This term was introduced by the poet John Keats in a letter
written December 1817 to define a literary quality :
at once
it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in
Literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously— I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties,
Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.
He goes on
to criticize Coleridge for not being 'content with half knowledge'; and in
later letters complains of the 'egotistical' and philosophical bias of
Wordsworth's poetry. By negative capability, then, Keats seems to have meant a
poetic capacity to efface one's own mental identity by immersing it
sympathetically and spontaneously within the subject described, as Shakespeare
was thought to have done.
43) “Our
sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the
mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the
greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or
satiated with its proper enjoyments. The sense of feeling can indeed give us a
notion of extension, shape, and all other ideas that enter at the eye, except
colors; but at the same time it is very much straitened and confined in its
operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular objects.”
This
is taken from:
A.The Study of Poetry
B.The Salon of 1859
C.Studies in the History of the
Renaissance
D.On the Pleasures of the Imagination
Answer:
………………………….
44) Match A with B
A B
a.
Thyrsis 1.
Elegy on John Keats
b.
In Memoriam 2.
Elegy on Hugh Clough
c.
Adonias 3.
Elegy on Edward King
d.
Lycidas 4.
Elegy on Henry Hallam
A.
a-1, b-4, c-2, d-3
B.
a-2, b-4, c-3, d-1
C.
a-3, b-1, c-4, d-1
D.
a-2, b-4, c-1, d-3
Answer:
……………………………
45) Match A with B
A B
a. Autolycus 1. Aldous
Huxley
b. Mark Twain 2. Samuel Cemens
c. George
Eliot 3. Mary Ann
Evans
d. Elia 4.
Charles Lamb
A.a-1,
b-2, c-3, d-4
B.a-2,
b-1, c-4, d-3
C.a-3,
b-2, c-1, d-4
D.a-4,
b-3, c-2, d-1
Answer:
…………………………………….
46)Cynewulf is :
1.
one of the 12 Anglo-Saxon poets
2.
an epic
3.
a parody of Beowulf
4.
the author of ‘Juliana’ and ‘Elene’
A.
Only 1
B.
Only 1, 2 and 3
C.
Only 3
D.
Only 1 and 4
Answer:
……………………………………
47) “Having
thus explained a few of my reasons for writing in verse, and why I have chosen
subjects from common life, and endeavored to bring my language near to the real
language of men, if I have been too minute in pleading my own cause, I have at
the same time been treating a subject of general interest; and for this reason
a few words shall be added with reference solely to these particular poems, and
to some defects which will probably be found in them. I am sensible that my associations
must have sometimes been particular instead of general, and that, consequently,
giving to things a false importance, I may have sometimes written upon unworthy
subjects; but I am less apprehensive on this account, than that my language may
frequently have suffered from those arbitrary connections of feelings and ideas
with particular words and phrases, from which no man can altogether protect
himself.”
This
is taken from:
A.An Essay on Criticism
B.Preface to the Second Edition of
Lyrical Ballads
C.Biographia Literaria
D.A Defense of Poetry
Answer:
…………………….
48) According
to Longinus which are the sources of sublimity that cannot be cultivated?
1.Dignity of Composition
2.Appropriate use of Figures
3.Capacity for strong emotion
4.Nobility of Diction
5.Grandeure of Thought
A.Only 1, 2, and 5
B.Only 3 and 4
C.Only 2, 4 and 5
D.Only 3 and 5
Answer:
……………………………………..
49) According
to S.T. Coleridge:
1.Primary imagination has the
“esemplastic” power.
2.On the way to the supernatural from
natural if the poet fails to carry on he ends up as a “materialist”.
3.Allegory is superior to symbol.
4. Being an ‘organic whole’ is the quality of
good poetry.
All art is dedicated to joy, and there is no higher and no more serious problem than how to make men happy. Only the right art creates the highest enjoyment. In order to achieve this end, the first problem that comes before a poet is to choose a subject fit for high poetry. What can be those subjects? Arnold himself replies: "Those certainly, which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections; to those elementary feelings which subsist permanently in the race, and which are independent of time."
The modernness or antiquity of a subject has nothing to do with its fitness for poetical representation. Its fitness depends upon its inherent qualities. The date or the age of an action signifies nothing. The action or situation itself, its appeal to permanent human feelings, its power to please, to move, and to elevate - these are the basic requisitions of the subject fit for high class poetry. Whether past or present the subject should be excellent because without an excellent subject excellent poetry cannot be written. Quoting Aristotle, Arnold says, "All depends upon the subject: Choose a fitting subject, penetrate yourself with the feeling of its situation; this done, everything else will follow."
A trivial subject cannot be raised to poetic excellence only by the art and craft of the poet. Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats and all other great poets were able to write excellent poetry because they were able to choose excellent subjects to write upon. The proper choice of subject is, therefore, a matter of prime importance for a great poet.
Coleridge refutes the platonic concept that art is merely an imitation of nature, and therefore twice removed from reality. Coleridge holds the view that art is not an imitation but an imaginative re-creation of nature. As such, art is a product of imagination. In other words, art is the union of the soul with the external world or nature. It represents nature as thought, and though as nature. Therefore it is more than the object it imitates. It is so because the artist's soul is added to it. Art is the fusion of the artist's soul and the object viewed by him. The artist adds something from his own imaginative faculty. He illumines what is dark, and raises high what is low. Thus, art is the balance or reconciliation of opposites or discordant qualities. The contraries are reconciled in art. They signify the universalising power of art.
There is the union of heart and head in every work of art. Coleridge agrees with Wordsworth that 'art embodies the union of deep feeling with profound thought'. In this process of reconciliation imagination plays the vital role. Therefore in Coleridge's view art is not an imitation of any object of nature. The object of nature only ignites the soul of the artist, and then the artist's soul creates something that never existed anywhere in the past, nor will it ever do in the future.
