Summary of Solitary Reaper

8/10/2019 Summary of Solitary Reaper

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s Worth is known as a great lover and preacher of nature. HeSUMMARY

OF SOLITARY REAPER

The solitary is a delightful

lyric by William Wordsworth. Word

impresses us by the imaginative

and philosophical quality of his

thoughts.

This poem Solitary

Reaper is a result of his visit to

Scotland where he came across a

lovely maiden in the fields all alone. Her lovely person and her sweet song had a

deep impression on the poet and moved him to compose these verses. The lovely

singer appeared to be a part of that beautiful scene of nature.

A highland girl was reaping grain in the field and singing a song at the

same time. The poet did not understand the contents of the song as it was in a

foreign language. He guessed that it was the tale of old and tragic events of the

past. It would also be an account of some recent calamity or mishap. Whatever

the theme of the song it was sung in a beautiful rich voice. The song seemed to

be endless. The poet was bewitched by the thrilling notes of the lonely reaper.

The whole valley was ringing with her silver sound. Even the spring bird Cuckoo

could not produce such a magical effect as the maidens song cost on the poet.

The poet stood still and listened to that golden voice for some time. After

wards when he was climbing the hill he could not hear that song any longer. But

he was still feeling the sweet vibrations of the music in his heart. The sweet

memory of that song had become a permanent source of joy.

***


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SUMMARY OF SEVEN AGES

The poem The Seven Ages commences with

life being compared to a huge stage, where all of us

are only actors. Each person has an entry into the

world at birth and exists it at death.

According to Shakespeare every man plays

several parts during his life time. On the stage of life

every man has seven acts. The first act of man is

infancy. At this time all that the baby does is cry and

puke on his nurses lap. After he goes through his

infant, he emerges as a school childwho slings his bag over his shoulder and

creeps most unwillingly to school.

At the next stage in life, the young man is a lover,who is busy composing

ballads for his beloved and sighing deeply for her attention. He graduates into a

bearded soldier,who promises solemnly to guard his country. He is filled with

national pride, is quick to be insulted and is always ready to spring up in defence.

At this point of time he is more concerned with status and reputation. From the

agile soldier, he goes on to become a judge whose waistline grows as he

becomes fatter and fatter. He wears a short, formal beard and his eyes become

intense. He is full of wisdom, speaking to everyone in a just and wise manner.

After he has played this part, he goes in to the sixth age. He becomes thin,

wears spectacles, the skin around him hangs loosely. He is made fun of as being

a funny old man. His youth has been left behind. His clothes hand loosely around

him and his once manly voice turns into a high pitched, childish one. With this,

man enters the last act where he experiences his second childhood as he

becomes dependent on people once more. He is overcome by senility and

forgetfulness as he loses his faculties of sight, hearing, smell and taste, slowly but

surely and ultimately passes away.


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SUMMARY

THE SOLITARY REAPER

The poem The Solitary

Reapers is a literary representation of

striking experience by the natures

poet William Wordsworth. Once

passing by a field he happens to listen

an enchanting music coming from the

melodious voice of a Scottish reaper

who was singing while reaping the crops all alone in the field. The girl sings a sad

song and the song were so melodious that the poet stood there spell bound. He is

so much overwhelmed that he feels the entire valley is over flowing with the

marvelous voice of the reaper. The poet is so fascinated by the sweet song of the

solitary reaper that he thinks the song of the reaper is more enchanting than that

of a nightingale and more thrilling than that of a cuckoo. As the strain was being

sung in a dialect the poet was unable to understand the theme of the song. Then

he tries to guess that the theme might be about some tragic event of the past or

day to day sorrows of the present. He says it hardly matters what she sings. What

is of significance is that her song seems to be never ending.

Being touched and emotional he narrates the solitary reaper who cuts the

grain with a sickle and sings. He then carries in his heart the echoes of the song

which haunt him for long.

***


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SUMMARYTHE SEVEN AGES

The Seven Ages of Man is taken

from William Shakespeares famous play,

As You Like It (Act-II, Scene-VII),describes the seven phases in a mans life-

from childhood to old age. The world is but

a global stage and all men and women

presented here are mere puppets in the

hands of destiny. Just like the infrastructures

of a stage, the world has its own entrances

and exits. Every man in his full lifetime has

many parts to play. His total number of actsin his lifetime is the seven ages.

The first and foremost act of

every human being is the stage of infancy, where he makes his presence

felt by crying at the top of his voice and many a times vomiting any food

or drink that is repulsive, at the nursing arms of his mother. This period

normally last till four years of age. The second stage is the whining

schoolboy where he learns to utter a plaintive, high-pitched, protracted

sound, as in pain, fear, supplication, or complaint. His shiny morning faceand his satchel; a small bag, sometimes with a shoulder strap; he creeps

like a snail and not willing to go to school.

The third stage is his early youth, the peak of love and high

romance. He sighs like a burning furnace and sings the sad ballads of

romance; full of woe; affected with, characterized by, or indicating woe:

woeful melodies; to impress his lovers heart. The impression of her reply

can be seen in her eyebrows. The fourth stage is that of a soldier where

life if full of obligations, commitments, compliances, oaths andvows. His beard is like a leopard or panther. He endlessly fights for his

honor, a full presence of mind which is sudden and quick in quarrel and a

heart to maintain a dignified reputation.

The fifth stage is the adult-hood where a man tries to live a fair and

justified life. His belly becomes bigger than normal. He is conscious

about his diet and consumes a good intake of capon; a cockerel

castrated to improve the flesh for use as food. His eyes are severe with

seriousness and his beard is leveled to a formal cut. He is to take a lot of

correct decisions to keep up with the ever changing times. So this stage is

the most powerful stage in life.


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The poem The Seven Ages is an extract

from the great dramatist William Shakespeares

drama as you like it. Here Shakespeare

compares the whole world with a stage and all

the humans as actors and actresses. As actors

and actresses come on the stage, play their roles

and then quit the stage, similarly men and

women are born, act different roles in life and

then die and leave this world. Shakespeare

divides human life into seven stages. The first

stage in mans life is infancy. The infant cries and vomits in his nurses arm. The

next stage is that of school going child hood. The school boy has a shining face,

with a school bag and he walks slowly and unwillingly to school. In the third stage,

the boy grows in to a lover. He writes poem in praise of his beloved and sighs like

a furnace. The next role he plays is that of a soldier. As a soldier he is rash and

reactive, seeking short lived reputation at the risk of his life. He is ready to die for

honour. He is short tempered and sports a beard like that of a leopard. The next

role is that of a justice. He is well fed and prosperous. He is fat and fierce eyed,

full of wise maxims and impresses others with his wisdom. The next stage is that

of an old man wearing slippers and spectacles with wrinkled skin, shrunk body

and shrilling voice. And finally comes the stage of senilityor second childishness.

He loses his memory, teeth, eyes, sense of taste and in reality everything. Thus

ends the strange drama of mans eventful life.

***


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Biography of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon,England. He was born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, a glover/leather

merchant and local land heiress, respectively.

Shakespeare's father owned many houses in Stra tford around the time of

Shakespeare's birth, so the exact location of his birth cannot be known for sure

(Mabillard 7). William allegedly attended the free grammar school in Stratford,

where he attained the majority of his sparse education. While "Latin was the

primary language of learning", Shakespeare undoubtedly received "some lessons in

English" (Mabillard 16). Latin authors and composition would have been the bulk of

Shakespeare's literary training, however, and it is obvious that he "absorbed much

that was taught in his grammar school, for he had an impressive familiarity with the

stories by Latin authors, as is evident when examining his plays and their sources"

(Mabillard 16). He married Anne Hathaway, a local farmer's daughter, on

November 28, 1582, and six months later their first daughter, Susanna, was born.

Anne later gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith, although Hamnet died in

childhood at the age of 11 (Fields 26). Information about Shakespeare during his first

seven years of fatherhood is nonexistent, a period known as the "Lost Years." There

are many speculations as to why this is, such as that he had to leave after beingcaught poaching a neighbor's animals, or that he was working as an assistant

schoolmaster in Lancashire, England ("Shakespeare's Bio" 1; Miller 37).

Around 1588 Shakespeare reappears in London, England and started to become a

notable actor and playwright. He worked for "Pembroke's Men, as well as numerous

others, in particular Strange's Men, which later became the Chamberlain's Men, with

whom he remained for the rest of his career" (Miller 74). During his career

Shakespeare completed 37 known plays, of which 36 were compiled and published by

two of his close friends soon after Shakespeare death. These friends, John Heminges

and Henry Condell, said they published the plays "only to keep the memory of so


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worthy a friend and fellow alive as was our Shakespeare" (qtd. in Miller 86-87).

Shakespeare also wrote some book-length narrativepoetryin 1592-1594, when the

Black Plague closed London theaters down. The most memorable of these writings

"Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece" (Fields 56). It is through the

dedication of these longer works to Earl of Southampton that causes many scholars

to believe that the Earl must have not only been Shakespeare's friend but also his

benefactor, although there is no written proof of this claim (Miller 82). Shakespeare

also composed many sonnets during this two year period, which "were published

without his consent in 1609" (Miller 82).

Shakespeare did not explode on the London scene without criticism. One of the most

notable of his critics was "Robert Greene, a London playwright" ("Shakespeare's Bio"

1) who in 1592 wrote that Shakespeare was "...an upstart crow, beautified with our

feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, supposes he is as well

to bombast our a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johnnes fac

totum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country" ("Shakespeare's Bio"

1-2). Despite the criticism (or some believe jealousy) he received in London,

Shakespeare prospered into not only a famous playwright, but also an owner of

substantial property and partner of the theatrical company The Globe, which was

"the most successful [company] in London in his day" ("Shakespeare's Bio" 2). His

success allowed him to purchase a comfortable home and retire in Stratford-Upon-

Avon in 1611.

Shakespeare wrote his Last Will and Testament in 1611, leaving the vast majority of

his numerous assets to his daughter Susanna. In "Shakespeare's Last Will &

Testament" Shakespeare leaves Susanna "all my barnes, stables, Orchardes,

gardens, landes, tenements and herediaments ...within the townes and Hamletts,

villages, ffieldes and groundes of Stratford upon Avon, Oldstratford, Bushopton and

Welcombe or in anie of them in the saied countie of warr" (2). It is said that

Shakespeare only left his daughter Judith 300, mainly due to the fact that "Judith's

new husband, Thomas Quiney, ...ran afoul of church doctrine and public esteembefore and after the marriage" (qtd. in Miller 1). In his will he states "and the stock

not to be paied unto her soe long as she shalbe marryed" ("Last Will" 1). To his wife

Anne, Shakespeare left "my second best bed with the furniture" ("Last Will" 2). He

also left things to nieces and nephews, his sister Johane Hart, some close friends, and

Susanna's husband John Hall ("Last Will" 1-3).

Shakespeare allegedly died on his birthday in 1616, although some references say

1619 (Miller 164; Mabillard 42). On April 25, 1616 (or 1619), Shakespeare "was

buried...in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church where he had been baptized exactly 52[or 55] years earlier"
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Biography of William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was born April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, to

John and Anne (Cookson) Wordsworth, the second of their five children. His father

was law agent and rent collector for Lord Lonsdale, and the family was fairly well off.

After his mother's death in 1778 he was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School, near

Windermere; in 1787 he went up toSt. John's College, Cambridge.He enjoyed hiking:

during the "long" (i.e., summer) vacation of 1788 he tramped around Cumberland

county; two years later went on a walking tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany;

and in 1791, after graduation, trekked through Wales.

His enthusiasm for theFrench Revolution took him to France again in 1791,

where he had an affair with Annette Vallon, who bore him an illegitimate daughter,

Caroline, in 1792. Having run out of money, Wordsworth returned to England the

following year, and the Anglo-French war, following the Reign of Terror, prevented

his return for nine years.In 1794 he was reunited with his sister Dorothy, who became his companion,

close friend, moral support, and housekeeper until her physical and mental decline in

the 1830s. The next year he metColeridge,and the three of them grew very close, the

two men meeting daily in 1797-98 to talk about poetry and to plan Lyrical Ballads,

which came out in 1798. The three friends travelled to Germany that fall, a trip that

produced intellectual stimulation for Coleridge and homesickness for Wordsworth.

After their return, William and Dorothy settled in his beloved Lake district, near

Grasmere.
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The Peace of Amiens in 1802 allowed Wordsworth and his sister to visit France

again to see Annette and Caroline. They arrived at a mutually agreeable settlement,

and a few months later, after receiving an inheritance owed by Lord Lonsdale since

John Wordsworth's death in 1783, William married Mary Hutchinson. By 1810 they

had five children, but their happiness was tempered by the loss at sea of William's

brother John (1805), the alienation from Coleridge in 1810, and the death of two

children in 1812. In 1813 Wordsworth received an appointment as Distributor of

Stamps for Westmorland, and the 400 per year which went with this post made him

financially secure. The whole family, which included Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount,

between Grasmere and Rydal Water).

Wordsworth's literary career began with Descriptive Sketches (1793) and

reached an early climax before the turn of the century, with Lyrical Ballads. His

powers peaked with Poems in Two Volumes (1807), and his reputation continued to

grow; even his harshest reviewers recognized his popularity and the originality.

The important later works were well under way. His success with shorter forms

made him the more eager to succeed with longer, specifically with a long, three-part

"philosophical poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, . . having for its

principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement." The

17,000 lines which were eventually published made up only a part of this mammoth

project. The second section, The Excursion, was completed (pub. 1814), as was the

first book of the first part, The Recluse. During his lifetime he refused to print The

Prelude, which he had completed by 1805, because he thought it was unprecedented

for a poet to talk as much about himself unless he could put it in its proper setting,

which was as an introduction to the complete three-part Recluse.

Inspiration gradually failed him for this project, and he spent much of his later

life revising The Prelude. Critics quarrel about which version is better, the 1805 or the

1850, but agree that in either case it is the most successful blank verse epic

since Paradise Lost.

Finally fully reconciled to Coleridge, the two of them toured the Rhineland in

1828. Durham University granted him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in

1838, and Oxford conferred the same honor the next year. When Robert Southey died

in 1843, Wordsworth was named Poet Laureate. He died in 1850, and his wife

published the much-revised Prelude that summer.

****


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Biography of R.K. Narayan

Nearly 70 years ago, India's greatest living writer in English, took out a brand

new exercise book and wrote in it: "It was Monday morning."

With those four words, Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan (just R.K. Narayan to

most) took off on a journey to that oddly populated fictional continent called

Malgudi, with the young boy Swami and his eclectic mix of friends.

"The very first line I wrote was 'It was Monday morning.' And then I had an idea

of a railway station, a very small railway station, a wayside station. You've seen

the kind of thing, with a platform and trees and a stationmaster.

The railway station to which Swami goes to watch trains arrive and depart: that

was the original idea with which I started 'Swami and Friends'.

But in the actual book it comes last, it comes at the end of the story," wrote

Narayan much later, remembering his first work. The writer turned 94 on Oct 6,

2000.

Despite the overwhelming success of his semi-autobiographical, self-mocking

vignettes of small-town childhood in 'Swami and Friends', Narayan very nearly

missed the call to fame and recognition.

"Deluged under rejection slips", it was only the fortuitous arrival of his

manuscript on well-known writer, Graham Greene's desk, which made his entryinto the "real world" possible.


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Having read the manuscript, Graham Greene recommended it to publisher

Hamish Hamilton who promptly agreed to publish it. Some seven decades later,

Malgudi occupies an almost real space on the Indian map.

Seventeen novels and 300 short stories later, Narayan, continues to be one of

India's most prolific and most stylish writers in the English language. Some of his

best known works are 'The Bachelor of Arts', 'The Dark Room', 'The English

Teacher', 'Mr Sampath', 'The Financial Expert', 'Waiting for the Mahatma', 'The

Guide', 'The Man-eater of Malgudi', 'The Talkative Men' and 'Malgudi Days'.

But writing was not a profession to be entertained for a young man straight out

of college. After graduation, Narayan worked as a teacher in a high school and

as a journalist for a few years.

Yet, teaching proved to be an unsatisfying experience after which writing

'Swami and Friends' became part of a businesslike routine that the writer

pursued with a serious face.

In India, Narayan's books crowd the syllabuses of schools and colleges as novel

after novel becomes 'required reading', though one of the most respected Indian

literary awards, the Jnanpith award, has eluded him for an ironical reason. It isgiven to a writer in Indian languages and Narayan has chosen to write in English.

The writer won his first major Indian award when he won the Yatra Award, given

every year for outstanding achievement by a writer from South Asia, in 1994.

The citation said, "Mr. Narayan has created with quiet honesty and moral

seriousness, a unique fictional world out of the ordinary and daily lives of people

in the small towns of the South. He is a master story-teller whose language is

simple and unpretentious, whose wit is critical yet healing, whose characters

are drawn with sharp precision and subtle irony and whose narratives have the

lightness of touch which only the craftsman of the highest order can risk"

The 1994 award is a long way from the first prize that Narayan won in 1930, in a

short story competition organised by a magazine. When the editor asked him

about his future plans, Narayan seems to have replied, "I hope to write till my

fingers fall off." Happily, 70 years later, neither have Narayan's fingers fallen

off, nor have ours grown tired of thumbing through his absurd caricatures and

grotesqueries.


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S ROJI N IDU

Saroji Naidu also known by

the sobriquet The Nightingale of Indiawas a child prodigy, Indian

independence activist and poet. Naidu

was the first Indian woman to become

the President of the Indian National

Congress and the first woman to

become the Governor of Uttar Pradesh

state was a great patriot, politician, orator and administratorof all the famous

women of India, Mrs. Sarojinidevi Naidu's name is at the top. Not only that, but

she was truly one of the jewels of the world. Being one of the most famous

heroines of the 20th century, her birthday is celebrated as "Women's Day"

Early Life

She was born in Hyderabad. Sarojini Chattopadhyay, later Naidu

belonged to a Bengali family of Kulin Brahmins. But her father, Agorenath

Chattopadhyay, after receiving a doctor of science degree from Edinburgh

University, settled in Hyderabad State, where he founded and administered the

Hyderabad College, which later became the Nizam's College in Hyderabad.

Sarojini Naidu's mother Barada Sundari Devi was a poetess baji and used to

write poetry in Bengali. Sarojini Naidu was the eldest among the eight siblings.One of her brothers Birendranath was a revolutionary and her other brother

Harindranath was a poet, dramatist, and actor.

Sarojini Naidu was a brilliant student. She was proficient in Urdu,

Telugu, English, Bengali, and Persian. At the age of twelve, Sarojini Naidu

attained national fame when she topped the matriculation examination at

Madras University. Her father wanted her to become a mathematician or

scientist but Sarojini Naidu was interested in poetry. Once she was working on


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an algebra problem, and when she couldn't find the solution she decided to take a

break, and in the same book she wrote her first inspired poetry. She got so

enthused by this that she wrote "The Lady of the Lake", a poem 1300 lines long.

When her father saw that she was more interested in poetry than mathematics or

science, he decided to encourage her. With her father's support, she wrote the play

"Maher Muneer" in the Persian language. Dr. Chattopadhyaya distributed some

copies among his friends and sent one copy to the Nawab of Hyderabad. Reading

a beautiful play written by a young girl, the Nizam was very impressed. The

college gave her a scholarship to study abroad. At the age of 16 she got admitted

to King's College of England.England

At the age of 16, she traveled to England to study first at King's College London

and later at Girton College, Cambridge. There she met famous laureates of her

time such as Arthur Symons and Edmond Gosse. It was Gosse who convinced

Sarojini to stick to Indian themes-India's great mountains, rivers, temples, social

milieu, to express her poetry. She depicted contemporary Indian life and events.

Her collections "The golden threshold (1905)", "The bird of time (1912)", and "The

broken wing (1912)" attracted huge Indian and English readership.

Works

Her major contribution was also in the field of poetry. Her poetry had

beautiful words that could also be sung. Soon she got recognition as the "Bul

Bule Hind" when her collection of poems was published in 1905 under the title

Golden Threshold. After that, she published two other collections of poems--The

Bird of Time and The Broken Wings. In 1918, Feast of Youth was published.

Later, The Magic Tree, The Wizard Mask and A Treasury of Poems were

published. Mahashree Arvind, Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru were

among the thousands of admirers of her work. Her poems had English words, but

an Indian soul.eee

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