larger tragedy of fate, man’s suffering at the hands of God and man’s stoic endurance.  In other words, man will in inexorably lose in the struggle against God. “As flies to wanton boys, are we to Gods, they kill us for their sport”.  (Shakespeare: KING LEAR)

The term came to mean later, moral responsibility.  According to one school of criticism, ‘hamartia’ is the crux of a deeply moral kind of tragedy.  The tragedy comes because of man’s punishable weaknesses and his due punishment.

PERIPETY   :

Peripety is the change from one stage of things within the play to its opposite of the kind described.  In other words, it is the reversal of fortune.  For instance, in ‘Oedipus’, the opposite stage of things is produced by the messenger who comes to gladden Oedipus and to remove his fears as to his mother.  During the course, he reveals the secret of his birth.  Thus there is a reversal of fortune or a change in the events.  This is an important fact of tragedy.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY IMAGINATION   :

Imagination is of two kinds – primary and secondary. Primary imagination is the living power and the prime agent of all human perception.  It is a sort of repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite ‘I am’.  Secondary imagination is an echo of the primary imagination.  It coexists with the conscious will.  It is identical with the primary imagination in the kind of its agency.  It differs from primary imagination only in degree and in the mode of its operations.  It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates in order to recreate.  When it is impossible to recreate, it struggles to idealise and unify.

UNITIES   :

Unities are principles regarding the dramatic structure.  They relate to action, time and place.  Aristotle said in his ‘Poetics’ that a play should be the imitation of a single action.  If the parts are to be arranged and if any of the part is withdrawn, the whole action would suffer.  The action of a tragedy was restricted to a single day.

In the same way, unity of place means that the action should take place in a single place or city.  The Italian and French cities unfortunately made them strict rules.  But in the English drama, they were not followed.  Johnson defends the waiving of these rules.  He insisted only on the unity of action.

NEO – CLASSICISM  OR  PSEUDO CLASSICISM   :

Neo- classicism is a literary movement.  It relates to the style and attitudes in literature.  It is used, in general, to refer to the theories and practices of certain writers from the later part of the 17^th century.  Neo-classicists considered man as a creature limited by his innate nature and by the society of which he is a part.  In the words of Pope – ‘proper study of mankind is man’.  To these writers, craftsmanship was essential and reason should control fancy.  Thus neo – classicism emphasises restraint, balance and proportion.

AMBIGUITY   :

All figurative language is ambiguous.  Sometimes, words or situations carry double meanings.  Ambiguity is not desirable in scientific discourses.  In poetry it may be useful.  By comparing several meanings one can bring out the complexities of the experience.  In seven types of ambiguity, William Empson employs this word to refer not to the carelessness that produces two or more meanings but to the richness of poetic speech, which can be brought about by verbal nuances.

These seven ambiguities are   :

• • A word or syntax can be effective in several ways at once.
  • Two or more meanings may make up the single meaning of the writer.
  • In pun two ideas can be given simultaneously.
  • Different meanings can combine to make clean, the complicated state of  mind in the writer.
  • An image or figure may be half way between two ideas.
  • The reader may be forced to invent interpretations because, the things are said contradictorily.
  • The meanings may be contradicting and show a fundamental division in the author’s mind.