Friendship Poem by Henry David Thoreau

Hello Readers!

Welcome to my blog. This is one of my B.A. studies blog  in which I wrote about most famous poem "Friendship" written  by Henry David Thoreau. In the poem "Friendship" by Henry David Thoreau, he addresses the theme of love and how love is shown in our world. ... "Love is to me a world, Sole meat and sweetest drink, and close connecting link." By making love into this real, tangible thing, it helps the reader see how important love is to Thoreau.

Henry David Thoreau 

American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was a New England Transcendentalist and author of the book Walden. Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, Massachusetts. He began writing nature poetry in the 1840s, with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a mentor and friend. In 1845 he began his famous two-year stay on Walden Pond, which he wrote about in his master work, Walden. He also became known for his beliefs in Transcendentalism and civil disobedience, and was a dedicated abolitionist. Click here to read more about Henry Thoreau.

"Friendship "Poem by Henry Thoreau 

Friendship

I think awhile of Love, and while I think, 

Love is to me a world, 

Sole meat and sweetest drink, 

And close connecting link 

Tween heaven and earth. 

I only know it is, not how or why, 

My greatest happiness; 

However hard I try, 

Not if I were to die, 

Can I explain. 

I fain would ask my friend how it can be, 

But when the time arrives, 

Then Love is more lovely 

Than anything to me, 

And so I'm dumb. 

For if the truth were known, Love cannot speak, 

But only thinks and does; 

Though surely out 'twill leak 

Without the help of Greek, 

Or any tongue. 

A man may love the truth and practise it, 

Beauty he may admire, 

And goodness not omit, 

As much as may befit 

To reverence. 

But only when these three together meet, 

As they always incline, 

And make one soul the seat, 

And favorite retreat, 

Of loveliness; 

When under kindred shape, like loves and hates 

And a kindred nature, 

Proclaim us to be mates, 

Exposed to equal fates 

Eternally; 

And each may other help, and service do, 

Drawing Love's bands more tight, 

Service he ne'er shall rue 

While one and one make two, 

And two are one; 

In such case only doth man fully prove 

Fully as man can do, 

What power there is in Love 

His inmost soul to move 

Resistlessly. 

Two sturdy oaks I mean, which side by side, 

Withstand the winter's storm, 

And spite of wind and tide, 

Grow up the meadow's pride, 

For both are strong 

Above they barely touch, but undermined 

Down to their deepest source, 

Admiring you shall find 

Their roots are intertwined 

Insep'rably.

In the poem "Friendship" by Henry David Thoreau, he addresses the theme of love and how love is shown in our world. He describes how he views love, and how love is expressed in nature.

Friendship is one of the favourite subject of poet,  Here the title "Friendship" is a short, simple and meaningful as the poem highlights me elements of Friendship. 

Theme of the poem

Thoreau convince his felling emotions  and sentiments by the way of this poem. He has beautifully described love through friendship. According to him love and friendship are both on the same level and are synonyms to each other. 

Content of the poem

Friendship is a well meaning poem. The poet has analyse friendship from it's roots and fount out they are equal and there is no difference between the two love and friendship both are equally important in a relationship, love is the relates feeling in the world as Thoreau begins this poem;

"I think a while of love, and while I think,

love is to me a world"

Love is the base of every relationship. No feeling is superior to love in life. A person with love in his  heart can win anyone and anything in his life. Love can be found many relationship ,such as in couple husband and wife, between parents and children, man and nature, man and animal etc. but love is incomplete without friendship. The poet state mate he is very happy the convey it his friend, he feels love more lovely. He writes,

"I fain would ask my friend how it can be,

But when the time arrives,

Then love is more lovely

Then anything to me,

And so I'm dumb".

The poet argues that the true love can not speak but thinks. A man love the truth practise it, he may admire duty but he can not easily express the true love. The poet also give examples at to  strong asks which stand side by side. They face the winters storm, wind and tide but  they are both strong by root which are inseparable.

In his attempt to determine the limit at friendship Thoreau emerges himself in the Ocean of friendship. His deep exploration makes him realise that the roots at friendship are intertwined, inseparable and undetermined. Intertwined roots of friendship indicate there is no define base of friendship. It can happen between anyone for example there are not set rule to start your friendship with someone in older to have successful friendship. 

Friendship laid on the ground of love will always be successful. End of friendship means and of love. If there is no love there is no friendship. Vise versa true friendship laid on the ground of love is described as inseparable just like no time or age can separate love between two people,similarly true friendship never dies. 

Style of the poem

Thoreau is basically a thinker, philosopher like Emerson. There his poetry governed by taught on Idea rather than feelings. In the present poem friendship he discusses two key element of human life. Love and friendship. 

He has designed the poem into stanza of five lines each most of the lines are short and simple.

"I only know it is, not how or why,

My greatest happiness, 

However hard I try,

Not if I were to die,

Can I explain".

The poet has made use of example of day to day life to convey his idea about love and friendship example The Oak tree.

To sum up

It is Rightly commented ,

"Life without friendship is like wine without taste".

It indicate the role of friendship in our life H.D.Thoreau has also highlighted the same relationship in this poem. This poem conveys a fine massage about the role of love and friendship in our life.

Citation :

“Henry David Thoreau.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 21 June 2019, www.biography.com/.amp/writer/henry-david-thoreau.


Friendship’ Poem by Henry David Thoreau.” Thoreauhenrydavid [Licensed for Non-Commercial Use Only] / "Friendship" Poem by Henry David Thoreau, thoreauhenrydavid.pbworks.com/w/page/73071764/"Friendship" poem by Henry David Thoreau.

                    Thank you!

          

Character study of Othello

Hello Readers!

Welcome to my blog! This my B. A. Studies blog. I wrote here blog on one of my favourite drama "Othello" written by World famous writer William Shakespeare.  We also performed this drama when I have in second year of my  B. A. study.  I played role of Casio. This is very interesting drama and also teach us lots of things. Trust is very important in our life. Othello doesn't trust on his beloved and killed her without thinking and knowing. At the end of the play he realise that his beloved is innocent and he was killed himself. Let's we look the character of Othello in detail. 

• William Shakespeare

Joseph Campbell once was quoted saying,

 “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

 A hero can make a difference by his or her actions and words. A hero may live next door to you or can be someone who is known all around the world. There are many heroes that have accomplished a goal or great deed. A true hero has many qualities such as selflessness, perseverance, persistence, and open-mindedness. To some people, William Shakespeare of England is a hero because of his superior writing.

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in England. He died on April 23, 1610. William was married to Mary Arden. They had three children named Susannah, Hamnet, and Judith. Although they didn’t follow in his footsteps, they admired and supported his work. William Shakespeare's wonderful plays have been performed all over the world. William wrote over 30 plays and 150 sonnets with very unique words in them. His works have been translated into every major language today. Shakespeare’s last two plays were written after he retired to Stratford. Click here for read more about Shakespeare.

    "Othello"  ~ By William Shakespeare 

Wonderful book! Reading Othello can offer you matchless insights into male conscience and psychology. Above all, it helps you understand the meaning of personal relationships in the context of social dynamics and how these things shape our world. Othello's love for Desdemona was real but not as real as Desdemona's for Othello. In a world, where men dominate and a man believes another man rather than his own woman, a wife's love finds it difficult to obtain meaning and value. Iago is a villain who represents the poisonous male dominated society and how the venom it has nurtured for generations is still its nemesis. Women have continued to sacrifice themselves for their men for generations but men could still not return the same love or worship women as they worship their men. Shakespeare proves that Desdemona's love wins but if only Othello had retained his love for her and not felt troubled or unsettled by Iago's treacheries, his life would have become heaven. The tragic drama is a splendid work by Shakespeare and helps you peep into a world where a woman's love is still struggling to find meaning. Shakespeare's characters are amazing and so are his works but the theme of this drama is just matchless and so is the author's candid treatment of the topic. It all begins at a point where a war is over and the winner takes home a beautiful wife as a trophy but keeps judging himself all his life for if he ever deserved her. Shakespeare has poured all his love into the drama for his readers to show how love for love can change the world. This is very interesting book review given by Abhieet Pratap.

Character Sketch of Othello 

Othello is one sense, is by for the most romantic figure among Shakespeare's heroes; and he is so partially from the strong life of war and adventure which he has lived from childhood. He does not belong to  our world and he seems to enter it we know not from where almost as if from wonder length. He stands among the best known character of literary world. Like a magnificent hero of tragedy. Othello's characterisation is glorious and  unforgettable. He passes many distinctive qualities generally a hero should have. He is noble generous, brave, a true lover and a good human being but all his qualities are defected by a single vice that is his suspicion takes him towards his own distraction. Let's analysis his character in detail.

•  Physical Appearance

Othello physical appearance is completely contrast to the concept of hero. He is very ugly looking coloured moor of course his looks very strong and brave but his look does not match with a general handsome looking hero. 

• As a Brave commander

Basically, Othello is a soldier, a brave commander. Perhaps that's why he fails in love, because he takes decision to kill Desdemona  without considering the issue sound mindedly. He has participated in numerous wars, battles  and proved himself  a great worrier. He is so capable that he is given the entire responsibility to protect Cyprus  from   possible alack by the Turks.

• As a lover

Othello is of course a champion in battle fields; he also succeeds to win Desdemona's affection when he narrates his experience of battle field before Brabantio. Desdimona Brabantio's daughter is impressed by him and she falls in love with him. At Cyprus when Othello and Desdemona arrives, we can observe some of the best poetic dialogue by this Romantic lover. Brabantio warns him about faithlessness, Othello replies him,

"My life upon her faith"

•  As Shakespeare's Hero

Like Hamlet , King Liyar or others Shakespearean heroes, Othello occupies a hire level. He possesses a respectable position as the commander in vanashian army. Shakespearean tragedy introduces tragic heroes who are exceptional personalities As S.C. Bradly point out;  

"We have seen already that the

hero with Shakespeare is a person

of height or public importance 

and that his actions or sufferings

are an unusual kind".

  

Othello is a typical Shakespearean hero. We can observe 'Hamaratia means the fall or degradation of the hero.

• His Weaknesses

Every traditional hero of tragedy passes some weakness of fault which causes destruction for him as well as others. Othello fails to understand Iago's intrigues and therefor Iago traps him. In edition to that Othello can not judge Desdemona, his beloved properly. His dearest beloved turns faithless for him very soon. He kills her for know fault of hers failure can be divided into two parts those who only think but do not think and those who only think but never act. Othello is first type of failure who murders his wife without thinking. While Hamlet only thinks and acts very late.

• His tragic end

As it is pattern of Shakespeare's tragedy, most of the characters die at the end of the play with or without faults. Othello after killing his wife and knowing truth about Iago's intrigues, feels heavily , sense guilt. He commits suicide. A brave warrior, A true lover and good matured hero dies winning sympathy from the audience.

• Conclusion

'Othello' is a Shakespearean tragedy. It has a rich characterisation but Othello is a main character of this drama. He is kind hearted man but one misunderstanding create by Iago and he kills his love Desdemona. Othello is an uncomparable character in this drama. 

•     Reference 

•  William Shakespeare.” The MY HERO Project, myhero.com/Shakespeare_memorial_ms_06.
• From teachers lecture.

                  Thank  you!

Quality : Short Story

Hello Readers!

Welcome to my blog. Now I,m going to write about my B.A studies blog. In the last year of B.A. we have studies very interesting short story "Quality" written by John Galsworthy. The title itself suggest lot's of thing. This story about Gessler Brothers that how they faced difficult situation. This story about the great shoes maker. We can see that the how people choose things without thinking and observing. Now the days many people also choose quantitative thing instead of qualitative. Very hard working shoes maker suffer because of that people doesn't chose qualitative thing they go behind quantity. The Gessler brothers tragedy signifies a moral decay in search for material civilisation.  Human values are threatened by material gain. 

We can think this points;

•   Quality or Quantity 
• Quality versus artificiality
• Human values or materialistic world?
• Concept of industrialisation and modernisation
• does the art of artist is replaced by machine?

Let's we look the short story in detail.

John Galsworthy

John Galsworthy, (born Aug. 14, 1867, Kingston Hill, Surrey, Eng.—died Jan. 31, 1933, Grove Lodge, Hampstead), English novelist and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.

Galsworthy’s family, of Devonshire farming stock traceable to the 16th century, had made a comfortable fortune in property in the 19th century. His father was a solicitor. Educated at Harrow and New College, Oxford, Galsworthy was called to the bar in 1890. With a view to specializing in marine law, he took a voyage around the world, during which he encountered Joseph Conrad, then mate of a merchant ship. They became lifelong friends. Galsworthy found law uncongenial and took to writing. For his first works, From the Four Winds (1897), a collection of short stories, and the novel Jocelyn(1898), both published at his own expense, he used the pseudonym John Sinjohn. The Island Pharisees (1904) was the first book to appear under his own name.

Quality

Quality by John Galsworthy was first published in "The Inn of Tranquillity: studies and essays" in 1912. Title itself is a "quality" of "Quality". It is a short and simple but meaningful. The short story "Quality" describe the value of quality. Narrator see a perfectness in work which is qualitative.

Theme of the Story

The main theme is commitment; commitments to one's work, to one's passion. Every worker artist if he loves his work and is immersed in it. The Gessler brother's commitment towards their work is really touching. For them the struggles, the hardships are nothing as long as they keep doing their work. The tragedy of Gessler brothers signifies a moral decay in the search for material civilisation. Human values are threatened by material gain.

Plot of the story

The story starts with the description of the boot shop; on top was the name plate 'Gessler Brothers' and a few shoes displayed on the window. They make shoes on order. The narrator then narrates one of his meetings with Mr. Gessler. He says it has not been possible to go him much because the shoes he made have lasted very long and are the best of their kind.

One day the narrator goes to their shop to get a pair of Russian leather shoes. Mr. Gessler retreat upstairs and comes back after sometime holding a fine golden Russian leather piece. After the narrator's approval he says he'll get his shoes tomorrow fortnight.

One day the narrator goes to their boot shop and tells him that the last shoes he got from him creak. After a long pause Mr. Gessler asks him to them, he assures that if he can't repair them, he will give the money back.

Another day he goes to Gessler Brothers to order a new pair, wearing a pair of shoes which he bought due to some emergency from a big firm. Mr. Gessler at once recognises that the shoes are not made by him. He touches a particular spot on the narrator's shoe where it isn't comfortable for the narrator and says that it hurts there. He expresses his contempt that thoes large firms attract customers through shiny impressive advertisements to sell their inferior quality products. Then the author explains to him under what circumstances he had to buy those shoes. 

The new shoes lasted nearly two years. And in his next visit he receives quite a shock. When he enters the shop, he sees the younger Gessler brother who informs him of elder Gessler' s death. That day he orders several pairs. It takes longer to make them but the quality is even better than the previous ones.

Soon after, the narrator leaves for abroad and returns after over a years. The first shop he goes to is Mr. Gessler's , now seventy five, is unable to recognise him at first. Narrator gives a huge order. The wait is longer than ever but the quality only gets better. 

After a week, while passing the little street, the narrator thinks to go in and tell Mr. Gessler that the boots are perfect. But when he goes to the place where the shop was the name plates is no longer there. 

Disturbed, he goes into the shop and young English face greets him. The narrator enquires about Mr. Gessler and comes to know of younger Gessler's death. Upon hearing this the narrator is quite shocked. 

The young man explains to him that Gessler died from starvation; he used to devoted himself to shoe making so much that he used to forget about everything else. All the money went in the rents and leather. The fate was quite obvious from the beginning. But both the narrator and the young man agrees that the Gessler brothers made good quality boots.

Phases of Plot

Exposition : 

It provides the reader with the knowledge of Gessler Brothers, their shops, and their attitude toward making boots.

Conflict :

The brother are faced by the competition of the big firm. When they lose one of the two shops, the handicraft men is strengthen. 

Climax :

The climax arrives when the surviving younger brother can no longer make a living.

Denouement :

The denouement comes  with his death and the success of big firm.

Mr. Gessler is an excellent craftsman the narrator remarks about;

"I will say that far him

not a man in London maid

a better boot"

Such a very interesting short story, we think abort importance of qualitative things or qualitative what we chose?


                       Thank you .....

• Citation 

Desai, Kaushal. “‘Quality’ by John Galsworthy.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 5 Jan. 2019, www.slideshare.net/mobile/kaushal111/quality-by-john-galsworthy.