Week 17 Literature

Fiction

 > The class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, especially in prose form.

Poetry
 > Poetry (the term derives from a variant of the Greek term, poiesis, "making") is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

Drama
> Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drama), which is derived from "I do" . The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy.

A Midsummer Night's Dream 

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanicals) who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

> Summary : Lysander loves Hermia, and Hermia loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius; Demetrius used to love Helena but now loves Hermia. Egeus, Hermia's father, prefers Demetrius as a suitor, and enlists the aid of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to enforce his wishes upon his daughter. According to Athenian law, Hermia is given four days to choose between Demetrius, life in a nunnery, or a death sentence. Hermia, ever defiant, chooses to escape with Lysander into the surrounding forest.

Complications arise in the forest. Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of Fairies, are locked in a dispute over a boy whom Titania has adopted. Oberon instructs his servant Puck to bring him magic love drops, which Oberon will sprinkle on the Queen's eyelids as she sleeps, whereupon Titania will fall in love with the first creature she sees upon awakening. Meanwhile, Helena and Demetrius have also fled into the woods after Lysander and Hermia. Oberon, overhearing Demetrius's denouncement of Helena, takes pity upon her and tells Puck to place the magic drops upon the eyelids of Demetrius as well, so that Demetrius may fall in love with Helena. Puck, however, makes the mistake of putting the drops on the eyelids of Lysander instead. Helena stumbles over Lysander in the forest, and the spell is cast; Lysander now desires Helena and renounces a stunned Hermia.

In the midst of this chaos, a group of craftsmen are rehearsing for a production of "Pyramus and Thisbe," to be played for the Duke at his wedding. Puck impishly casts a spell on Bottom to give him the head of a donkey. Bottom, as luck would have it, is the first thing Titania sees when she awakens; hence, Bottom ends up being lavishly kept by the Queen. Oberon enjoys this sport, but is less amused when it becomes apparent that Puck has botched up the attempt to unite Demetrius and Helena. Oberon himself anoints Demetrius with the love potion and ensures that Helena is the first person he sees; however, Helena understandably feels that she is now being mocked by both Demetrius and Lysander (who is still magically enamored of her).

Finally, Oberon decides that all good sports must come to an end. He puts the four lovers to sleep and gives Lysander the antidote for the love potion so that he will love Hermia again when they all wake up. Next, Oberon gives Titania the antidote, and the King and Queen reconcile. Theseus and Hippolyta then discover Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Demetrius asleep in the forest. All return to Athens to make sense of what they think is a strange dream. Likewise, Bottom returns to his players, and they perform "Pyramus and Thisbe" at the wedding feast (which has since become a wedding of three couples). As everyone retires, fairies perform their blessings and Puck delivers a tender epilogue soliloquy.

Dramatis Persona:

• Theseus, Duke of Athens
• Egeus, father of Hermia
• Lysander, in love with Hermia
• Demetrius, in love with Hermia
• Philosrate, Master of the Revels
• Quince, a carpenter
• Snug, a joiner
• Bottom, a weaver
• Flute, a bellows-mender
• Snout, a tinker
• Starveling, a tailor
• Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons; betrothed of Theseus
• Hermia, in love with Lysander
• Helena, in love with Demetrius
• Oberon, King of Fairies
• Titania, Queen of Fairies
• Puck, or Robin Goodfellow
• Peaseblossom, a fairy
• Cobway, a fairy
• Moth, a fairy
• Mustardseed, a fairy
• Other Fairies, attendants to Oberon and Titania
• Attendants to Theseus and Hippolyta

> Plot Analysis

Initial Situation:

 Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Demetrius loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and no one loves Helena. Oh, and Egeus wants his daughter killed if she doesn't follow his plan of marrying Demetrius.

About twenty lines into the play, we hear Egeus's complaint against his daughter Hermia, and we know the initial situation is a conflict itself. The play will definitely be about resolving this pickle.

Conflict:

Titania and Oberon quarrel. Lysander and Hermia run off together and get lost in the woods, and Demetrius and Helena follow them.

Further conflict arises in yet another set of main characters: Oberon and Titania. The fairies' fight (over a relatively small thing) has very serious consequences on the entire natural world. In contrast, the young lovers are worried about a serious thing (love), but the way they deal with it only matters to themselves and their families. The scene is set for our Athenian heroes to get involved in this other conflict. As Titania and Oberon announce that the natural world is all mixed up, the four lovers go wandering into that very natural world, with predictably zany results. We're all set for the young Athenians' problems to become even more complicated, reflecting the conflict that brews in the wood around them.

Complication:

Puck puts love potion on Lysander's eyes by accident, causing him to fall in love with Helena and forsake Hermia. Oberon enchants Demetrius and he too falls in love with Helena. Puck has turned Bottom's head into that of a donkey.

Puck's mistaken enchantment of Lysander further complicates an already difficult situation. True love has betrayed itself (Lysander leaves Hermia) and, with the addition of Demetrius's enchantment, false love appears to be true (Demetrius claims to love Helena). Now the pendulum has swung from loving Hermia to loving Helena. Elsewhere in the forest, Puck has interfered with the Mechanicals' rehearsal by transforming their main character into a beast and sending the others off screaming into the woods.

Climax:

Lysander and Demetrius fight; Hermia and Helena fight.

This is an ugly resolution to the whole love-juice situation. Demetrius and Lysander would've fought over Hermia anyway, but now they fight over Helena, which inspires Hermia to try to fight Helena. During this row in the woods, some pretty harsh words are thrown around, and ugly things get brought up from the past (like how Helena thought Hermia was a vixen when they were younger). It's especially hard to hear the girls say things like this when you know they aren't under any kind of spell (only the guys are). Titania's love for Bottom is climactic insofar as it lets us know there will be a turning point. Eventually, Oberon will have Titania released from the spell (once he gets the Indian child) and likely he'll have everything fixed with the lovers by then, too. Until then, we can enjoy the madness at the peak of the play.

Suspense:

Puck leads Demetrius and Lysander in opposite directions; Hermia and Helena's fight seems irreparable.

This part of the play would be a bit worrisome if we didn't know already that comedies end nicely. Demetrius and Lysander haven't resolved their quarrel and, even as they fall asleep, they're vowing to kill each other. Even more frightening is the emotional quarrel that's occurred between two formerly dear friends, Hermia and Helena. Helena runs away from a fuming Hermia, and the Jerry Springer-esquethings they said to each other leave open the distinct possibility that, no matter what, their friendship might never recover.

Denouement:

Oberon releases Titania from the spell. Puck gives Lysander the remedy juice. Demetrius declares that he's in love with Helena. Theseus announces that the couples will be married. And Bottom awakens with his own head back.

Oberon has gotten the Indian child that he wanted from Titania, so he no longer has any beef with his wife. When she wakes up from her enchantment, the couple goes back to normal, which restores harmony to the natural world. Puck solves the problem of Lysander loving Helena by putting the potion's remedy on Lysander's eyes. He solves the problem of Demetrius not loving Helena by leaving the pansy-juice on Demetrius's eyes. Thus, when everyone wakes up, the couples have neatly paired off. Finally, the transformation and return of a normal-headed Bottom to Athens solves the Mechanicals' worry that they couldn't put on the play.

Conclusion:

The three couples are married in Athens. Pyramus and Thisbe is performed. Oberon, Titania, and Puck bless the house and the couples.

All the Mechanicals' hard work finally pays off—they get to perform a play that touches on the severity of what could have happened to two doomed lovers (Pyramus and Thisbe here serve as a tragic reflection of the happier Lysander and Hermia). While the humans leave the play in party hats, the fairies come out and close the play, saying matters in the world are really more serious than all this might suggest. Puck reminds us that everyone will die, which is a nice conclusion. Oberon and Titania offer the real conclusion by promising that the characters are all busy (even while they speak) making babies, which is a good way to preserve yourself from death. Also, Oberon promises the couples will be happy and in love for the rest of their lives.

** QUOTES **

EGEUSFull of vexation come I, with complaintAgainst my child, my daughter Hermia.—
Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord,This man hath my consent to marry her.—
Stand forth, Lysander.—And my gracious duke,This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child.—
Thou, thou, Lysander, (1.1.23-29)

> Here, we learn that Hermia and Lysander are in love but unable to marry because Hermia's father (Egeus) has engaged her to another man (Demetrius). Still, the play is sympathetic toward a young person's right to choose a marriage partner based on love and not the whims and desires of parents. (Shakespeare returns to this subject in several other plays like Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and The Taming of the Shrew.)

LYSANDER
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man. (1.1.108-112)

> Hmm. This is interesting. Here, we learn that Demetrius was once engaged ("made love to") to another girl, Helena, before dropping her to be with Hermia. Long before the fairies' love juice causes Demetrius to fall back in love with Helena (2.2; 3.2), we learn that lovers can be fickle and erratic, even without the help of some magic potion.

THESEUSFair lovers, you are fortunately met.Of this discourse we more will hear anon.—
Egeus, I will overbear your will,For in the temple, by and by, with us,These couples shall eternally be knit.— (4.1.184-188)

> In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the seemingly natural course of love ends in marriage. (This is true of all Shakespearean comedies; head over to the "Genre" section for all the deets.) Here, Theseus's wedding day has finally arrived and the two sets of Athenian lovers have been paired up, despite Egeus's objections. Still, this seemingly happy ending leaves us a little nervous, if not skeptical. After all, the only reason Demetrius loves Helena is that he's under the spell of the magic love juice. 

Greyhound Lines

Greyhound Lines, Inc., usually shortened to Greyhound, is an intercity bus common carrier serving over 3,800 destinations across North America. The company's first route began in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914, and the company adopted the name The Greyhound Corporation in 1929. Since October 2007, Greyhound has been a subsidiary of British transportation company FirstGroup, but continues to be based in Dallas, Texas, where it has been headquartered since 1987. Greyhound and sister companies in FirstGroup America are the largest motorcoach operators in the United States and Canada.

Globe Theater

The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed by an Ordinance issued on 6 September 1642. 

A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named "Shakespeare's Globe", opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theatre. From 1909, the current Gielgud Theatre was called "Globe Theatre", until it was renamed (in honour of John Gielgud) in 1994.

Location: Examination of old property records has identified the plot of land occupied by the Globe as extending from the west side of modern-day Southwark Bridge Road eastwards as far as Porter Street and from Park Street southwards as far as the back of Gatehouse Square. However, the precise location of the building remained unknown until a small part of the foundations, including one original pier base, was discovered in 1989 beneath the car park at the rear of Anchor Terrace on Park Street. The shape of the foundations is now replicated on the surface. As the majority of the foundations lies beneath 67—70 Anchor Terrace, a listed building, no further excavations have been permitted.

Maps: https://www.google.com.tw/maps?q=globe+theater+google+maps&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB1ZjJzavUAhXCp5QKHey7AV0Q_AUICigB

The Tempest

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skilful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to cause his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to believe they are shipwrecked and marooned on the island. There, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio's lowly nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand.

The story draws heavily on the tradition of the romance, and it was influenced bytragicomedy, the courtly masque and perhaps the commedia dell'arte. It differs from Shakespeare's other plays in its observation of a stricter, more organised neoclassical style. Critics see The Tempest as explicitly concerned with its own nature as a play, frequently drawing links between Prospero's "art" and theatrical illusion, and early critics saw Prospero as a representation of Shakespeare, and his renunciation of magic as signalling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage. The play portrays Prospero as a rational, and not an occultist, magician by providing a contrast to him in Sycorax: her magic is frequently described as destructive and terrible, where Prospero's is said to be wondrous and beautiful. 

> Summary : 

THE TEMPEST SUMMARY: A MAGICAL STORM

The Tempest begins on a boat, tossed about in a storm. Aboard is Alonso the King of Naples, Ferdinand (his son), Sebastian (his brother), Antonio the usurping Duke of Milan, Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, Trinculo, ​and Stefano.

Miranda, who has been watching the ship at sea, is distraught at the thought of lost lives. The storm was created by her father, the magical Prospero, who reassures Miranda that all will be well. Prospero explains how they came to live on this island: they were once part of Milan’s nobility – he was a Duke and Miranda lived a life of luxury. However, Prospero’s brother exiled them – they were placed on a boat, never to be seen again.

Prospero summons Ariel, his servant spirit. Ariel explains that he has carried out Prospero’s orders: he destroyed the ship and dispersed its passengers across the island. Prospero instructs Ariel to be invisible and spy on them. Ariel asks when he will be freed and Prospero tells him off for being ungrateful, promising to free him soon.

CALIBAN: MAN OR MONSTER?

Prospero decides to visit his other servant, Caliban, but Miranda is reluctant, describing him as a monster. Prospero agrees that Caliban can be rude and unpleasant, but is invaluable to them because he collects their firewood.

When Prospero and Miranda meet Caliban, we learn that he is native to the island, but Prospero turned him into a slave raising issues about morality and fairness in the play. Prospero reminds Caliban that he tried to violate his daughter!

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

Ferdinand stumbles across Miranda and, much to Prospero’s annoyance, they fall in love and decide to marry. Prospero warns Miranda off and decides to test Ferdinand’s loyalty.

The rest of the shipwrecked crew are celebrating their survival and grieving for lost loved ones. Alonso believes that he has lost his beloved son, Ferdinand.

Miranda and Ferdinand

CALIBAN’S NEW MASTER

Stefano, Alonso’s drunken butler, discovers Caliban in a glade. Caliban decides to worship the drunken Stefano and make him his new master in order to escape Prospero’s power. Caliban describes Prospero’s cruelty and persuades Stefano to murder him by promising that Stefano can marry Miranda and rule the island.

The other shipwreck survivors have been trekking across the island and stop to rest. Ariel casts a spell on Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio and derides them for their treatment of Prospero. Gonzalo and the others think that the spellbound men are suffering from the guilt of their past actions and promise to ensure their safety.

Prospero finally concedes and agrees to the marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand and goes off to foil Caliban’s murderous plot. He orders Ariel to hang out beautiful clothes to distract the three fools.

When Caliban and Stefano discover the clothes, they decide to steal them – Prospero arranges for goblins to “grind their joints”.

Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban

PROSPERO’S FORGIVENESS

Prospero assembles his enemies: Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian. After chastising them for their past treatment of him and his daughter, he forgives them. Alonso discovers that his son Ferdinand is still alive and in love with Miranda. Plans are made to return to Milan. Prospero also forgives Caliban and grants Ariel his freedom.

Prospero

Read Online : https://www.google.com.tw/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjs38iG0qvUAhUBM5QKHX48BuQQFggsMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fandromeda.rutgers.edu%2F~jlynch%2FTexts%2FTempest.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHPuqxWK263eHX6HIAaNcfq9DTMDQ&sig2=1S3fZJuIVMe38AyaCUHYaQ

Week 16 Literature

Commencement 

Word Origin

late 13c., "beginning," from Old French comencement "beginning, start"(Modern French commencement), from comencier (see commence ). Meaning "school graduation ceremony" attested by 1850, American English.(Sense "entrance upon the privileges of a master or doctor in a university"is from late 14c.)

李開復2017年哥大畢業典禮演講：

愛，讓人類有別於人工智能

Closet Drama 

A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group. The dichotomy between private 'closet' drama (designed for reading) and public 'stage' drama (designed for performance in a commercial theater setting) dates from the late eighteenth century. The practice of circulating plays in written form (printed or handwritten) for literary audiences predates this period, however.

>> Definition:

Closet dramas are plays that have been written to be read, but not performed. Their value is in the play itself, not in the performance of the play. This art form was popularized in the Romantic era by such writers as Robert Browning and Goethe. Plays are written, generally, to be performed, and the playwright depends on the actors and actresses to bring his script to a higher level. With closet dramas, the playwright intends just the opposite. There will be no performance, and the play itself carries its own strength and value. In a nutshell, a closet drama is meant to be read, but not performed.

A Midsummer Night's Dream 

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanicals) who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

Week 15 Literature

Emily Dickinson 

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive American poet. Unrecognized in her own time, Dickinson is known posthumously for her innovative use of form and syntax.

QUOTES

“'Hope' is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tunes without the words - And never stops - at all -”

—Emily Dickinson

>> Synopsis : Born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson left school as a teenager, eventually living a reclusive life on the family homestead. There, she secretly created bundles of poetry and wrote hundreds of letters. Due to a discovery by sister Lavinia, Dickinson's remarkable work was published after her death—on May 15, 1886, in Amherst—and she is now considered one of the towering figures of American literature.

Dickinson died of kidney disease in Amherst, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1886, at the age of 55. She was laid to rest in her family plot at West Cemetery. The Homestead, where Dickinson was born, is now a museum.

Little of Dickinson's work was published at the time of her death, and the few works that were published were edited and altered to adhere to conventional standards of the time. Unfortunately, much of the power of Dickinson's unusual use of syntax and form was lost in the alteration. After her sister's death, Lavinia Dickinson discovered hundreds of poems that Emily had crafted over the years. The first volume of these works was published in 1890. A full compilation, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, wasn't published until 1955, though previous iterations had been released.

*Poem by Emily Dickinson

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Because I could not stop for Death – 

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us –

The Dews drew quivering and chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads 

Were toward Eternity –

> Summary: Death, in the form of a gentleman suitor, stops to pick up the speaker and take her on a ride in his horse-drawn carriage.

They move along at a pretty relaxed pace and the speaker seems completely at ease with the gentleman. As they pass through the town, she sees children at play, fields of grain, and the setting sun. Pretty peaceful, right?

As dusk sets in our speaker gets a little chilly, as she is completely under-dressed – only wearing a thin silk shawl for a coat. She was unprepared for her impromptu date with Death when she got dressed that morning.

They stop at what will be her burial ground, marked with a small headstone.

In the final stanza, we find out the speaker's ride with Death took place centuries ago (so she's been dead for a long time). But it seems like just yesterday when she first got the feeling that horse heads (like those of the horses that drew the "death carriage") pointed toward "Eternity"; or, in other words, signaled the passage from life to death to an afterlife.

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosphorus. The Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes.

The sea was traditionally known as Archipelago (in Greek, meaning "chief sea"), but in English this word's meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally, to any island group.

The Aegean Sea Painting by Frederic Edwin Church

Yachts in Aegean sea near Poros, Greece

Sail the Magnificent, Aegean Sea

Phallus
A phallus is a penis, especially when erect, an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis.

Any object that symbolically—or, more precisely, iconically—resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic (as in "phallic symbol"). Such symbols often represent fertility and cultural implications that are associated with the male sexual organ, as well as the male orgasm.

Phallic Hermes

Week 14 Literature

Cronus

In Greek mythology, Cronus, or Kronos, was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth. He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus. According to Plato, Phorcys, Cronus and Rhea were the eldest children of Oceanus and Tethys.

Cronus was usually depicted with a harpe, scythe or a sickle, which was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father. In Athens, on the twelfth day of the Attic month of Hekatombaion, a festival called Kronia was held in honour of Cronus to celebrate the harvest, suggesting that, as a result of his association with the virtuous Golden Age, Cronus continued to preside as a patron of harvest. Cronus was also identified in classical antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn.

Cronus and Eros - Ivan Akimov (1755–1814)

Cerberus

KERBEROS (Cerberus) was the gigantic, three-headed hound of Haides which guarded the gates of the underworld and prevented the escape of the shades of the dead.

Kerberos was depicted as a three-headed dog with a serpent's tail, mane of snakes, and a lion's claws. According to some he had fifty heads although this count may have included the serpents of his mane.

Herakles (Heracles) was sent to fetch Kerberos as one of his twelve labours, a task which he accomplished with the aid of the goddess Persephone.

Kerberos' name perhaps means "Death-Daemon of the Dark" from the ancient Greek words kêr and erebos.

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

by : Robert Herrick 

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 

Old time is still a-flying: 

And this same flower that smiles to-day 

To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, 

The higher he's a-getting,

The sooner will his race be run, 

And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first, 

When youth and blood are warmer; 

But being spent, the worse, and worst 

Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time, 

And while ye may, go marry: 

For having lost but once your prime 

You may for ever tarry.

> Summary :  From the title, we can tell that the speaker is addressing this poem to a group of virgins. He's telling them that they should gather their "rosebuds" while they can, because time is quickly passing. He drives home this point with some images from nature, including flowers dying and the sun setting. He thinks that one's youth is the best time in life, and the years after that aren't so great. The speaker finishes off the poem by encouraging these young virgins to make good use of their time by getting married, before they're past their prime and lose the chance.

The Wolf and Seven Young Kids

The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats" 

(German: Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein) is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 5. It is Aarne-Thompson type 123, but has a strong resemblance to The Three Little Pigs and other Aarne-Thomspson type 124 folktales, and to the variant of Little Red Riding Hood that the Grimms collected, where she is rescued.

> Synopsis : “The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats” is one of the most famous fairytales from the Grimm’s magnificent world of fairytales. The main characters are animals. The wolf represents a violent and evil person that wants to hurt innocent children. The Goats are the innocent children that listen to their parents but because of lack of experience they fall right into the wolf’s trap.

The fairytales can be easily used on today’s situations where new dangers are trying to take advantage of children. The fairytale, like every other, has a happy ending in which the good characters are saved and the bad ones are punished.

On the other side the story tells us how crafty and wise children can be. One goat stands out in the story because he managed to outsmart the wolf and save himself. The wolf would have eaten them all but the goat hid himself and showed that strength and size aren’t the most important things in life.

Read Online : http://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/wolf_e.html 

Watch on Youtube 

Rapunzel 

"Rapunzel"  is a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales. The Grimm Brothers' story is an adaptation of the fairy taleRapunzel by Friedrich Schulz published in 1790. The Schulz version is based on Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force originally published in 1698 which in turn was influenced by an even earlier tale, Petrosinella by Giambattista Basile, published in 1634. Its plot has been used and parodied in various media and its best known line ("Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair") is an idiom of popular culture. In volume I of the 1812 annotations (Anhang), it is listed as coming from Friedrich Schulz Kleine Romane, Book 5, pp. 269–288, published in Leipzig 1790.

In the Aarne–Thompson classification system for folktales it is type 310, "The Maiden in The Tower".


Watch Online : https://123movies.io/movie/barbie-as-rapunzel-42585

Tangled 

Tangled is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated musical fantasy-comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely based on the German fairy tale "Rapunzel" in the collection of folk tales published by theBrothers Grimm, it is the 50th Disney animated feature film. Featuring the voices of Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi, The film tells the story of a lost, young princess with long magical hair who yearns to leave her secluded tower. Against her mother's wishes, she accepts the aid of a handsome intruder to take her out into the world which she has never seen.

Before the film's release, its title was changed from Rapunzel to Tangled, reportedly to market the film as gender-neutral. Tangledspent six years in production at a cost that has been estimated at $260 million, which if accurate, would make it the most expensive animated film ever made and the fifth most-expensive film of all time. The film employed a unique artistic style by blending together features of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and traditional animation while using non-photorealistic rendering to create the impression of a painting. Composer Alan Menken, who had worked on prior Disney animated features, returned to score Tangled.

Watch Online : https://gomovies.to/film/tangled-4940/watching.html?ep=53289

We Ain't Getting Any Younger 

by: Jim James 

You got the whole wide world

They got it from you

You can talk about it all you want

But what you gonna do

Time's your oyster

The grave is always getting closer

We ain't gettin' any younger

We ain't gettin' any younger

We ain't gettin' any younger

We ain't gettin' any younger

Looked to roam

Went too far

There at the edge of the world

Things went south

Down and out

There at the edge of the world

Seasons changed

Time got strange

There at the edge of the world

We got close to the source

For better or worse

There at the edge of the world

You got the whole wide world

Laid out in front of you

You can talk about it all you want

But what the fuck you're gonna do

Time's your oyster

The grave is always getting closer

We ain't gettin' any younger

We ain't gettin' any younger

We ain't gettin' any younger

We ain't gettin' any younger

And you take it for granted

Until its taken away

We're all pressed out the same mold

The story's already been told

This world is war and blood

When it could have been love

When it could have been love

And all you learn to forget

That this never happened

And when the new world start again

Peace ripped into pieces

Peace ripped into pieces

Peace ripped into pieces

Peace ripped into pieces

We gotta pull it back to get it again

Peace written to pieces

We're about to get it again

Peace ripped into pieces

We gotta pull it back to get it again

Peace ripped into pieces

We're about to get it again

Peace ripped into pieces

Week 13 Literature

John Keats

John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death.

Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his lifetime, his reputation grew after his death, and by the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats's work was the most significant literary experience of his life.

The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. This is typical of romantic poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through the emphasis of natural imagery. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature.

*Poems by John Keats 

Ode To a Nightingale

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains 

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, 

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains 

One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

But being too happy in thine happiness,— 

That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees, 

In some melodious plot 

Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, 

Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been 

Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, 

Tasting of Flora and the country green, 

Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth! 

O for a beaker full of the warm South,

Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, 

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, 

And purple-stained mouth; 

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, 

And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget 

What thou among the leaves hast never known, 

The weariness, the fever, and the fret 

Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; 

Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,

Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies; 

Where but to think is to be full of sorrow 

And leaden-eyed despairs, 

Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, 

Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee, 

Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, 

But on the viewless wings of Poesy, 

Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: 

Already with thee! tender is the night,

And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, 

Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays; 

But here there is no light, 

Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown 

Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, 

Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs, 

But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet 

Wherewith the seasonable month endows 

The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;

White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine; 

Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves; 

And mid-May's eldest child, 

The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, 

The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time 

I have been half in love with easeful Death, 

Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme, 

To take into the air my quiet breath; 

Now more than ever seems it rich to die,

To cease upon the midnight with no pain, 

While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad 

In such an ecstasy! 

Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain— 

To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! 

No hungry generations tread thee down; 

The voice I hear this passing night was heard 

In ancient days by emperor and clown: 

Perhaps the self-same song that found a path 

Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, 

She stood in tears amid the alien corn; 

The same that oft-times hath 

Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam 

Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell 

To toil me back from thee to my sole self! 

Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well 

As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf. 

Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades

Past the near meadows, over the still stream, 

Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep 

In the next valley-glades: 

Was it a vision, or a waking dream? 

Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?

>Summary : The poem begins as the speaker starts to feel disoriented from listening to the song of the nightingale, as if he had just drunken something really, really strong. He feels bittersweet happiness at the thought of the nightingale's carefree life.

The speaker wishes he had a special wine distilled directly from the earth. He wants to drink such a wine and fade into the forest with the nightingale. He wants to escape the worries and concerns of life, age, and time.

He uses poetry to join the nightingale's nighttime world, deep in the dark forest where hardly any moonlight can reach. He can't see any of the flowers or plants around him, but he can smell them. He thinks it wouldn't be so bad to die at night in the forest, with no one around except the nightingale singing.

But the nightingale can't die. The nightingale must be immortal, because so many different kinds of generations of people have heard its song throughout history, everyone from clowns and emperors to Biblical characters to people in fantasy stories.

Ode On a Grecian Urn

Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness, 

  Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express 

  A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape 

  Of deities or mortals, or of both,

    In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

  What men or gods are these? what maidens loth? 

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

   What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard 

  Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d, 

  Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave 

  Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

    Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss, 

Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;

  She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, 

    For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed 

  Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;

And, happy melodist, unwearied,

  For ever piping songs for ever new;

More happy love! more happy, happy love! 

  For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d,

    For ever panting, and for ever young; 

All breathing human passion far above,

  That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d, 

    A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice? 

  To what green altar, O mysterious priest,

Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, 

  And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?

What little town by river or sea shore, 

  Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,

    Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? 

And, little town, thy streets for evermore

  Will silent be; and not a soul to tell 

    Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede 

  Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

With forest branches and the trodden weed; 

  Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought

As doth eternity: Cold pastoral!

  When old age shall this generation waste, 

    Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,

  ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’—that is all 

    Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

> Summary : When the speaker of the poem gazes at the Grecian urn, he meditates on the nature of truth and beauty. Each of the three scenes depicted on the urn moves him in a different way, and he describes them in detail, marveling at their artistry.

• In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker starts describing an ancient Grecian urn of the kind used to hold ashes. It depicts three scenes: a wild party, the playing of instruments, and a ritual slaughter.

• In the second to fourth stanzas, the speaker describes the scenes in detail, envying all the beautiful figures. He lingers particularly on the scene of the party, where several amorous men chase after women.

• In the final stanza, the speaker boldly states that if the urn could speak for itself, it would declare, "Beauty is truth, and truth beauty."

Ode To The West Wind 

by- Percy Bysshe Shelley

I

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O Thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!

II

Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,

Loose clouds like Earth's decaying leaves are shed,

Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,

Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread

On the blue surface of thine airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Mænad, even from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height,

The locks of the approaching storm. Thou Dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night

Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,

Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere

Black rain and fire and hail will burst: O hear!

III

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams 

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,

Lulled by the coil of his chrystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay,

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers 

Quivering within the wave's intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers

So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou

For whose path the Atlantic's level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below

The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear

The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,

And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!

IV

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;

If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;

A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

The impulse of thy strength, only less free

Than thou, O Uncontrollable! If even

I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,

As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed

Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.

Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

V

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:

What if my leaves are falling like its own!

The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,

Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,

My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,

Like wither'd leaves, to quicken a new birth!

And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawakened Earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

> Summary : The speaker of the poem appeals to the West Wind to infuse him with a new spirit and a new power to spread his ideas. In order to invoke the West Wind, he lists a series of things the wind has done that illustrate its power: driving away the autumn leaves, placing seeds in the earth, bringing thunderstorms and the cyclical "death" of the natural world, and stirring up the seas and oceans.

The speaker wishes that the wind could affect him the way it does leaves and clouds and waves. Because it can’t, he asks the wind to play him like an instrument, bringing out his sadness in its own musical lament. Maybe the wind can even help him to send his ideas all over the world; even if they’re not powerful in their own right, his ideas might inspire others. The sad music that the wind will play on him will become a prophecy. The West Wind of autumn brings on a cold, barren period of winter, but isn’t winter always followed by a spring?

The Face That Launched a Thousand Ship

> Meaning: A reference to the mythological figure Helen of Troy (or some would say, to Aphrodite). Her abduction by Paris was said to be the reason for a fleet of a thousand ships to be launched into battle, initiating the Trojan Wars.

> Origin: Christopher Marlowe, in Doctor Faustus (variously dated between 1590 and 1604), referring to Helen of Troy, or as Marlowe had it 'Helen of Greece':

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

> It is a reference to Helen of Troy. She was said to be so beautiful that, when she was abducted, a fleet of a thousand ships set sail to win her back from Paris, sparking the Trojan Wars.

Tintoretto Rape of Helen

W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.

He was born in Sandymount, Ireland and educated there and in London. He spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display Yeats's debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

*Poem by W. B. Yeats

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, 

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

> Summary : The poem begins with the image of a falcon flying out of earshot from its human master. In medieval times, people would use falcons or hawks to track down animals at ground level. In this image, however, the falcon has gotten itself lost by flying too far away, which we can read as a reference to the collapse of traditional social arrangements in Europe at the time Yeats was writing.

In the fourth line, the poem abruptly shifts into a description of "anarchy" and an orgy of violence in which "the ceremony of innocence is drowned." The speaker laments that only bad people seem to have any enthusiasm nowadays.

At line 9, the second stanza of the poem begins by setting up a new vision. The speaker takes the violence which has engulfed society as a sign that "the Second Coming is at hand." He imagines a sphinx in the desert, and we are meant to think that this mythical animal, rather than Christ, is what is coming to fulfill the prophecy from the Biblical Book of Revelation. At line 18, the vision ends as "darkness drops again," but the speaker remains troubled.

Finally, at the end of the poem, the speaker asks a rhetorical question which really amounts to a prophecy that the beast is on its way to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, to be born into the world.

Painting by; William Blake

Leda and The Swan

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed

By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,

He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

And how can body, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower

And Agamemnon dead.

                    Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

> Summary : A big white bird clocks a young girl and knocks her off balance. The swan beats its wings ferociously as it lands on top of her. He caresses her thighs with his webbed feat and holds the back of her neck in his bill. She can't escape as the swan presses down with his chest on her own.

The bird opens the girl's thighs, and her hands are too frightened and confused to resist. The fast-moving bird on top of her looks like a blur of white feathers, and she can feel his heart beating.

The swan completes the act, and Leda becomes pregnant. She will give birth to Helen of Troy, the woman over whom the Trojan War will be fought. In Ancient Greek mythology – and in Yeast's poem – Leda's rape is taken as an indirect a cause of war. 

The speaker wonders if Leda acquired any of Zeus's knowledge as the swan overpowered her. Did she know she was having sex with a god? She didn't have too long to think about it, because as soon as the swan had gotten what he wanted, he let her fall to the ground as if he couldn't care less.

Herman Melville 

Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819. He worked as a crew member on several vessels beginning in 1839, his experiences spawning his successful early novels Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847). Subsequent books, including his masterpiece Moby-Dick (1851), sold poorly, and by the 1860s Melville had turned to poetry. Following his death in New York City in 1891, he posthumously came to be regarded as one of the great American writers.

>> Early Life :  Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill (Maria added the "e" to the family name following her husband's death). In the mid-1820s, young Herman fell ill to scarlet fever, and though he regained his health not long afterward, his vision was left permanently impaired by the illness. 

The family had enjoyed a prosperous life for many years due to Allan Melvill's success as a high-end importer and merchant. However, he was also borrowing heavily to finance his business interests, and after he moved the family upstate to Albany in a failed attempt to branch into the fur trade in 1830, the family's fortune took a big hit. When Allan died suddenly in 1832, finances dwindled significantly.