La Belle Dame sans Merci

John Keats

La Belle Dame sans Merci

John Keats is among the greatest romantic poets in English literature. In his poem La Belle Dame sans Merci, he tells us about an enthralled knight and mysterious maiden in a ballad form.

The poet meets a warrior in a field. The warrior is wandering lonely and appears to be nearing death. The poet asks him the reason for the sorrowful situation. The answer of the knight makes the rest of the poem.

The knight says that he met a fairy lady in the meadows. The lady is graceful and has long hair and wild eyes. He is attracted to her and spends time with the beautiful lady. He adorns her with flowers and lets her ride his horse. Though he doesn’t understand her strange language, he thinks that she has fallen in love with him. She sings fairy songs and feeds him tasty roots, wild honey, and manna. As he makes romantic advances, she takes him to her fairy cave. After some passionate time together, she lulls him to sleep.

The knight falls asleep. In his sleep. he dreams of all the long gone warriors, kings, and princes who were seduced by the fairy lady. They are all pale, hungry looking and their mouths are starved. In the nightmare, all the dead cried describing her ‘la belle dame sans merci’. These French words mean that ‘the beautiful woman without mercy’. The knight wakes up alone on the side of a hill. He concludes his story by saying that he has been wandering alone since then.

Gods – Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman-Poet

Gods – Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman is an American poet. He is a transcendentalist. He advocated free verse. He is among the greatest poets of America.

In his poem, ‘the Gods’, Whitman glorifies Creation as whole and perfect. He talks about wonderful things that inspire him and invokes them to be his Gods. He commands these things to be Godlike to him.

Whitman asks all thoughts of infinity to be his God. He addresses God as the divine lover and perfect comrade. Though God is invisible, He is surely waiting contentedly. Whitman describes God as fair, able, beautiful, satisfied and loving. God is physically complete and spiritually present everywhere.

Whitman calls death as God because it is the gateway to heaven. According to the poet, God is the best and the mightiest of all the known things. God frees us from all bonds. Whitman says that God exists in trusted traditions, progressive ideas, mankind’s hopes and heroic deeds of passionate people. God manifests in the divine earth, Sun and everything including the poet himself.

The Bird Sanctuary – Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu-Poetess

The Bird Sanctuary – Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu is a well-known freedom fighter. She advocated women’s liberation. She is called as ‘the Nightingale of India' for her poetry’s musical quality and rhythm.

In her poem, the Bird Sanctuary, she describes a garden full of several kinds of birds. The birds welcome dawn making different types of sounds. Birds having various colors such as amber and ebony, birds like bulbul, oriel, honey bird and shama are moving on the trees. The trees are full of nectar and dew.

Silver colored gulls are flying in the sky. Kingfisher and hoopoe birds are in sapphire blue and bronze colors.  Grey pigeons are building homes on tree tops with banyan twigs. The jade green gypsy parrots are enjoying red ripe fig fruits.

The poet says that God’s wonderful garden has space for every bird. She prays God to provide safe resting place for distressed or wounded homing birds. She symbolizes birds to all living creatures and bird sanctuary to earth wonderfully.

Why People Really Love Technology: An Interview with Genevieve Bell

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Why People Really Love Technology: An Interview with Genevieve Bell

Mrs. Genevieve Bell is an Australian anthropologist and social scientist. She talks in an interview about how people understand upcoming technologies and how they use gadgets. People of all age groups adapt to technology quickly. Some countries are fearful of technology driven machines like robots whereas some countries welcome them. 

Though the internet is everywhere, it is not seamless because different places in the world have different regulations. Physical objects will come back with the development of 3-D printing. World Wide Web has paved way to free flow of information, transparency, and global access. Social networking, matrimony cum dating services, banking and e-commerce are few of the fruits of computing. People use technology and gadgets as per their requirements and fancies.

The Beloved Charioteer – Shashi Deshpande

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The Beloved Charioteer – Shashi Deshpande

Shashi Deshpande’s short story, ‘The Beloved Charioteer’ describes the sad existence of two widowed women. They are mother and daughter. The story is told in the first person by the mother. She gives birth to two sons and one daughter, Arati. The two sons do not survive and the daughter loves her father very much. Arati is married and her husband dies even before the birth of their daughter, Priti. Arati becomes a recluse and hates the world. The grandmother adores Priti. She remembers the bitter memories of her suppressed life as a housewife. She has to bear the burden of her daughter’s aloofness. She lives for her granddaughter, Priti.

The Power of Prayer - APJ Abdul Kalam

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The Power of Prayer - APJ Abdul Kalam

The Power of Prayer is taken from Wings of Fire written by APJ Abdul Kalam. Kalam belongs to a middle-class Tamil Muslim family of Rameswaram. The family lived in their ancestral house.  After evening prayers, his father would dip his fingers in the water and pray. The water would be used to cure suffering people.

His father told Kalam that prayer makes our body a part of the cosmos. Prayer makes communion of spirit between man and God possible. He further told him that every human being is a part of a divine Being.

Kalam says that whatever he achieved in his life is through the help of God. He says that God has graced him with outstanding teachers and colleagues. There is a divine fire in every one of us, we should give wings to the fire and glow.

The Merchant of Venice Act 4 Scene I - Summary

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The Merchant of Venice Act 4 Scene I

Shylock brings Antonio to the Duke’s court and demands justice. He says that he will not accept repayment but wants Antonio's flesh. The Duke’s suggestion, Bassanio’s request and offer of six thousand ducats do not change Shylock’s mind. The Duke allows Doctor Bellario to solve the case. Antonio is ready to give flesh to Shylock.

Portia enters dressed as a Doctor of law, Bellario. She tells Shylock that mercy is a quality of a king and God.  Shylock still refuses to accept money. Shylock refuses to allow a surgeon to stop bleeding. At the last minute, Portia tells Shylock that he may have the flesh, but he cannot draw even a drop of blood as it is not written into the bond.

Shylock realizes that he cannot take flesh and accepts money.But Portia tells him that he is liable to be punished. As he conspired to kill a Venitian citizen, he faces the death penalty and confiscation of his properties.Half of his wealth goes to the Duke and the other half to the victim. Duke spares Shylock's life and Antonio suggests that his half should be given to Shylock's daughter.

Portia doesn't accept Duke's invitation for dinner and Bessanio's offer of three thousand ducats.She takes Antonio's gloves and Bessanio's ring.