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On the Beach

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Bhiksu University of Sri lanka, Anuradhapura.

Department of Languages

English Literature – Poetry

Rev. Nivitigala Sumitta(Senior Lecturer in English

BY ANNE RANASINGHE

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Neither the crashOf the morning waves

Nor the sunlight singing of windCan drownHis yelps

Three boys, one puppyA rope

Torture on the beach.

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His agony rips Dark holes in your eyes

And helpless angerTwists in your hand as

The rope nooses tighterThe thin stick beats harder

Then they throw sand

The sand fills his eyesThe sand fills his noseThe sand fills his ears

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And though your tearsTaste salt in my mouthThe alien yearsHave rotted my tongue Into immobility

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And people swimIn the sunlit seaIt’s an ordinary day

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They cry let’s play

At burying himAnd then

They bury him.

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Anne Ranasinghe

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Anne was born in 1925. She fled from the holocaust (a situation in which many things are destroyed and many people killed, especially because of a war or a fire:

ex. a nuclear holocaust) in Germany just before the WW II broke out.  

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She went to school in England and holds a diploma in journalism.

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She was married to a Sri Lankan professor of Colombo University and continues to live in Sri

Lanka.

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She’s written 5 books of poems and Short Stories.

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She was the joint winner of the Arts Council poetry prize in 1985 and won the prize for Prose

and Non-fiction in 1987.

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Empathy (the ability to understand another person’s feelings, experience, etc) with creatures under attacks from people is a

vital theme here.

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Compare this poem with The Snare by James Stephens

THE SNARE 

I hear a sudden cry of pain!

There is a rabbit in a snare:

Now I hear the cry again,

But I cannot tell from where.

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But I cannot tell from where

He is calling out for aid!Crying on the frightened

air,Making everything

afraid!

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Making everything afraid!Wrinkling up his little

face!As he cries again for aid:

And I cannot find the place!

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And I cannot find the place

Where his paw is in the snare!

Little One! Oh, Little one!I am searching everywhere!

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By James Stephens

DHAMMAPADA Sabbe tasanti dandassasabbe bhayanti maccunoAttanam upamam katvana haneyya na ghataye

 

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All tremble at force; of death are all afraid;

likening others to oneself kill not nor cause to kill.

DHAMMAPADA

Sabbe tasanti dandassa

sabbesam jivitam piyam

Attanam upamam katva

na haneyya na ghataye

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All tremble at force; dear is life to all; likening others to

oneself kill not nor cause to

kill.

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Five Precepts

I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from

killing living beings

MASOCHISM (NOUN) 

1. the practice of getting sexual pleasure from being physically hurt

-------------------------------------• compare SADISM (noun)

•enjoyment from watching or making sb suffer

•a need to hurt sb in order to get sexual pleasure

----------------------------------------

MASOCHISM (NOUN)2 the enjoyment of sth that

most people would find unpleasant or painful

• masochist (noun)• masochistic (adjective)

ASSIGNMENT•Come prepared for a speech on

“Man’s inhumanity to animals”(3 minutes)

•Write an appreciation on the poem“On the beach”

By Anne Ranasinghe

THAT’S ALL FOR

TODAY…

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May the Triple Gem Bless to all of you…!!!