The Poetry Section

The Seven Ages of Man:

By William Shakespeare
Summary:

Introduction (Poem & Poet):

The poem “The Seven Ages of Man” is a highly read and appreciated composition of William
Shakespeare (1564 –April 1616). William Shakespeare an English poet and playwright, is widely
regarded as the greatest poet in English language and the world's preeminent dramatist.
The poet compares this world with stage and the humans as the players. He divides human life
into seven stages.
This speech is taken from Act II, Scene VII of “As you like it”. It is uttered by Jacques, one of
the group of noblemen living a life of exile in the Forest of Arden.

Body (Contents of the poem):

To Shakespeare, the world is like a stage, where every man and woman comes to play their
respective parts. Thus every man and woman is assigned the role to play on the stage of life.
Entrances and exits of a stage both are metaphors for birth and death. Shakespeare divides
human life into seven ages that is: infancy (mewling and puking); boyhood (whining and
shining); lover (sighing); soldier (jealous, with a beard); justice (fat and wise); pantaloon
(spindly spec-wearer); second childishness (oblivious to everything).

Infancy is the first part. One spends ones first part as sick and feeble baby in the arms of a nurse.
Childhood is the second stage of human life. Now, the baby goes to school creeping like a snail,
creeping, because the gait of child while going to school is very slow, as slow as snail. His gait is
very slow because the child is not willing to go to school, a world new and strange to him. The
love of mother, he has been attached to for so much time does not allow him to separate.
The third stage thus is, the youth of every man. The man adventures love and romance in this
age, composes poetry in praise of his love. The lover sings melancholic songs in case of failed
adventures. He sighs like furnace, according to the poet.
The fourth stage of human life is of soldier or any other. In this age one believes in competition,
winning name and fame, how difficult and temporary it may be. If one fails in the struggle for
survival one breeds jealousy for others. Because of the quick temperament of the soldier, he is
very quick and he may pick up a quarrel with anybody at any time.
The fifth stage of human life is of experienced, severe eyed justice. At this age one is highly
experienced and is full wise sayings and examples. When a man is above forties, he plays the
role of his sixth stage. As in advanced age, the teeth of the old people are almost broken
therefore the sound passing, makes a whistling sound. Thus, Old age is the last scene of human
life which ends life.

Conclusion:
The poem imparts an everlasting message that human life is transient and temporary. Here every
man and woman is assigned a role to play and exit the stage of life as soon as the seventh role is
performed.

The Man of Life Upright:

Thomas Campion

Introduction (Poem & Poet):

The poem The Man of Life Upright is a highly appreciated and widely read composition of one
of the best known and highly held English poets. The poem is very simple in language and form.
It tells the qualities of a man who spends life honestly and consequently contented.

Contents of the Poem:

One of the distinct qualities of the head and heart of the man of life upright is that he not only
harms none, but his innocent heart is free even from the thought of vanity. Furthermore an honest
man spends his free time in harmless joys. This man is neither deluded by, nor discontented by
hope. This man, who does not make enemies, does not need the towers or armour for defense,
nor does he need e secret vaults to fly. This man looks with fearless eyes, both the horrors of the
deep and terrors of the skies. This man makes the heaven his book. The secrets of the nature and
the philosophy of nature is his study. Resultantly, the heavenly things become his wisdom.
The good thoughts are his company and friends. Therefore all the good thinking people become
his allies. Because he does not think bad of any one, therefore he does not have any one bad
thinking of him.
A well, and honestly spent age is his wealth and property. He has made the friends and no
enemies, therefore his friends become his power.
This man lives on earth as a pilgrim. He thinks the world as a sober inn. He does not think the
life to be something permanent. He takes it something temporary.
The honest man has a heart that is free from evil thoughts, he thinks good of every one, therefore
all the good thinking people come to his fold of friendship. Since he has made no enmity,
therefore he needs not towers and armour for defense. He is not envied by the people raised by
chance or luck. He is not greedy therefore he spends a carefree life.

Conclusion:
A Roman maxim says, one who has lost his honour, what has he left to live upon? It matters not
how long we live, but how we live. The Man of Life Upright, according Thomas Campion
considers the world a place for brief stay. He considers this world just an inn, without any desire
for glamour, fame or luxury. Thus the poem imparts an everlasting message that by spending life
following these principles, one can live really contented.
 Lines from Samson Agonistes
John Milton

Summary of the Poem

Introduction (Poem & Poet):
The Poem is an excerpt from a great poetic drama proudly attributed to a great English poet,
John Milton, one of the greatest poets of the English language, best-known for his epic poem
PARADISE LOST (1667). Milton's powerful, rhetoric prose and the eloquence of his poetry had
an immense influence especially on the 18th-century verse.
These lines from Milton’s great poetic drama describe the death of its hero, Samson. Samson is a
man of immense strength but has been taken captive, through the treachery of his wife, by the
Philistines, the deadly enemies of his race. He saves his people by using his strength to kill the
Philistine leaders but, in bringing down the roof of a great temple upon the heads of those
assembled there, he sacrifices his own life at the same time.

Samson, the man of immense strength, who has been made captive and blinded by Philistines,
the deadly enemies of his race, is the protagonist of the play. It is believed that the source of the
immense strength is the hair of the hero. Through the treachery of the wife of the hero, Samson is
made captive. It is said that he disclosed the secret of his strength to his wife who belongs to the
ranks of his enemies, cuts his hair, while he was sleeping.

The hero is blinded and brought by his enemies to show his strength. The objects which can be
felt and performed without eyes are put before him. He performs all with incredible force to the
extreme pleasure and surprise of the audience. The people are from the deadly enemies of his
race. These persons are not common persons, but the elitist class of his enemies’ race. The
priests, the clergy the councilors and the flower: the selected people not from this city but around
the city.

He performs the tricks, manifests his strength to the amazement and amusement of the audience.
He performs it all obediently. As a break, after much display of his strength he is brought
between two massy pillars supporting the arch roof built for the large audience from far and
wide.

He gets an idea that these are the pillars that support the arched roof of the temple under which
all the people are assembled. He decides to shake the pillars and bring down the roof and
destruction on the heads of those assembled there. The hero through his incredible force, the
force which when the winds and waters are stopped , the force that shakes the mountains, he
embraces the pillars, strains his nerves , and trembles the pillars to and fro until they bring the
roof down along on the heads of his enemies, assembled there.

Conclusion( Message of the Poem):

The poem is piercingly effective in conveying the message that a graceful death is better than the
life of disgrace, in the hands of the enemies. If the loss of one’s life brings destruction to the
enemies, one should not hesitate to sacrifice own life.

Lines from an Essay on Man

Alexander Pope

Introduction (Poet& Poem):

This great poem is written by Alexander Pope, English essayist, critic, satirist, and one of
the greatest poets of Enlightenment. His breakthrough work, AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM,
appeared when he was twenty-three. It included the famous line "a little learning is a dangerous
thing." he is also considered a leading literary critic and the epitome of English Neoclassicism.
The central theme of the poem that runs through the flesh and blood of the poem is that the
future kept hidden from both humans and animals is a sheer divine blessing.

Body (Contents of the Poem):

The poem starts with gratitude to Heavens for keeping the book of fate hidden from humans and
animals, however, the future of the humans is known to the angels and the future of the animals
is revealed to the humans. The poet believes and argues that it is the blessing of the heavens that
the future is kept hidden. Or else it would have been very difficult to complete the life.

The poet gives a beautiful example of the lamb, which does not know about the future and riots
and dances to the last. He eats the flowery food, and licks the hands just raised to bleed her. If he
knows the future, he hardly would behave the way it behaves.
The obvious objective according to the poet, to keep the confidentiality of future, is so that every
living being could complete the circle marked by the Heaven. The poet says that keeping the
confidentiality of the future in mind one should hope for the better, but also prepare for the
worst. One should rise to the heights, but also keep the great teacher, the death in mind.
The soul is always uneasy in the present situation. It always hopes to prosper in the future. Thus
the soul rests and expatiates in the life to come.

Conclusion (Lesson of the Poem):

The moral lesson of the poem is that it is one out of multifold divinely blessings showered upon
the living things, that the future is kept secret. What humans know the animals do not know what
the spirits know the humans not know. Keeping in view the confidentiality of future one should
strive for heights, but with trembling pinion. One should wait for the death, the great teacher, as
well.
 “Stanzas from an ELEGY WRITTEN IN
A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD"
By: Thomas Gray
Introduction (Poem & Poet):

The poem Stanzas from an “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is the master piece of
Thomas Gray. Thomas Gray wrote few poems, but his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
has become one of the most famous and often quoted in the English language. Gray is considered
the greatest of the "Graveyard Poets."This poem is probably the best known poem of its length in
English. So well known is it that many of its lines are as familiar as proverbs. The poem is an
elegy- a poem that is written in the memory and appreciation of the dead.

Body (Contents of the Poem):

The poet depicts the scene and setting of the poem, while he is sitting in the ancient graveyard. It
is evening, sun setting time. The shepherds, peasants, the goats and birds and everything are
returning their homes exhausted, after day long toil. There is absolute peace and alluring silence
in the environment. The poet is sitting in the country churchyard where the forefathers of the
hamlet are buried Many graves are neglected, about whom nothing is known. The darkness is his
company, there is perfect silence in the environment, except the lulling tinkling of the distant
folds, or the complaining sound of the owl, and he peeps into the past of the dead residents of the
hamlet.

The devoted hard worker, forefathers of the hamlet, with the breezy call of the incense breathing
morn, or the twittering of the swallow, or the clarion cry of the crow, or the echoing horn from
church got up to go to their work. The poet recalls the history of the dead people. He recalls that
when the tired peasants returned their homes in the evening the housewives worked evening care
for them. On returning home the little children lisped their fathers’ return. They children shared
the most envied kiss to them. But the poet says that now they are dead and this all will not be
done for them, unfortunately.

The poet admonishes the proud young generation not to make mockery of the simple joys of the
forefathers of the hamlet. If there are no trophies to their credit, whatever they did they did
honestly and devotedly, it is itself not less than trophies. The poet says that the songs and
anthems in the praise cannot sooth the dull merciless ear of the death. All the praises after death
are useless and ineffective. Nor the words of appreciation can bring back the soul to the bodies.
Therefore he thinks that the appreciations and anthems should not be given over much value.
No one knows who these graves are buried in. May be a great poet, a great musician, an artist, a
royal blood or a parliamentarian is sleeping in these graves. The time has removed all the marks.
The knowledge of their history is only preserved in their eyes, what they saw and what they did?

The poet says that how simple their annals may be. But it is undisputed that these people were
honest and sincere with their cause. Unlike the young generation they did not flatter their bosses
for promotion. These people were principled and did not resort to slaughter to seek the throne.
These people did not heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride.

These poor people spend their lives in isolation instead being the centre of maddening crowds.
Their wishes did not learn to go astray; these people passed their lives, unsung, and unknown.

Conclusion (Message of the Poem):

The poem is an effective endeavour at propagating the grandeur of the dead and their tombs. The
old grandfathers of the hamlet were simple but honest. Their accomplishments need not be
underestimated. They were the heroes of their times.

The Solitary Reaper

William Wordsworth

Introduction (Poet & Poem):

The poem “the Solitary Reaper” is a highly commended and widely read composition by
William Wordsworth, a British poet, credited with ushering in the English Romantic Movement
with the publication of Lyrical Ballads. He is generally known as the poet of Nature. Like many
of Wordsworth’s best and most memorable poems. Unsurprising, actually, since it reflects
Wordsworth’s own philosophy of poetry, i.e. that a poem should be a ‘spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings, recollected in tranquility’

The poem relates to an incident, which deeply inspired the poet when he4 was walking alone
through he barren hills of Scotland. He was fascinated by the sweet voice of a girl, who was
singing a song in her native language.

Body (Contents of the Poem):

The poem is about a little girl who reaps the crop. While working when she is bending on the
sickle, she sings a melancholic song. The poet cannot help stopping and listening to the girl.
Though it is not clear what she is singing but the melody of her song is so compelling that he
cannot move without listening to it.

According to the poet it is not clear what is the subject of the song, however it is a melancholic
song. It seems that she sings about someone separated, about some grief, or more serious, day
today matter that has happened and might happen again.
According to the poet the whole valley is overwhelmed with the melody of the singing girl. The
poet is so moved that he comes to say that such melodious voice has never been heard from the
Cuckoo-bird in spring time, a voice that has the power to break the silence of the seas among the
farthest Hebrides.

The poet compares the beauty of the sound with the sound of Nightingale or the cuckoo bird in
the spring time. The poet does not understand the meaning of the poetry, as very little he is
concerned with the meaning. It is the beauty of the sound itself that is piercing and charming,
that the poet is concerned with.

The magic of the charm of the singing girl is not temporary on the poet. According to the poet,
when he goes up to the mountains and when the melody of the singing girl is no more audible,
still the sound of the singing girl echoes in his ears and brain, whenever, the poet is alone he
rejoices those beautiful experiences.

Conclusion (Message of the Poem):

The poem artistically yet effectively imparts a moral lesson that impact of beauty is not short
lived. The observation of beauty becomes immortal in the memory, and a source of perpetual
entertainment to resort to, whenever alone.

Music when Soft Voice Die

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Introduction (Poet & Poem):

“Music When Soft Voices Die” is a highly held piece of poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley. He is
one of the greatest contributors to the romantic poetry in the English language and author of the
Prometheus Unbound and many other poems. His greatest passages have a pure and intense
lyrical quality that demands his recognition as a major poet. Like so many English poets he loved
the sea, a love which cost him his life for he was drowned when sailing a small boat off Spezzia.
The poem discusses the impact indelible impact of beauty. The beauty of this very short poem is
beyond ordinary discussion and analysis.

Body (Contents of the Poem):

According to the poet the impact of the music, the ecstasy induced by the music, lives for long,
long after its real source the music is over. The flowers even after their death leave the fragrance
and the impact of the fragrance, the beautiful sense of fragrance. The flower is mortal but the
fragrance of the flower is immortal.

The flowers for their beautiful colours and fragrance are heaped for the beloved’s bed. The
physical existence of beloved is less important as the flower is. But the time spent with the friend
and the impact of that company is of real value. Thus the memories of the beloved, after the
departure of the beloved are sufficient enough to enliven the time.

Conclusion (Lesson of the Poem):

The poet believes in the spiritual existence of the objects. The physical importance of the
objects is secondary. The flower may die but the fragrance of the flower and the impact
induced by that fragrance is of real value. The beloved may depart, similarly, but the
memories associated with the friends are immortal, and of real value.

Lines from Endymion

John Keats

Introduction (Poet & Poem):

The poem “Lines from Endymion” is a highly commendable composition by one of the one of
the key figures of the Romantic Movement. Keats is the leading poet of the second generation of
Romantic poets. The poem describes the poet’s unique concept of beauty which he considers as
the immortal source of joy for the observer.

Body (Contents of the Poem):

According to the poet beauty is an immortal source of joy for the observer. It is the source of
perpetual pleasure. The impact of beauty never decreases, reversely, it keeps up increasing.
According to the poet beauty is a perpetual source of joy and entertainment for us. The
experience of beauty showers charm on us, it gives us sweet dreams, health and a healthy life.
When we are utterly sad, disappointed because of the dearth of the noble natures in this world, in
the gloomy days, unhealthy and over darkened times, it is the beauty that gives us
encouragement and enthusiasm.
According to the poet every morning we bind ourselves with beauty, which gives us support to
face all the problems and difficulties of the life. It is our experience with the beauty that despite
inhuman natures of the people we maintain our existence in the world.
The stories of grandeur of our heroes, who established extra ordinary deeds despite hurdles and
difficulties, are also source of encouragement and enthusiasm in difficult times.

Conclusion (Message of the Poem)

The message of the poem is that beauty is the source of perpetual joy, its loveliness always
increases, its charm will never be ended, and rather it will keep up increasing.
 Say not the Struggle Naught Availeth
Arthur Hugh Clough

Introduction (Poet & Poem):

The poem is best known of Clough’s poems. The poem Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth
became famous in Britain and America during the Second World War, when Sir Winston
Churchill quoted it in one of his most notable war-time speeches to express his conviction that
hard and disheartening as the long struggle then was, victory would come in the end.

Body (Contents of the Poem):

The poet prohibits saying that it is useless to say that struggle is something useless and it is
not effective. On the contrary, the labour and the wounds in the way of struggle are not
useless, they bring the results.
The poet encourages the struggling that if the hope is an illusion, if it is something unreal,
then it is fact that the fears are also weird. If we can’t hope then we too should not be afraid
of anything before it happens.
The poem is completely encouraging and inspiring in its letter and spirit. The poem solaces
that apparently all the struggles and labours look ending in smoke, without any apparent
results. Yet, the struggle and labour brings a slow and silent revolution. The pains and
struggle are never useless things.
The poet says that similar as the struggle does not seem to bring the results, the tired waves
also look as if vainly striking against the shores. But slowly and consistently the waves make
their way through creeks and inlets bringing a silent flood.

Conclusion: