Sonnet 18

Sonnet 18

The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next lines are devoted to such a comparison. In one of the line, the speaker says what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is “lovelier and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; the sun often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its days are too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime declines.” The final stanza of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”

Sonnet 60

Sonnet 60

This sonnet attempts to explain the nature of time as it passes, and as it acts on human life. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that the minutes replace one another like waves on the “pebbled shore,” each taking the place of that which came before it in a regular sequence. In the second quatrain, he tells the story of a human life in time by comparing it to the sun: at birth (“Nativity”), it rises over the ocean (“the main of light”), then crawls upward toward noon (the “crown” of “maturity”), then is suddenly undone by “crooked eclipses”, which fight against and confound the sun’s glory. In the third quatrain, time is depicted as a ravaging monster, which halts youthful flourish, digs wrinkles in the brow of beauty, gobbles up nature’s beauties, and mows down with his scythe everything that stands. In the couplet, the speaker opposes his verse to the ravages of time: he says that his verse will stand in times to come, and will continue to praise the “worth” of the beloved despite the “cruel hand” of time.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is a novel written by Emily Bronte between October 1845 and June 1846. Wuthering Heights is now widely regarded as a classic of English Literature. In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights. And Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. 

Nelly worked as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner, Mr. Earnshaw and his family. One day Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and brings a orphan boy to his home, whom he thought of raising with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine rejected the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly starts to love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the moors. 

Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife, Frances, and seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered and favoured son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common labourer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with Catherine, however. One night they go to Thrushcross Grange in order to tease Edgar and Esabella Linton and there a dog bites Catherine. For this reason Catherine was forced to stay in Grange for few days and there Mrs. Linton worked on making Catherine a proper lady. When Catherine returns she gets infatuated with Edgar and her relationship with Heathcliff becomes complicated.

When Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returns after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.

When Heathcliff returns he thinks of taking revenge on those who have wronged him. He gave so much of debts to Hindley that he couldn’t return Heathcliff the money and then he died. Than Heathcliff became the owner of Wuthering Heights and after marrying Isabella Linton he also inherits the Thushcross Grange. He ill-treated Isabella for which she ran away to London and there she gave birth to their boy child and named him Linton. Meanwhile Catherine also died giving birth to a daughter, and Heathcliff tried much to keep Catherine’s spirit on earth but he failed.

Thirteen years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her temperament is like her father’s. Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day, wandering through the moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays together with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly, whining son even more cruelly than he treated the boy’s mother.

Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors, and makes a visit to Wuthering Heights to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through letters. Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries Linton. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

There were two tramps named Vladimir and Estragon. They meet near a tree. They converse on different things and at the end of their conversation they both reveal to each other that they are waiting for a man named Godot whom they had never met before. They do many things to pass their time and other two men named Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo is the master and Lucky is the servant her. Pozzo is on his way to the market to sell his slave, Lucky. He pauses for a while to converse with Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky entertains them by dancing and thinking, and Pozzo and Lucky leave.

After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a boy enters and tells Vladimir that he is a messenger from Godot. He tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming tonight, but that he will surely come tomorrow. Vladimir asks him some questions about Godot and the boy departs. After his departure Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave, but they do not move.

The next night, Vladimir and Estragon again meet near the tree to wait for Godot. Lucky and Pozzo comes again, but this time Pozzo is blind and Lucky is dumb. Pozzo does not remember meeting the two men earlier. They leave and Vladimir and Estragon again continue to wait for Godot.

The boy comes and once again tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming today. When Vladimir asks the boy that whether they met yesterday or not, than the boy says that he did not speak to Vladimir yesterday and it was his brother who came yesterday not he. After he leaves, Estragon and Vladimir decide to leave, but then also they do not move and keeps on waiting.

Valediction Forbidding Mourning

Valediction Forbidding Mourning

The speaker reveals that he is forced to spend time away from his lover but before leaving he says that their farewell is not the occasion for sorrow and mourning. In the same virtuous men die mildly and without complaint, he says they should leave without “tear- floods” and “sigh- tempests”, for to publicly announce their feelings in such a way would profane their love.  The speaker says when the earth moves, it brings ‘harms and fears’ but when the spheres experience ‘trepidation’ though the impact is greater, but at the same time it’s innocent also.  The love of dull sublunary lovers cannot survive separation but it removes the love which constitutes itself, but the love he shares with his beloved is so refined and inter-assured of the mind that they need not worry about missing “eyes, lips and hands”.

 As he has to go their souls would be one and they are not enduring a discontinuity though they are experiencing an “expansion”, the soul they share will simply stretch in all the spaces between them. If their souls are separate he says they are like the feet of compass that is- his lover soul is the fixed foot in the center and his is the foot that moves around it. The firmness of the center foot makes the circle that the outer foot draws perfect: “Thy firmness makes my circle just, / And makes me end, where I begun.”

The Last Ride together

The Last Ride Together

The Last Ride Together is a poem by English poet Robert Browning, first published in his 1855 collection Men and Women. His major works got published after his marriage with Elizabeth Barrett, which consisted of fifty one poems. The Last Ride Together is a ten-stanza poem primarily focused on themes of love and loss. The title represents the last time the former couple takes a carriage ride together.

   The poem begins with the narrator blaming his fate that his romance has come to an end. He bemoans that everything he has tried has failed and his love affair has come to an end. But in midst of all his desolations he cherishes the moment spent with his lady and praises her. He wishes to go for a ride with her before they depart. After much struggle the couple manage to go on a ride before they depart. The narrator speaks about the wonderful feelings when they go on a ride. He says about how time flied, about the passion and the ecstatic feelings when she touched him.

    The narrator leaves the past hopes that what was and starts enjoying what are with him now. He feels relaxed when he leaves the past behind. He stops thinking how things would get better or worse and starts enjoying the time with his lady. He compares himself with others who strive for many things but don’t get everything and fails. He does so to hide his grief of his ending love affair in front of his eyes.  He hopes for a better future.

      At the end the narrator surrenders himself in front of the situations and thinks that it has to end here. He becomes sad and thinks that life with his lover is far from him as Heaven is far from him.

Sons and Lovers

Sons and Lovers

Sons and Lovers this novel was written by D. H. Lawrence in the year 1913. Lawrence started writing this novel in the period of mother’s illness and often expresses his mother’s wasted life through his female protagonist Gertrude Morel.

The first part of the novel focuses on Mrs. Morel’s life as she is leading an unhappy married life with a drinking miner. She undergoes lots of arguments with her husband, some of which resulted into painful arguments. Sometimes she was locked outside house or hit by drawer on her head. After being alienated from her husband Mrs. Morel takes comfort in her four children, especially her sons. Her favourite son William gets a job and had to move to London which makes her sad. William dies after few years which leave Mrs. Morel heart-broken. She didn’t give heed to her other children in William’s grief, and she was also going to lose her second son Paul as well. But Paul almost changes Mrs. Morel’s life and she focuses on him, they both started to live for each other.

Paul falls in love with Miriam Leivers , who lives nearby. Mrs. Morel didn’t approve their relationship for which Paul didn’t marry Miriam but had feelings for her. Then Paul meets Clara Dawes through Miriam. Clara is being separated from her husband. Paul and Clara come close to each other, Paul starts to discuss of his relationship with Miriam with Clara. Clara suggests him to conclude his relationship with Miriam and so Paul returns to Miriam to hear what she has left with to say.

Paul and Miriam sleep together and find each other happy but afterwards Paul makes a decision that he doesn’t want to marry Miriam so he finally breaks off with her. Miriam respects Paul’s decision and without saying a word accepts his decision but she thinks that his soul still belongs to her.

After breaking with Miriam Paul starts to spend more time with Clara and they start with an affectionate affair. Clara at the end is unwilling to give divorce to her husband Baxter and so they can never be married. Paul’s mother falls sick and Paul started devoting most of his time to his mother. But after few days his mother dies. Paul then goes back to Miriam he tried to persuade her in every way he could but everything went in vain. At the end of the novel Paul is left all alone.