South Asian English

When we use the terms “South Asia” and “South Asian English”, we normally refer to the countries under SAARC; India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives, and obviously the varieties of English spoken by the people belonging to these countries. When we look at the cultural-linguistic map, we find that South Asia is one region where the culture and language of the people vary dramatically every few thousand miles apart. As the colonizers set foot on the subcontinent, they found the task of ruling over such culturally diverse natives an onerous one. For administrative purposes, they introduced English language in its colonies through its missionaries, by setting up Christian educational institutions. In an age of rapid industrialisation, education and access to the sciences could be made only in the “global language”, so people slowly accepted it.

But as time went by, English in South Asia started evolving. It inducted words from vernacular languages into its lexicon. The cultural variations among the natives also had a great role to play in the localisation of English. The mother tongues of the natives also interfered in their vocal expression of English words. These mother tongues were so many, and so nuanced that many individual varieties of English blossomed into existence. These included national varieties like Indian English, Pakistani English, Maldivian and Sri Lankan varieties. Within nations like India, many smaller varieties of the same sprang up. A Malayali never spoke English as a Bengali did as their mother tongues always affected their pronunciation. Since most South Asians learn English from their South Asian teachers rather than from native speakers of English, the “south Asian” persists over generations. South Asian languages are mostly syllable- timed. Hence, South Asian English also has a syllable-timed rhythm. In this manner, many Indian “English’s” were born.

We see that there are three main types of English speakers in South Asia; those who’s English is like Received Pronunciation, the educated variety of South Asian English speakers and those uneducated speakers who use varieties of pidgin English.

 There are many factors that present English its curious position in South Asia. As Braj Kachru points out, we should understand that English is a foreign language for South Asians, yet is no less important as it is the global language. Secondly, the language’s usage depends on the functional domains in which it is used. Thirdly, Kachru sheds light on the manner in which English has been taught in South Asia – as a classical language. The average learner of English can only write well. He would not be as good a speaker as he is a writer, probably because the majority rarely use English as a spoken language in their daily lives.

South Asian English has always welcomed words from regional languages into its lexicon. Although some critics have argued that English, by doing so, was ruining itself, many believe the opposite. Kamal K Sridhar says, “Words from the local language express local sensibilities, and are perceived as enhancing the expressive resources of the English language”. Therefore, by borrowing native words, English is broadening its wings.

Famous words like Jai Ho, and Satyagraha, have been inducted into the lexicon of South Asian English from local languages in India. These words are so much a part of the daily affairs of an Indian that these words can be found even in newspapers.

Taking into consideration the grammatical characteristics shared by all South Asian users of English, we see that there is a tendency to form information questions without changing the position of the subject and auxiliary items. For example, instead of asking “Where would you like to visit first?” they sometimes ask “Where you would like to visit first?”.  Many South Asian languages use the same word twice to emphasize the effect of the word. For example, “choti choti (small)” in Hindi, “soodu soodu (hot) vada” in Tamil, kochu kochu (small) in Malayalam etc. This is known as reduplication and is also seen in South Asian English. (Small small things, hot hot coffee etc.)

We also see that the culture of a society can mould the conversational style of its language. Kinship terms, factors like respect and politeness and even thought processes which are in turn affected by the culture are all crucial factors in determining the manner in which a language is spoken.

To conclude, we can say that English is hardly considered a foreign language among South Asians these days. It has become so nativized that it occupies a position similar to a regional language in South Asia. But it has had its fair share of opposition as well. Many still view English as a vestige of British colonial rule and question its status. But these arguments are clearly dying if not already dead. We can unhesitatingly declare that English has played a crucial role in improving India’s position in the areas of science and technology, and also in raising its economic profile.

Sir Philip Sidney, Defense of Poesy

Sir Philip Sidney, Defense of Poesy  

Genre: the first work of literary criticism in English.

Form: prose, with some portions of verse cited as examples.

Characters: Sidney, in his historical persona as Sir Philip Sidney, poet and courtier [both carefully constructed "roles," so don't treat him as a politically naive truth-teller!]; Edward Wotton, a courtier and friend to Sidney who shared his Continental tour; John Pietro Pugliano, Italian riding master to the Emperor; and all the poets who ever had been.

Summary: Sidney clearly had been contemplating the problem of the poet's role in society for a long time, perhaps since his earliest education in which he would have encounteredPlato's famous banishment of poets from the ideal Republic on the grounds that they could lead the Guardians and citizens to immorality.  It long has been argued that he may have been responding to Stephen Gosson, a Puritain pamphleteer whose "School of Abuse" blamed playwrights and the theatre, in particular, and poets in general, for leading English society astray.  Gosson dedicated the pamphlet to Sidney without asking permission, and some poets at the time suspected Sidney would reply in some fashion.  To compare Gosson's spectacularly unsuccessful patronage appeal with Spenser's for Shepherd's Calendar in that same year (1579).  Based on the aesthetic of "Defense" and what you know about English nobles' sense of propriety with respect to contact with "commoners," how many things did Gosson do wrong that Spenser did right?  In the "Defense," Sidney argues that poets were the first philosophers, that they first brought learning to humanity, and that they have the power to conceive new worlds of being and to populate them with new creatures.  According to Sidney, their "golden" world of possibility is superior to the "brazen" one of historians who must be content with the mere truth of happenstance.  He then defines what he believes to be the essential formal characteristics of the various genres of poetry, and defends poetry against the charge that it is composed of lies and leads one to sin.

Famous "Sidneyisms" you should be able to explain:

"The lawyer saith what men have determined; the historian what men have done.  The grammarian speaketh only of the rules of speech; and the rhetorician and logician, considering what in nature will soonest persuade, thereon give artificial rules. . . Only the poet, disdaining to be tied to any such subjection, lifted up with the vigor of his own invention, doth grow in effect another nature, in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or, quite anew, forms such as never were in nature, as the Heroes, Demigods, Cyclops, Chimeras, Furies, and such like: so as he goeth hand in hand with nature, not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely ranging only within the zodiac of his own wit.  Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done. . . Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden"(956-7).

"[T]he skill of each artificer standeth in the idea or fore-conceit of the work, and not in the work itself.  And that the poet hath that idea is manifest, by delivering them forth in such excellency as he had imagined them.  Which delivering forth also is not wholly imaginative [i.e., fanciful], as we are wont to say by them that build castles in the air; but so far substantially it worketh, not only to make a [poetic character like the Persian conqueror] Cyrus, which had been but a particular excellency as nature might have done, but to bestow a Cyrus upon the world to make many Cyruses, if they will learn aright why and how that maker made him" (957).  [This last passage concisely explains why literary criticism needs to be taught, and often why creative writers can learn from constructive literary criticism--usually of other poets' work.]

"Poetry is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in the word mimesis--that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth--to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture--with this end, to teach and delight" (958).

The first kind of poets, like the psalmist, David, are divinely inspired (958), the second kind is philosophically inspired, and the third sort, "indeed right poets," must be distinguished from those inferior imitators whom Sidney compares to "the meaner sort of painters, who counterfeit only such faces as are set before them" (958).   These are inferior to "the more excellent, who having no law but wit, bestow that in colours upon you which is fittest for the eye to see as the constant though lamenting look of Lucretia, when she punished in herself another's fault, wherein he painteth not Lucretia whom he never saw, but painteth the outward beauty of such a virtue" (958).

[Lucretia, a chaste Roman wife, killed herself after the King's son raped her, punishing herself for his crime.  According to Roman tradition, her deed led to the overthrow of the Tarquin dynasty and the establishment of the Roman Republic.]

"[I]t is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet [ . . . ]  But it is that feigning of notable images of virtues, vices, or what else, with that delightful teaching, which must be the right describing note to know a poet by" (959).

"[A]s Aristotle saith, it is not gnosis but praxis must be the fruit [of teaching].  And how praxis can be, without being moved to practice, it is no hard matter to consider.  The philosopher showeth you the way . . . But this to no man but to him that will read him, and read him with attentive studious painfulness [ . . . ] Now therein of all sciences . . . is our poet the monarch.  For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect to the way, as will entice any man to enter into it.  [ . . . ]  He beginneth not with obscure definitions, which must blur the margin with interpretations, and load the memory with doubtfulness, but he cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the sweet enchanting skill of music; and with a tale forsooth he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner.  And, pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue" (962-3).

"The poet he nothing affirms, and therefore never lieth.  For, as I take it, to lie is to affirm that to be true which is false.  So as the other artists, and especially the historian, affirming many things, can, in the cloudy knowledge of mankind, hardly escape from many lies.  But the poet (as I said before) never affirmeth. [ . . .  so wise readers of poetry] will never give the lie to things not affirmatively but allegorically and figuratively written" (968).

"But our comedians think there is no delight without laughter, which is very wrong, for though laughter may come with delight, yet cometh it not of delight [my emphasis]" [ . . . ]Delight hath a joy in it, either permanent or present.  Laughter hath only a scornful tickling" (971).

"I conjure you all that have the evil luck to read this ink-wasting toy of mine, even in the name of the nine Muses, no more to scorn the sacred mysteries of poesy; no more to laugh at the name of poets, as though they were next inheritors to fools; no more to jest at the reverent title of rhymer; but to believe, with Aristotle, that they were the ancient treasurers of the Grecians' divinity; to believe, with Bembus [Pietro Bembo], that they were first bringers-in of all civility, to believe with Scaliger, that no philosopher's precepts can sooner make you an honest man than the reading of Virgil" (974).

N.B.: This work has two titles based on the two printed editions.  The first, "Defense of Poesy," uses "poesy" for all literary forms, including lyric, drama, and prose.   The second, "Apology for Poetry," uses "apology" in the sense of the Greek word apologia, or "an argument in defense" of a client.   In both senses, Sidney stands as an advocate for all creative writers at a crucial point in the development of English literature.  The Crown censored all publications, and increasingly banned those which were considered "immoral" as well as those which threatened the Tudor dynasty.  Puritans, like Gosson, though they may have been motivated by strong moral beliefs, also tended to chill the creative environment in which poets worked, driving them into the questionable freedom offered by the protection of the nobles' courts.  (Compare Chaucer's relationship to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster and father to Bolingbroke [Henry IV]).  Poets remained caught in this uneasy relationship between court and religious critics until Samuel Johnson's era (C18) and the rise of a self-sustaining market relationship among poets, printers, booksellers, and the reading public.

Viswaroopam review

After watching the trilingual Viswaroopam in Hindi in Gulbarga Shetty though I wanted to watch in Tamil because I am from Tamil Nadu(last 20 years in tamilnadu) and my favourite actor is Kamal Hassan but the controversies made the producers and director of the film to cut some parts that offended the so called democratic people of India, and while watching the movie the one thing that kept on coming in my mind was “why all the controversies”. This will come to the mind almost everyone who watches this film once it releases all over.

Viswaroopam is a first of its kind film in Tamil Cinema, an action-spy thriller with international standards in true sense. The making of the film is very stylish and the cinematography by Sanu Varghese adds to this. Kamal Hassan excels as an actor, director and writer in this film.

The plot of the film is how a life of an ordinary couple changes when one hires a detective to spy the other and they get involved in extra-ordinary situations when the detective gets killed by a terrorist gang. The film has two tracks, one Kamal Hassan’s past and the present in America.

The entire film takes shot in US and Afghanistan and it is made to portray in a very authentic way. Kamal Hassan has worked very well on the screenplay; the film is rightly paced once when all the elements of plot get untied we are thrown into a thrill ride. As a director he has skilfully made each and every frame of the film which is evident right from the start.

Every shot in the film is important and Kamal has conveyed a lot of messages visually rather than through dialogues.

All the actors have done a very good job. Pooja Kumar ,Andreah ,Rahul Bose ,Nasser and rest of the supporting cast come through as the characters very well. The guest appearance by Shekar Kapur is also well utilized.

Most of the songs come as background songs which is a good thing except “Unnai Kaanadhu Naan”  the opening song, where Kamal as a dancer excels and we love to watch him again and again .This was also first time were I saw the audience shouting for “Once more” for a fight scene a very crucial one.

Technically the film is brilliant – the editing, cinematography, BGM, art direction, etc is perfect. But, the visual effects look slightly let down and the Afghanistan sets could have been slightly better these are the very few flaws in this otherwise flawless film.

“Feminism”

“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. ”

― Roseanne Barr (Actress)

                                                                                                        

Human beings have been evolving from early times and they have faced many obstacles like slavery, racism, caste differences and many more, which have been slowly eradicated from the society. Even now some of these obstacles can be seen in some parts of the world. One among the obstacles is feminism. Feminism has many definitions on books and on internet which varies from each other but they all have one basic instinct which refers “equality among the male and female race of humanity”. Among the many definition that I found, I preferred a definition which is quoted from “Ain't I A Woman” by Bell Hooks, “Feminism is a commitment to eradicating the ideology of domination that permeates western culture on various levels of sex, race, and class, to name a few and a commitment to reorganizing society, so that the self-development of people can take precedence over imperialism, economic expansion, and material desires”. The feminism movement has its own long historical background from the 19^th century which had many famous writers. The two topics that I would be highlighting in this essay would be of “education” and “religion”.

One among the few early feminist that started the movement in the world was Mary Wollstonecraft with her “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman “. Wollstonecraft in her work has mainly highlighted about the rights to be given for the education of women. One cannot deny that in modern era that the education has helped women in our society of the world in many ways. For example, I tried taking a survey of the students of Central University of Karnataka and some of my friends in internet about their understandings of feminism and the way they perceive the opposite sex “female”, most of them explained and thought of them as an equal being that should get equal rights. I had to stop the survey in the middle since most of them had the same ideas and ideals. One could clearly put the reason for the improvement of women conditions in modern era on “education”. J.S. Mill works has also highlighted about education. In both Mills and Wollstonecraft work have quoted that ,”You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

                      We can see the topic of religion in Mary Wollstonecraft, J.S.Mill and many other feminist works. In my belief, religion is the main cause for the inequality among male and female beings of humanity. For athe­ists like me, the issue is very sim­ple. Reli­gion has been used as an instru­ment of gen­der inequal­ity, specif­i­cally, in the oppres­sion of women. Remov­ing reli­gion from the pic­ture removes reli­gious and the­o­log­i­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tions for patri­archy. It is impos­si­ble to argue against faith and belief, so I do not ven­ture much into such debates. I pre­fer not chal­leng­ing other people’s beliefs as long as they do not inter­fere with my life. What I find per­plex­ing is how even eman­ci­pated women pre­fer to remain within their reli­gious faiths and strug­gle against oppres­sion, rather than choos­ing to dis­card reli­gion.. For example, developed countries like United States Of America, England, Canada, Australia, Japan etc. , the society in these countries have changed in many ways which also includes the presumption of a female in their society. In most of these countries the ratio of people believing in religion is low thus I can say that religion blocks or restrains women freedom in this world. But at the end the freedom of choice and thoughts also play here, so I won’t say whether it’s wrong or right decision. Many of the critics have said that, in the absence of reli­gion, men will find other ways to oppress women; hence reli­gion as such is not an obsta­cle. Again at the end without any unified solution for a problem one cannot resolve it.

Reference:

1. J.S.Mill – Subjugation of women

2. Mary Wollstonecraft – A Vindication of rights of women

Critical analysis of Jane Eyre

   

Charlotte Bronte first successful novel like many other authors and poets wrote the book based on personal experiences. Bronte had a tragic life and mostly she was based in churches, so we can clearly see from where the biblical reference in the novel originated. Jane Eyre depicts the strict, hierarchical class system in England that required everyone to maintain carefully circumscribed class positions. Primarily through the character of Jane, it also accents the cracks in this system, the places where class differences were melding in Victorian England. The novel represented the typical women who had confidence, intelligent, courage and strong in heart and soul. Jane Eyre is not materialistic as other women in other novel. 

   

To start off with, the lead character is a very strong willed woman. She’s not beautiful and is keenly aware of the fact. She doesn't aspire to be the typical Victorian woman who cares about her looks. Bronte ties up the story nicely in quite a touching manner.  Jane’s lover Mr Rochester is not a handsome man and is almost ugly. Bronte’s characterization of the honest Jane Eyre, tortured Mr Rochester, and the tragically insane Bertha Mason continues to spur the imagination of readers. There is a good deal of depth of character in the main actors. The given time and setting in which the novel takes place; this must have been a pretty radical or practical characterization of the lead woman in a novel especially by a female author which itself must have been something out of the ordinary.

It is also instructive to see how children were treated in those days and how their guardians could legally ill treat them without any social backlash. Since Bronte worked in churches she was very familiar to these circumstances of the children.

The main theme of the book, and what could be seen in Jane’s character, is her open and unquestioning devotion to God and the “duties” which she’s supposed to follow. It’s interesting to see that even though Jane is not bound by societal norms, indeed having no relatives and no one whose opinion would affect her in the slightest, she is bound by the virtue of the Bible. One can guess in today’s world, that it would be very different with people everywhere publicly questioning the existence of God. But Jane and Charlotte Bronte takes the existence of God as an accuracy of the Bible as the highest truth. In several situations this prevents up from reaching out and taking the happiness that is offered to her and which has been missing in her life so far. At one stage, she totters on the brink of throwing her life away as an ill-suited missionary in India because she is persuaded to believe that it is her “duty to God”. One thing to keep in mind with biblical references is that they are open to interpretation and different people and religious sects will look at these differently. Light and darkness is often used throughout the novel. There is the theme of light in the beginning that light ends all darkness which symbolizes good versus evil. There is the light of God which represents God himself which leads people to him and the end of darkness. In this portion of the story, Jane appears to be lost and heading towards darkness as she is hungry, tired and on her own. It would almost appear to be a helpless situation. In this case, there is a light that somehow leads her to this house. Of all the places she could stop, she stops at a house that is willing to help her and take her in and an even greater coincidence that these turn out to be relatives.

Since its publication, "Jane Eyre" has become a staple source of English literature. The novel has inspired several films, as well as numerous literary sequels and prequels.

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

First let me start off with a small introduction of “ode”. An Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Ode may be defined as “a rimmed lyric, often in form of an address; generally dignified or exalted verse, directed to a fixed purpose, and dealing progressively with dignified theme”. In this age Keats made ode famous through his works like “Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Ode written by Keats reached the height of perfection and subjectivity. It was primarily under the influence of negative capability. Among them were William Worthsworth and Coleridge.

The poet William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) in the ode Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood believes that every human being is a sojourner in the mortal world, whereas his real home being heaven. In fact, the poet starts with the major premise that men descend from God. To Wordsworth, God was everywhere manifest in the harmony of nature, and he felt deeply the kinship between nature and the soul of humankind. Indeed, Wordsworth thinks that the child is the mighty prophet, the blessed. But one does not say that ‘innocence’ is the monopoly of the child. It is his idea that when man or a child or an adult, has imagination at his command, he is in a state ‘innocence’. But Wordsworth excludes those who are far beyond their childhood. One can lay stress on imagination for this ode, whereas Wordsworth advocates the advantage of remaining a child.

Coleridge does not agree with Wordsworth on the point that a child is a natural philosopher – a phenomenon endowed with penetrating vision. Coleridge says unless one is well-read one cannot be a true philosopher. But whatever Coleridge may say, Wordsworth’s ‘ode’ asserts its claim to immortality. Poetry is, says Wordsworth, the most philosophical of all writings and this ‘ode’ amply confirms the validity of the observation. It Wordsworth is a poet, he has per-eminently a leaning to philosophy, and this is what makes the ‘ode’ a metaphysical composition about man’s withdrawal from Heaven with the bass age of time.  

To summarize the poem in short I’ll be taking some important lines from the ode. The speaker begins by declaring that there was a time when nature seemed mystical to him, like a dream, “apparelled in celestial light.” But now all of that is gone. No matter what he does, “The things which I have seen I now can see no more.”

In the second stanza the speaker says that even though he can still see the rainbow, the rose, the moon, and the sun, and even though they are still beautiful, something is different, something has been lost.The speaker is saddened by the birds singing and the lambs jumping in the third stanza. Soon, however, he resolves not to be depressed, because it will only put a damper on the beauty of the season. He declares that all of the earth is happy, and exhorts the shepherd boy to shout.

In the fourth stanza the speaker continues to be a part of the joy of the season.The fifth stanza contains arguably the most famous line of the poem: “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.” He goes on to say that as infants we have some memory of heaven, but as we grow we lose that connection: “Heaven lies about us in our infancy!” As children this connection with heaven causes us to experience nature’s glory more clearly. Once we are grown, the connection is lost. In the sixth stanza, the speaker says that as soon as we get to earth, everything conspires to help us forget the place we came from: heaven. “Forget the glories he hath known, and that imperial palace whence he came.”

In the seventh stanza the speaker sees (or imagines) a six-year-old boy, and foresees the rest of his life. He says that the child will learn from his experiences, but that he will spend most of his effort on imitation. It seems to the speaker that his whole life will essentially be “endless imitation.” In the eighth stanza the speaker speaks directly to the child, calling him a philosopher. The speaker cannot understand why the child, who is so close to heaven in his youth, would rush to grow into an adult. In the ninth stanza (which is the longest at 38 lines) the speaker experiences a flood of joy when he realizes that through memory he will always be able to connect to his childhood, and through his childhood to nature.

In the tenth stanza the speaker harkens back to the beginning of the poem, asking the same creatures that earlier made him sad with their sounds to sing out.Even though he admits that he has lost some of the glory of nature as he has grown out of childhood, he is comforted by the knowledge that he can rely on his memory. In the final stanza the speaker says that nature is still the stem of everything is his life, bringing him insight, fuelling his memories and his belief that his soul is immortal.

“Ode; Intimations of Immortality” is a long and rather complicated poem about Wordsworth’s connection to nature and his struggle to understand humanity’s failure to recognize the value of the natural world. The poem is elegiac in that it is about the regret of loss. Wordsworth is saddened by the fact that time has stripped away much of nature’s glory; depriving him of the wild spontaneity he exhibited as a child.

As seen in “The world is too much with us,” Wordsworth believes that the loss stems from being too caught up in material possessions. As we grow up, we spend more and more time trying to figure out how to attain wealth, all the while becoming more and more distanced from nature. The poem is characterized by a strange sense of duality. Even though the world around the speaker is beautiful, peaceful, and serene, he is sad and angry because of what he (and humanity) has lost. Because nature is a kind of religion to Wordsworth, he knows that it is wrong to be depressed in nature’s midst and pulls himself out of his depression for as long as he can.

In the seventh stanza especially, Wordsworth examines the transitory state of childhood. He is pained to see a child’s close proximity to nature being replaced by a foolish acting game in which the child pretends to be an adult before he actually is. Instead, Wordsworth wants the child to hold onto the glory of nature that only a person in the flush of youth can appreciate.

In the ninth, tenth and eleventh stanzas Wordsworth manages to reconcile the emotions and questions he has explored throughout the poem. He realizes that even though he has lost his awareness of the glory of nature, he had it once, and can still remember it. The memory of nature’s glory will have to be enough to sustain him, and he ultimately decides that it is. Anything that we have, for however short a time, can never be taken away completely, because it will forever be held in our memory.

Form

Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode, as it is often called, is written in eleven variable ode stanzas with variable rhyme schemes, in iambic lines with anything from two to five stressed syllables. The rhymes occasionally alternate lines, occasionally fall in couplets, and occasionally occur within a single line.

John Keats and Ode to Grecian

                             

John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn, is a ode where the author is speaking about and describing the images depicted on a Grecian Urn. Both the tone and language of the ode suggest the writer of this work to be somewhat envious of the images before him, which makes sense once learning about Keats and what he was going through during the time he comprised this poem. Therefore, with extensive knowledge of Keats’ personal life, it would be reasonable to conclude that he wrote this poem under the influence of his personal life and own experiences. This paper is going to explore “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by reviewing Keats’ background to help make connections to the poem itself, as well as look at the poems language and identify the meaning behind the particular words chosen.

Author’s own experiences influencing text, and for this particular poem one can believe reviewing the author’s background to be necessary. Obviously, if someone has come across any of Keats’ work before, they would know many of them centered on death and despair, particularly because of the incurable tuberculosis which he was suffering from. It is much easier to see Keats’ implications in other works, when he writes about the fear he has of parting this earth and then being forgotten. However, in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, the implications are far more subtle, and an examining of the text is necessary in order to determine what Keats is indicating.

Each of the stanzas of the poem describes a specific picture that is part of the Urn which is totally related to his life. For example in the beginning of the poem in the second and third stanza the author describes two young lovers laying beneath a tree, a young man playing a pipe and a young woman with him. He tells the young man, that because the piper’s music is not mortal, it is more beautiful. He continues that although the lovers cannot share a kiss the piper should be happy because of the fact that the woman’s beauty will never fade like that of a mortal.

Like most poems, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” contains many forms of figurative language including alliteration and personification. Keats’ poem is broken up into five stanzas, each one describing a different scene on the urn.

Researching Keats’ life prior to analysing the poem made it easier to understand, and therefore a more enjoyable read, and gave the poem new meaning. Also, because this poem incorporates the usual characteristics found in typical poetry, it is a great poem to use to practice those poetic elements as well. The Grecian Urn and the images sculpted on it is a symbolic representation of something Keats will never achieve because of his condition, static immobility and immortality. Keats then comprised this poem when fantasizing of a false reality, while his true feelings reflect sorrow and regret. Therefore, until the reader has a sufficient amount of knowledge regarding Keats and his life, they cannot fully appreciate it in the manner that it was intended. For Keats, death was a relevant factor; death was coming for him. There are so many things in this world that he has yet to achieve, yet to see, because of this on setting illness. The Urn does not age and does not die. In the imaginary life of the Grecian Urn life is still, and does not end. Ultimately, there are strong implications that “Ode on a Grecian Urn” was a reflection of the author John Keats’ attitude towards his thoughts on his own death. If the reader of this poem is made aware of Keats’ ordeal involving his fatal illness it is much easier to see beyond the poem itself and understand where his jealousy of these characters on the Urn and longing to be like them is coming from. Once the reader is knowledgeable of Keats and his life, the vivid depictions used in this poem can be better examined along with the figurative language used such as alliteration, metaphor and overall makeup of the poem in order to explicate it properly. This in affect will help the reader envision the Grecian Urn and enhance the reader’s interest and apprehension of the poem.