Robert Frost's Poems

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

      Robert Frost was an American poet. As compared to Wordsworth’s nature, his nature is more danger and wild. He compared the nature with human nature. He talks about the things in more philosophical way. His extra ordinary poems are:

     Stopping by Woods in a Snowy Evening (1923)

     Fire and Ice (1923)

     The Gift Outright (1941)

     Design (1922)

     Mending Wall (1914)

     Home Burial (1914)

1           Stopping by Woods in a Snowy Evening:

        This poem is about the speaker and his dilemma. Speaker highly impressed by the woods in a snowy evening and he wants to stay. However he has some responsibilities and he must fulfill it. It is also considered as philosophical poem through this outstanding stanza:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.’’

        Speaker highly impressed by the woods. So, he wants to stay there. It is his personal wish. Speaker tries to search himself in that charming atmosphere. He thinks about himself that-

Who am i?

Why am I here?

       These are the questions disturbed speaker. Speaker is in dilemma with the very basic existential questions about the life.

 

        After a few minutes speaker comes to know about the responsibilities that he has. He has some promises with is family, relatives, and with society in which he live. As Camus- existential thinker insisted that those people who doesn’t wants to carry the responsibilities they hide themselves under the mask of religion. So, here speaker is more rational than emotional.

Fire and Ice

        Fire and Ice – the nine lines poem published in the year 1923. At the very beginning poet used the word “some” instead of “I” and “am”. It shows that poet talks about the general idea of human being that how world will end. The world will end with two elements like: Fire and Ice. Poet uses Fire and Ice in more metaphorical way. Such as Fire has an emotion of passion and desire. And Ice has an emotion of hatred and Jealousy.

    Fire and Ice both of them are capable to destroy the world. These two elements applied in a metaphorical way viz,

 “Othello’’:

The tragedy of this drama happens because of the jealousy and hatred- the two emotions of Ice.

“Dr. Faustus’’:

The fallen down of Dr. Faustus happens out of the emotion of fire- Passion and desire. He wants to become the most knowledgeable person in the world. It is leads towards his tragedy.

“Mahabharata”:

The fallen down of great reign of Hastinapura out of these two elements fire and ice.

The Gift Outright

        “The Gift Outright’’ depends on Patriotic Feelings.

“She was our land more than a hundred years’’

        The poem starts with the important aspects of human being is possessive nature. “Ours” and “Others” are the two opposite direction, which are never connected people together. America got freedom from Europe after a long time struggle.

         American people lost their identities, because the invasions of European reign. But American people gave commitment that they will possess their land from the hand of European. They are successful in this act. They got their gift of identity. And their commitment is outright. American becomes the Owners of the land but the important thing is that nothing can be getting without sacrificing.

“The deed of gift was many deeds of war.’’

       The poem is not only about the commitment but it’s also about the revolutionary act of war. Many people sacrificed their life to got freedom. But ultimately the gift of identity as American is outright. Moreover, Frost’s focus not on the conflict between colonist but his focus on the clash between “Old World” and “New World”.

      The European world, believe in tradition and oppression. While American, believe in freedom and destiny. So there was clash between believes of the two world. But the important thing is the memory. People cannot easily forget those who sacrificed their life.

“Design”

      Frost made very simple set-up of this poem at the very beginning. One big white spider on a white flower, poised to eat a white moth. Speaker sees all together for some awful reason. Behind it there must be some pretty dark design, which brought these all together.

So, speaker leads towards series of questions like-

Why is this flower white?

Is circumstances design by God?

Who brought these three together?

   So, speaker is in dilemma. Poem end with the word “IF”-

“If design govern in a thing so small.”

     If design govern in a thing so small.  What about the design of universe, and about the destiny of human beings. In everything there is design. If we seemed the whole Mahabharata, we come to know that everything happens in sequence (chain). If only one sequence not happened maybe there wasn’t happen Mahabharata. But there was a big hurdle of the word IF. For Example- If Dropadi        not utter that sentence-

 “Anthe Ka Putra Antha”.

Second example:

The Movie Final Destination-

       Everything happens in chain. So if chain is broken, they should break the turn of death sequence. But it’s not happen, because everything is in design.

So, question aroused in our mind is that-

How far our destiny controlled by God/ or…?

“Mending Wall”

   “Mending Wall”, this poem published in the year 1914. It is about the two neighbor who believe in-

“Good fences make good neighbors.”

There is also someone who doesn’t like the wall.

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”

      Poet maybe talks about the nature and animals, because they haven’t any kind of boundaries. At the general level he talks about the war and the effect of war on people.

“Home Burial”

     This Poem published in the year 1914. “Home Burial” covers three characters such as:

•       Farmer
•        His wife
•        Their child (who recently died)

      Moreover poet talks about philosophy of human life in this poem. The poem deals with two tragedies like:

•          Death of child
•          Death of marriage

     The setting of this poem clearly shows the distance between the life of husband and wife. The wife stands at the top of the stairs. While the husband stands at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her. She is in grief because her child died. The husband knows the natural cycle of life because he is farmer. He thinks more rationally. This thing totally misunderstood by his wife, because she thinks about her child more emotionally. Moreover their communication also shows the death of their marriage life. Now home becomes just like graveyard because of the death of child and second the death of marriage life.

  

  

"The Heathen"

 “The Heathen’’

Jack London was an American author, journalist, and social activist.

      “The Heathen”, it is the story about the class discrimination and also about the color discrimination. A person who does not belong to a widely held religion (especially one who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim) as regarded by those who do. Otoo is one of them. The central character of this short story is Otoo and his White friend Charley.

Class and color discrimination:

           Otoo belongs to lower class. He is working as a sailor. Otoo’s fellow workers are very docile to their masters. Otoo and his fellow workers are double marginalized because first-

                                   They are belongs to lower class; and

                They are black people.

        The way black people are treated and their mind washed by white people- colonizers, Otoo doesn’t like this way of living life. So, he left out by his own community. But the idea of WHITE as a SUPERIOR was very well constructed by the white people and accept it very well by black people (here the fellow companion workers of Otoo). Otoo is one of them. See the dialogue between Otoo with Charley. Otoo always called him a MASTER.

     OTOO: It was a brave deed you did, master.

     CHARLEY: Why do you ‘master’ me?

      “We have exchanged names. To you I am Otoo. To me you are Charley. And between you and me, forever and forever, you shall be Charley, and I shall be Otoo. It is the way of the custom. And when we die, if it does happen that we live again somewhere beyond the stars and the sky, still shall you be Charley to me, and I Otoo to you”

       Otoo: “yes, master”.

     So the ideas of master fit in the mind of Otoo. But he doesn’t like his own community, because his Christians communities, docile way serve the White people.

      ‘‘My people in Bora Bora do not like heathen… they are all Christians;            and I do not like Bora Bora Christian.’’

       At the end of the story, Otoo died to save his friend’s life. They both are having soft relationship to each other. The friendship of both of them is beyond the notion of color and class discrimination. Here, Jack London present the reality of black people that they are mentally constructed. Black people seem themselves as an inferior and white as a superior. Black considered as an animal, they are not considered as a human being. But the important thing is that black also accept it without raises any question. See the dialogue of Otoo:

              ‘‘I know sharks. The shark is my brother.’’

    The same way in “The Hairy Ape’’:

            Yank – Compared himself with the “APE’’ as his “BROTHER’’.

       He was highly suppressed by Power. And power is in the hand of white people like Nazareth Steel and his daughter Mildred Douglas. Even the people like Yank frequently humiliated by the power. Mildred Douglas considered Yank as a “Filthy Beast’’.

      

In “A Tempest’’, Aime Cesaire clearly shows the mind set of colonizers and colonized People. Prospero said to Caliban,

                      “A thing of darkness, I call my own’’.

       Prospero: What would you be without me?

      Caliban: “Without you? I’d be the king, that’s what I’d be, the king of the island’’.

       So, they considered black as a thing, dark, dull, unintelligent, devil worshiping, elemental, etc. So, here Aime not criticized only the White but also the black. They cultivate the habit that they are born to be salve. 

      

   

In short, as Fanon described the “Negritude’’ in which the people like Otoo,Yank, Pecola, Caliban, all  are composed under or by the “Selected People’’.

Attenborough's "Gandhi"

Attenborough’s “GANDHI”

       Imaginary Homelands, it is the collection of essays. Salman Rushdie is a diaspora writer. He considered for his bitter satirical writing, especially on social, economic, and political aspects. At the beginning he was against with the government of Indira Gandhi and that matter clearly visible in his famous work- “The Midnight’s Children”.

     Attenborough’s “Gandhi” (1982) - epic biographical film, won eight Oscar Awards. Salman Rushdie highly considered this film with the approach of postcolonial writing. So he aroused questions like:

            Why Attenborough’s “Gandhi” film won Oscar Awards?

            What are the reasons behind this?

    First he mentioned Indian Mentality.

                                    “Deification is Indian Disease.”

      Deification is Indian habit. Indian people are believes in godly figure. It is common for India. So, if Indian calls Gandhi as a godly figure, there wasn’t needed to be doubt.   Here, Salman Rushdie came with series of questions like:

            Why are they (Western people) interested in Gandhi?

            Why are they called Gandhi as a godly figure?

            What are the reasons behind portraying Gandhi as a god in Attenborough’s film “Gandhi”?

            Why American gives the Oscar Awards to this film?

     There are some reasons giving by Salman Rushdie such as:

     Salman Rushdie has problem with this film because,

                     “Film is more hagiographical than biographical.”

    Salman Rushdie insisted that film maker not faithful to his movie. If it is so then definitely he shows the reality because in this movie some important parts are missed out. For example-

  In the history, there wasn’t only Gandhi instead of this there were various rebellion leaders like:

                   Bhagat Singh

                  Subhash Chandra

                Chandra Sekhar Ajad

                Ambedkara, etc.

                      Why are they not show in the film?

       Due to these reasons movie became “art for the sake of are”. The “Dramatic interest” totally lost into this film because if Gandhi was such a nice and good character then why is he not equally good to his family, to his son. Why Gandhi v/s Gandhi happened.

      Salman Rushdie suggests that Gandhi was not good character but he was a crafty Gujarati lawyer. Gandhi believed in rural life while Nehru believed in industrialization. So, by heart we are Gandhi but on the level of globalization we are just like Nehru.

      In short, art came with proper weightage. This movie is just like fiction. This essay end with this sentence-

                     “God help film industry”.

Movie review of "Shabd"

"Shabd"

Can you imagine a world without a word?

      If we talked about the world of animals then maybe it is possible but it is not possible in human world. We cannot imagine our one day without uttering a single word. Word has its own power.

    At the beginning we govern the words but now we are highly mingling with words. If person highly mush up with the words then words governs human being.

     It is all about the magic of words. So, now the study of Language became necessary. As we seemed that White has power because they have the power of language. In short we can say that black are not governs by the white but they are govern by the White language. But this movie is based on only the words.

      This movie is all about the power of words. Shaukat Vashisht (Sanjay Dutt) is a protagonist and leading a role of a writer. Antra (Aishwarya Rai) a wife of Shaukat Vashisht (Sanjay Dutt) in this movie. Both of them are playing a beautiful role in this movie. Shaukat Vashisht (Sanjay Dutt) very famous writer while his wife is a teacher in the school.  Shaukat Vashisht (Sanjay Dutt) was very attentive in his writing.

Writer having a power to controls the words and used it at appropriate place.  Here Shaukat Vashisht (Sanjay Dutt) wanted to write one story. He aroused the characters those who are surrounded by him. Shaukat Vashisht (Sanjay Dutt) highly considered this story as his own. As a writer he is very powerful in his writing because whatever he wrote in his story same thing happened after in his life. In the story of Shaukat (Sanjay Dutt) moves like one fellow teacher Yash Agnihotry (Zayed Khan), a dashing young man love his fellow teacher, who is already married. But he was totally unaware about the reality. Important thing is that that lady at a while also falls in love with that teacher. He has a doubt about the affair of his wife. He was mentally disturbed. It is leads him towards mental problem. All the things Shaukat Vashisht wrote before in his story and happens after in his life.

     We can say that this is the power of writer. But as we describe before that word also has its own power. Words are overpowering the writer. Even the characters control the writing and moves beyond. Writer totally controlled by the words. Writer lost himself in his own writing. All the words and characters moves around him. At the end he compared himself with his own writing. He tries to search the last page of his story that what going to be happens with him. He wouldn’t successful to find out the last page of his story and he became mad. At the end Shaukat Vashisht is in mental hospital with his wife. So, we can say that maybe that page was about the madness of that character or we can say that the madness of Shaukat Vashisht. Moreover, if audience not conscious about what is happening, they may district towards the movie.

   At the end I would like to say that-

                           “Pen is mightier than the Sword”.

      Here pen (writing) changed the whole life of writer. This movie also considered with psychological approach because protagonist highly conscious about his writing and when he became unconscious or subconscious that he also don’t know. When all the things overpowering on him, he totally unaware about that. All the things have some limitation. But it is harm when someone transcendent the boundaries.

                                  

           

The Monkey's Paw

             ‘‘The Monkey’s Paw’’

    W.W. Jacobs is a writer of this short story. ‘‘The Monkey’s Paw’’ covers six characters such as:

o   Monkey’s Paw

o   Mr. White

o   Mrs. White

o   Herbert White

o   Mr. Morris

o   Omniscient Narrator

     ‘‘The Monkey’s Paw’’, it is the story about the family of Mr. and Mrs. White, who are believe in magic, superstition and their son- Herbert, who is totally against about their beliefs.

     The story moves like the White family comes to know about the Monkey’s Paw that has the power to grant three wishes through Mr. White’s friend Sergeant- Major Morris. But Morris also aware them about the curse that people get hurt when their wishes are granted.

      Mr. and Mrs. White are in financial troubled. So, they want to use that magic power to fulfill their financial problem. Mr. White wishes two hundred pounds from that Monkey’s Paw.Mr. and Mrs. White getting the two hundred pounds but the curse take the life of their own son – Herbert.

      In the factory, Herbert was died coincidentally and for that death factory paid two hundred pounds to his family. Mrs. White again wants to use Monkey’s Paw for second wishes that Herbert come back. But Mr. White knows about the curse very well. So, he denied through the third wish that Herbert never come back. And the story ends with the waiting of Mrs. White for her son.

  ‘‘The Monkey’s Paw’’ is trying to convince us about two conflicting things:

1)    The Paw really is magic and directly causes Herbert White’s death; and

2)    The Paw isn’t magic power and Herbert’s death just happens to coincide with Mr. White’s wish for two hundred pounds.

   There are other some reasons for the death of Herbert such as:

·       It was the time of industrial revolution but the lack of providing     hospital facilities that’s why maybe he was died.

·       Herbert’s father wish for two hundred pounds, maybe depressed Herbert mentally. That is the reason of Herbert suicide maybe.

·       According to Indian beliefs- it is happen because of the ‘‘KARMA’’ or we can say that the fate of Herbert leads towards the ultimate reality of life – The Death.

      In short, W. W. Jacobs not clarifies anything. The end is according to the reader response theory. But the Monkey’s Paw is very important character in the story. Because everything happen with the arriving of the Monkey’s Paw.

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

      -Toni Morrison

It is the story of one black girl- Pecola Breedlove and her desire to become white.

     Why is she wants to be white?

     What is the purpose behind this crucial loss of identity as a black?

   The Bluest Eye, it is all about the ‘color Discrimination’. Pecola wants to be white at any cost. Her desire to be white is not for achieve the beauty but trough this she wants love, affection, protection, respect, honor, etc, from her parents and from the society. These all words such as love, affection, are interrelated to the word ‘‘White’’.

   White means Identity, love, affection, attraction, protection, respect, honor, superiority, etc. In short, white means everything.

·       The idea of beauty is broken human relationship.

·       ‘‘Beauty’’ uglifies every human relationship.

   Its OK, if Pecola rejected by the society but she humiliate by her own father, just because she is not white instead of black. It is the deformity of not only the society but also those people who are individually and personally think in this way. They are mentally deformed and ill.

   Moreover, we can say that in the society, there is no ‘‘HUMANITY’’.

   After studied the ‘‘Black Skin, White Mask’’- psychological interpretation, black as a inferior, ugly, unintelligent, animal, etc, are preconceived notion of human being. White skin- it is the desire of black girl- Pecola. Frantz Fanon insisted that desire is abstract thing, cannot achieve. Moreover, he suggests that if we cannot achieve/ claim the goal- changed the goal.

   To become white is the goal of Pecola. But it is not achieve. So, he claim that accept what we are. Accept black as a black or human being.

    Literature goes beyond the boundaries and talks about the ‘‘HUMANITY’’.

                                                          Thank You…