00738--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-166

"Why don't you stop picking on me?" said Mulla Nasrudin to his wife. "I am trying to do everything

possible to make you happy."

"There's one thing you haven't done that my first husband did to make me happy," she said.

"What's that?" asked the Mulla.

"HE DROPPED DEAD," she said.

00737--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-165

Mulla Nasrudin was visiting his psychiatrist. Among the many questions the doctor asked was: "Are you

bothered by improper thoughts?"

"NOT AT ALL," said Nasrudin. "THE TRUTH IS I RATHER ENJOY THEM."

00736--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-164

Mulla Nasrudin was being selected as a juror in a murder trial. The attorney for the defense was

challenging prospective jurors. He questioned Mulla Nasrudin, "Are you married or single?"

"Married for ten years," said the Mulla.

"Have you formed or expressed an opinion?" asked the attorney.

"NOT FOR TEN YEARS," replied Nasrudin.

00735--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-163

A man was chatting to Mulla Nasrudin who was a rabid fisherman.

"I notice," he said, "that when you tell about the fish you caught you vary the size of it for different listeners."

"YES," replied Nasrudin, "I NEVER TELL A MAN MORE THAN I THINK HE WILL BELIEVE."

00734--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-162

Mulla Nasrudin was coming to after a serious operation. He was just conscious enough to feel the softness of the comfortable bed and the warmth of gentle hands on his forehead.

"Where am I?" he asked. "In Heaven?"

"NO," said his wife, "I AM STILL RIGHT HERE WITH YOU."

00733--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-161

"Young man," said the angry father, Mulla Nasrudin, "didn't I hear the clock strike four when you brought my daughter home?"

"Yes, Sir," said the boy. "It was going to strike ten, but I grabbed the gong and held it so it wouldn't disturb you."

"I WILL BE A SO-AND-SO," said Nasrudin. "WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT IN MY YOUNGER DAYS?"

00732--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-160

Mulla Nasrudin and one of his friends were thinking one day to join the army.

"What makes you think to join the army?" asked the Mulla.

"Well, I don't have a wife and I love war," said the friend. "And why you are thinking to join it?"

"ME?" said Nasrudin. "I HAVE A WIFE AND I LOVE PEACE."

00731--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-159

Mulla Nasrudin was on his first ocean voyage and was deathly ill. Trying to comfort him, the steward said, "Don't be so down-hearted, Sir, I have never heard of anyone dying of sea-sickness."

"OH, DON'T TELL ME THAT," moaned Nasrudin. "IT HAS ONLY BEEN THE HOPE OF DYING THAT HAS KEPT ME ALIVE."

00730--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-158

Mulla Nasrudin told his psychiatrist that he had the same nightmare over and over again, night after night.

"And what do you dream about?" asked the doctor.

"I dream that I am married," said the Mulla.

"And to whom are you married in this dream?" the doctor wanted to know.

"TO MY WIFE," said Nasrudin. "THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT A NIGHTMARE, SIR."

00729--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-157

Mulla Nasrudin walked into a psychiatrist's office, opened a tobacco pouch, and stuffed his nose with tobacco.

"Man, I can see that you need me," the psychiatrist said. "Come on in and tell me your problem."

"MY ONLY PROBLEM IS," said Nasrudin, "I NEED A LIGHT."

00728--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-156

A friend was visiting Mulla Nasrudin. "My boy has just written me from jail," he said. "He says they're going to cut six months off his sentence for good behaviour."

"MY," said Mulla Nasrudin. "YOU MUST BE PROUD TO HAVE A SON LIKE THAT."

00727--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-155

"You sure do look downhearted, Mulla? What's the matter?" asked a friend.

"It's my future that worries me," said Nasrudin.

"What makes your future so black?" the friend asked.

"MY PAST," replied Nasrudin.

00726--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-154

Mulla Nasrudin's wife was upset and was confiding in her maid. "Do you know," she said, "I suspect my husband is having an affair with the cook."

"OH," cried the maid. "YOU CAN'T BELIEVE THAT. YOU ARE JUST SAYING THAT TO MAKE ME JEALOUS."

00725--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-153

Mulla Nasrudin was called in the election bribery case.

"You say," asked the judge, "that you were given $10 to vote for the Democrats, and you got another

$10 to vote for the republicans?"

"Yes, Sir, Your Honour," said the Mulla.

"And how did you vote?" asked the judge.

"YOUR HONOUR," said Nasrudin, "I VOTED ACCORDING TO MY CONSCIENCE."

00724--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-152

Mulla Nasrudin, the landlord of a rather rundown rooming house, had led a prospective tenant to a third-floor room with badly spotted wall paper.

Nasrudin: "The last man who lived in this room was an inventor he invented some sort of explosive."

Prospect: "Oh, these spots on the walls are chemicals?"

Nasrudin: "NO, THE INVENTOR."

00723--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-151

Mulla Nasrudin's wife used to give the Mulla a regular inspection every night when he came home.

Every hair she discovered on his coat would be cause for a terrible scene.

One evening, when she didn't find a single hair, she screamed at him, "NOW YOU ARE EVEN RUNNING AFTER BALD-HEADED WOMEN."

00722--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-150

Mulla Nasrudin kept begging the noted pianist to play.

"Well, all right, since you insist," he said. "What shall I play?"

"ANYTHING YOU LIKE," said Nasrudin. "IT'S ONLY TO ANNOY THE NEIGHBOURS."

00721--Paraphrase of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

.

Paraphrase of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

Introduction

The poem was printed in ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ in August 1915, and was collected in ‘Mountain Interval’ (1916).  It is an important piece of poetry, as it explains the poet’s outlook of life. 

Stanza I

Two roads went in two different directions in a pale forest, and the poet felt sorry that he could not take both the roads, and couldn’t decide his path immediately as he was the only traveller.  For a long time he stood there and watched one of the roads as far as he could, to the farthest end where it took a curve toward the brushwood. 

Stanza II

The poet, now, examined the other road which was equally fair and clean, and which had perhaps a better claim since it was covered with grass and lacked foot-marks.  Both the roads were travelled by people but the second one was less travelled by. 

Stanza III

Both the roads that day looked fresh and untrodden because the leaves (it was autumn season) were not stepped on and not made black in colour.  The poet chose the second one and kept the first one reserved for some other day.  Nevertheless he knew that the way leads on to way, and thus a return is not possible. 

Stanza IV

The poet says that he will go on telling this incident with a sigh in the times to come that there met two roads at a point in a wood, and that he took the less travelled one, and this has made him a different individual altogether.   

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

                 END

00720--Paraphrase of the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost

Paraphrase of the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost

In this very small lyric, Frost combines nature and self-experience.  He tells us that how the dust of snow has given his heart a change of mood.  That dust of snow came from a Hemlock   tree, and it came to the poet in a way the crow shook down upon him.  The dust of snow has saved some part of his past, and belonged to a day when the poet had to rue. 

Here Frost narrates how even totally insignificant objects of nature, like dust of snow helps him and us to forget the unhappy memory of the past. 

The poem has two stanzas of 4 lines each.  The basic metre is iambic dia metre and the rhyme is ab, ab, cd, cd.  The lyric beautifully narrates the poetic feeling of joy and despair.  There is a poetic blending of different moods even in such a very small poem.   

Dust of Snow

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

00719--Define ‘Satta’ [Being; Existence]

Define ‘Satta’      [Being; Existence]

1.     According to the Vaisesika School, Being is the highest universal.

2.    According to Advaita Vedanta Being is the Reality.

00718--Define Manogupti [equanimity of the mind]

Define Manogupti    [equanimity of the mind]

According to Jainism, it is one of the external rules of conduct.  It enables one to remove all false thoughts, to remain satisfied within oneself, and to hold all people to be the same.  

00717--Nothing Gold Can Stay [ by Robert Frost]

Nothing Gold Can Stay        [ by Robert Frost]

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

00716--BOOKWISE BRIEF SUMMARY OF PARADISE LOST by JOHN MILTON.

BOOKWISE BRIEF SUMMARY OF PARADISE LOST by JOHN MILTON.

BOOK I

After the invocation to the Heavenly Muse for help, and a general statement of the theme Book I tells about the condition  of Satan and the other fallen angels in Hell, directly after they have been driven out of Heaven. 

BOOK II

Book II presents the council that the fallen angels hold to plot their revenge.  At the end of the book Satan is on his way.  As he leaves on his mission, the Fiend encounters at the Gates of Hell his offspring Sin and Death.   The beginning of the allegory of Sin and Death is in Book II, and is completed in Book X.

BOOK III

Book III begins with another invocation, this time to light, for the scene moves from Hell to Heaven.  The theological background of the poem is then supplied; God’s foreknowledge of man’s ‘fall’, although he has given man free will to obey or not to obey Him; the Son of God’s offer to redeem man.  At the end of the book Satan succeeds in reaching the universe. 

BOOK IV 

Book IV describes the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve as lovers.  Both are thankful to their Creator and aware of the one prohibition: they may not taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.  Satan, observing them first with pity for their innocence, soon feels only envy and succeeds in reaching Eve by an evil drama.

BOOK V

Book V continues the dream episode: Eve reports the dream in which she has sinned by eating the forbidden fruit.  Adam comforts her by saying that she has not sinned as her reason has not approved of her doing it.  The archangel Raphael, sent by God, arrives, talks about the nature of angels, and then at Adam’s request, tells the events before the creation of Adam: the elevation of the Son of God, the jealousy of the Son of God, the jealousy of Satan, and the revolt in Heaven.  At this point, as Raphael begins his narrative, the reader is being given the chronological beginning of the epic’s action. 

BOOK VI

Book VI is devoted to Raphael’s continued story of the revolt in Heaven, to which the Son of God puts an end; Satan and his followers are cast out of Heaven and driven to Hell.  At this point the reader knows all the action antecedent to Book I.

BOOK VII

Book VII starts with a new invocation to the Heavenly Muse as the epic is half-completed.  Raphael tells of the Creation of Earth.  Symbolically Good or constructive action is followed by Evil or destruction by war.

BOOK VIII

Book VIII continues Raphael’s instruction of Adam: the Archangel gives some elementary lessons in astronomy, but warns Adam it is more important that he guard himself and Eve against Satan.  Adam then tells the story of his creation and of Eve’s.

BOOK IX

Book IX begins with a prologue in which Milton thanks the Heavenly Muse and rededicates himself to finish his great task.  Eve persuades Adam that the two should do their gardening separately.  Intimidated and influenced by the serpent’s [Satan’s] flattery, Eve succumb to temptation.  She falls.  Adam falls due to his love for Eve.  Their innocent bliss is gone forever, and the two quarrel about their respective guilt.

BOOK X

Book X serves to complete much of the preceding action.  The Son of God passes judgement that all mankind fell with Adam, and so the men will toil for their living, endure suffering and know Death.  Women will be submissive to men and will bear their children in pain.  The allegory of Sin and Death is completed with Sin, Death, and Discord rampant on Earth.  Satan returns to Hell, but his satisfaction in corrupting man turns to ashes.  Adam reasons with himself, admits his guilt and God’s justice, and forgives Eve; the two join in repentance and prayer. 

BOOK XI

Book XI begins with the Son of God presenting to his Father the prayers of Adam and Eve.  God accepts their repentance and sends the Archangel Michael to inform them gently that they must leave the Garden of Eden.  On reaching the Garden, Michael tells of their banishment, but as a consolation allows him to have a series of visions of man’s future.

BOOK XII

Book XII continues Michael’s prophecy, this time in narrative form, stressing the coming of Christ and the Redemption of man.  Adam is comforted by the realisation that the Fall was not completely evil and that the Paradise is within man.  He now knows what God expects of man is obedience, faith, patience, temperance and charity, and the deeds that prove these virtues.  Sadly, but putting their trust in Providence, Adam and Eve leave the Garden. 

00715--Discuss the structure of Doctor Faustus.

Discuss the structure of Doctor Faustus.

Doctor Faustus contains a major pattern of action which deals with Faustus’s choice to follow magic and  to sell his soul to Lucifer.  A comic plot, probably written by a collaborator, comments on and parodies the serious action of the main plot.  Structurally, the play may be described as episodic because Marlowe gives us a series of actions which repeats the struggle of Faustus between the choice of God or Lucifer.  Thus the recurrence of Good and Bad Angels, the repeated thought s of repentance, and the appearance of the Old Man in Act V indicate the episodic and repetitive pattern of the play’s structure.  

The comic portions of the play illustrate by irony the the vacuous accomplishments consequent to Faustus’s bargain.  Wagner’s conjuring and later Robin and Dick’s ability at magic are parodies of Faustus’s ability.  By way of contrast these comic scenes serve to point out the terrible nature of Faustus’s bargain, for these scenes reveal that the powers of magic are not nearly so great as Faustus imagined.  Marlowe, then, by repeating the basic struggle of good and evil, structures his play so that the cumulative effect reveals the turmoil in Faustus’s soul and produces awe and wonder at this tragic fall.  

00714--Discus the role of the Old Man in Act V of the play Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.

Discus the role of the Old Man in Act V of the play Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.

The Old Man in Act V appeals to Faustus to leave his damned art and to ask for God’s forgiveness.  In many particulars the Old Man is like the Good Angel because his counsel to Faustus is the same.  He takes on many of the qualities of a morality personification, perhaps something like Good Counsel.  After the Fausus-Helen episode, the old man is aware that Faustus has completely damned himself.  The Old Man is then tried by Satan, but his faith prevails against the devils and hell.  Thus the Old Man achieves a spiritual victory, and dramatically this contrasts with Faustus’s choice of evil and his ultimate damnation.  Marlowe through the Old Man, shows that the temptation to evil may be resisted and that spiritual victory can be achieved. 

00713--What dramatic purpose does the Chorus serve in the play Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe?

What dramatic purpose does the Chorus serve in the play Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe?

The Chorus speaks before Acts I, III, and IV and delivers the Epilogue at the end.  The Prologue to Act I gives the exposition of the narrative material needed by the audience to understand the subsequent action.  In the Prologue, the chorus narrates Faustus’s biography, compares him to Icarus, and foreshadows Faustus’s death.  The Prologue, then, really gives the summary of the entire play, and as we watch the play we anxiously anticipate the fulfilment of what the Prologue has announced. 

The Prologue to Act III narrates the fabulous journey of Faustus and gives us narrative material which Marlowe could not present dramatically.  Here the Chorus is a conventional shorthand device which enables the dramatist to narrate rather than show by dramatic action.  The Prologue to Act III tells us what Faustus has done before he came to Rome in Act III.  The Prologue to Act IV does much the same thing because it introduces us to Faustus at the time of his return to Germany and the Court of the Emperor.  As Epilogue the Chorus provides the conventional moral comment on the action of the play.  

00712--Discuss the significance of Faustus’ contract with Lucifer in Act II, Scene I and his renewal of the contract in Act V, Scene I. [Christopher Marlowe]

Discuss the significance of Faustus’ contract with Lucifer in Act II, Scene I and his renewal of the contract in Act V, Scene I.  [Christopher Marlowe]

Faustus makes his contract with Lucifer by stabbing his arms and sealing the contract with his own blood.  When Faustus says, “It is finished,” he repeats the words of Christ on the cross.  Faustus’s blasphemy is the verbal equivalent of the action he has just taken, for he has rejected God and delivered his soul to Lucifer.  His fear of the devils overwhelms any thoughts of repentance, and Mephistopheles gives him a dagger and counsels despair.  When Mephistopheles threatens Faustus for his disobedience to Lucifer.  Faustus repents for the very act of thinking of Christ’s mercy.  He asks for Lucifer’s forgiveness, and then confirms again his former vow.  Faustus here parodies the three stages of Christian penance (contrition, confession and satisfaction).  These two scenes, then, illustrate the nature of Faustus’ contract, and the parodying of religious language and ritual vividly conveys the blasphemy which Faustus commits.

00711--Preface to the first edition of “Le Morte d’Arthur” by Willam Caxton [original work]

Preface to the  first edition of “Le Morte d’Arthur” by Willam Caxton [original work]

I have, after the simple cunning that God hath sent to

me, under the favor and correction of all noble lords and

gentlemen, enprised to enprint a book of the noble histories of

the said King Arthur and of certain of his knights, after a copy

unto me delivered, which copy Sir Thomas Malory did take

out of certain books of French and reduced it into English.

And I, according to my copy, have done set it in enprint to

the intent that noble men may see and learn the noble acts

of chivalry, the gentle and virtuous deeds that some knights

used in tho[se] days, by which they came to honor, and how

they that were vicious were punished and oft put to shame

and rebuke; humbly beseeching all noble lords and ladies with

all other estates, of what estate or degree they been of, that

shall see and read in this said book and work, that they take

the good and honest acts in their remembrance, and to follow

the same; wherein they shall find many joyous and pleasant

histories and noble and renowned acts of humanity, gentleness,

and chivalries. For herein may be seen noble chivalry, courtesy,

humanity, friendliness, hardiness, love, friendship, cowardice,

murder, hate, virtue and sin. Do after the good and leave the

evil, and it shall bring you to good fame.

00710--What are the characteristics of a sonnet?

What are the characteristics of a sonnet?

Length: 14 lines

Meter: iambic pentameter—lines containing five metrical units, each consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

Structure and rhyme scheme: a strict pattern; the threemost common are known asPetrarchan, ShakespeareanandSpenserian.

Subject: a focus on personal feelings and thoughts that are lyrical in nature

00709--Write a short note on Sonnet Structure.

Write a short note on Sonnet Structure.

The Petrarchan form has a two-part structure.

• The octave (the first 8 lines), usually rhyming abbaabba, establishes the speaker’s situation.

• The sestet (the last 6 lines), usually with the rhyme scheme cdcdcdor cdecde, resolves, draws conclusions about, or expresses a reaction to the speaker’s situation.

The Petrarchan sonnet has been called organic in its unity because the octave and sestet fit together naturally. Unity is also produced by the rhyme scheme, which involves only four or five different rhyming sounds.

The Shakespearean form also has 14 lines but is structured differently.

• Three quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines) are followed by a rhyming couplet

(2 lines).

• The rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg.

• The first quatrain introduces a situation, which is explored in the next two quatrains. The third quatrain (or sometimes the final couplet) usually includes a turn, or shift in thought. The couplet resolves the situation.

00708--Write a short note on The English Sonnet.

Write a short note on The English Sonnet.

The English sonnet began with another lovelorn poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542). In the 1530s, Wyatt translated some of Petrarch’s love sonnets and wrote a few of his own in a slight modification of the Italian form. Another English poet who deserves credit for popularizing the sonnet in England is Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547). Building on Wyatt’s modifications to the form, Surrey changed the rhyme scheme of the sonnet to make it more suitable to the English language. Surrey’s innovations distinguished the English sonnet from the Italian sonnet, and eventually became known as the Shakespeareansonnet because of Shakespeare’s mastery of the form.

00707--A SHORT NOTE ON SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA

A SHORT NOTE ON SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA

Shakespearean drama

• Elizabethan drama came from three sources: medieval plays, 16thcentury interludes, and Greek and Latin classics.

• Plays focused on human complexities rather than religious themes.

• The Globe was the most successful of many English theaters.

• Shakespeare contributed 37 plays—comedies, tragedies, and histories.

• Marlowe and Jonson were popular playwrights.

• After 1649, Puritans closed theaters.

00706--What is Spenserian Stanza?

What is Spenserian Stanza?

The Spenserian stanza (named for Edmund Spenser, who invented it for his romance The FaerieQueene) consists of nine iambic lines rhyming in the pattern ababbcbcc. Each of the first eight lines contains five feet, and the ninth contains six. The rhyming pattern helps to create unity, and the six-foot line, called an alexandrine,

slows down the stanza and so gives dignity and allows for reflection on the ideas in the stanza. Byron used the Spenserian stanza in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.

00705--What is Poetry?

What is Poetry?

Poetry is language arranged in lines. Like otherforms of literature, poetry attempts to re-create emotions and experiences. Poetry, however, is usually more condensed

and suggestive than prose.

Poems often are divided into stanzas, or paragraph-like groups of lines. The stanzas in a poem may contain the same number of lines or may vary in length. Some poems

have definite patterns of meter and rhyme. Others rely more on the sounds of words and less on fixed rhythms and rhyme schemes. The use of figurative language is also common in poetry.

The form and content of a poem combine to convey meaning. The way that a poem is arranged on the page, the impact of the images, the sounds of the words and phrases, and all the other details that make up a poem work together to help the reader grasp its central idea.