The Eagle - A poem by Alfred Tennyson

    

      I was reading the poems written by Alfred Tennyson and I found “The Eagle” which I have studied in my graduation. I am sharing my interpretation here.

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

         Alfred Tennyson was the major poet of Victorian age, For more information about poet click here. He has written many beautiful poems, The Eagle is one of them.

          In this poem he has elaborated the qualities of an eagle or we can say he has personified the bird. In the very first stanza we could find the glimpse of it by “He clasps the crag with crooked hands” in which he used the word “hands”. Eagle is the only bird which is not afraid of rain because he can fly above the clouds. The poet has presented the solitude of a bird that it is very close to the sun but the word “lonely lands” gives it a pessimistic tone that the sky where eagle is flying, no one can reach there and accompany it. The bird is at high place but it is also all alone. The word “Ring’d” suggests that the bird is at the centre of the azure world. The word ‘azure’ may suggests the sky and ocean and when we look towards the ocean, sometimes it seems that both meets at a particular space and when eagle flies there it seems it is the centre of the world.

          The second stanza again shows the superiority of a bird, that the large sea and its waves seems to him as if it is wrinkled face and the word “beneath him crawls” shows that the force of waves and strength is like crawling for eagle. Mountains are like walls of his house and he is on such height that when it falls for pray, its like thunderbolt on earth.

          The literal translation could be only about the bird but if we minutely observe the words of poem it seems like poet is describing human beings who has the level of spirituality, on the other point we could say that by using ‘He’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ the poet supports masculinity. Tennyson has inspired to write this poem when he saw eagles during his travel. He personifies the bird and described his solitude and greatness but the one word “lonely lands” creates a large paradox in the poem.

      It matters a lot that you reached at the greatest heights in this world. But what if you are alone there?

       The eagle has to come down on earth for food if he wants to survive. One can only survive in this world if the person can balance between position and politeness.

Tughlaq - A play by Girish Karnad

    

        In the second year of my graduation, I have studied “Tughlaq” a play by Girish Karnad. It contains only thirteen scenes and it does not matter how many times we read it but every reading gives us a new side of Tughlaq’s personality, every time the character of Tughlaq meets us as we never met him before.

Tughlaq

By Girish karnad

     

       Girish Karnad, an actor and a film director is originally a Kannada dramatist, who has written many plays such as ‘Yayati’, ‘Hayavadana’, and ‘Tughlaq’.

      Karnad has successfully translated ‘Tughlaq’ and ‘Hayavadana’ in English. Girish Karnad is one of the greatest living dramatists in the India; he is a person with a versatile genius he has not only acted in theatre but also in first movies.

      Karnad has a great insight into human nature and he is well aware with the paradox in human nature. He implies mythical, historical and folk themes as the skeleton of his play, but he identifies that with contemporary elements and themes.

Tughlaq

       

       ‘Tughlaq’ is Karnad’s second play written in 1964; the play was originally written in Kannada and then translated in Kannada by Karnad himself. It is all about the life of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq who has ruled in India in 14^th century. There is a lot of controversy among the historians about the character of Tughlaq but Karnad has presented this man as a man of opposites. The central theme of the play is the complexity in the character of Sultan Tughlaq, who has both the elements good as well as evil. He is a visionary man as well as man of action. Other characters also present Tughlaq’s dual personality; his close associates Barani and the scholarly historian Najib are practical politician like him.

       

        From the very first scene we come to know about the complex personality of Tughlaq, he can be considered as a learnt and an intelligent man. He has abilities to learn and curiosity to know and he is master in playing chess, he has the knowledge of ‘Quran’ more than any sheikh, and also a good reader who has read Greek, farcical and Arabic literature. Tughlaq wanted his life as a garden of roses, where even thrones also give delight; his imagination expresses his sense about literature.

      The character of sultan Tughlaq can be compared with Christopher Marlow’s “Dr. Faustus” who has same hunger of knowledge and he had a tragic end and same tragic end Tughlaq has also faced. He wanted to make a new India, and for him it was very difficult but he is ready to explain what people don’t understand,

“How he can explain tomorrow to those,

who have not even opened their eyes

to the light of today.”

"પીળું ગુલાબ અને હું" - લાભશંકર ઠાકર

        Recently I have attended a Gadhyasabha organized by Gujarati Department MKBU, which was based on the life of Labhshankar Thakar. The name of the event was “La. Tha. Sarkhi Vat”. In this event I have seen a documentary on the life of Labhshankar Thakar and well known writers like Suman Shah, My Dear Jayu, Minal Dave and Rajesh Pandya has talked about writing of Labhshankar Thakar. For more information click here

      After knowing so many interesting things about the prominent Gujarati writer Labhshankar Thakar, I have decided to read his plays and novels. Recently when I have visited central library of MK Bhavnagar University, I have searched for his books and found one play “પીળું ગુલાબ અને હું” (Yellow rose and I) written by him.

Here I am sharing my views regarding it.

        The story is about an artist, a female stage actress. There are two techniques which writer has used, play within play and flashback technique. While reading we could observe that there are two protagonists, first is Sandhya and second is the character of narrator – a Female-director, who drives the whole drama like all this is happening in her mind and she is at the controlling position.

           The very first scene of the drama is Sandhya is performing a last scene of the play “Veshya”, the role of Rosy, a prostitute, and she is delivering dialogues and at the end Rosy commits suicide. Sandhya is a stage actress from the age of thirteen. When we read the play we can feel the psychological condition of Sandhya that how she is frustrated by playing different roles and drama, she wanted to get her real identity as Sandhya but she was not able to come out from her mental trauma and at last she was not able to speak and react.

           The title is “Pilu Gulab ane hu” (Yellow rose and I) this yellow rose is Sandhya, we can read that Ketan (Sandhya’s husband) calls her ‘yellow rose’ and this “Hu” (‘I’) is a Female-director. The story of Female director is connected with Sandhya because She is an imaginative character of Female-director like her other characters Veshya (a prostitute) and Bhairavi (a murderer). The symptoms of split personality in Sandhya can be clearly noticed, at one time she is normal but when she hears the instructions and taunts of Female-director she behaves like a different woman or one can say like a Female-director.

         The most interesting character of the play is Female-director; she is present all the time on stage and talks with characters and audiences. We can feel her mood swings while reading. Her past incidents and questions are the reason of her behaviour and frustration but by this frustration time and again she satirises the society. She wants to die, she takes a stool and rope for hanging herself but she tells the audience that I can die but the most important thing for dying is ‘the desire of dying’ and that she does not have. She has many reasons to die but not any desire to die.

 At the end of the play she says that,

“Yes, I am still here, nothing is going to start, nothing will end”

And she continues the dialogue by saying that you all are thinking that the drama has ended but actually it has not begun yet.

          This is modernist way of telling reality of existence to the world, a slang language has been used by Rosy (Sandhya) (Pg. 1 – 8) and Female-Director to address the male identity. There is a feeling of absurdity in Sandhya’s character, while the identity crises and suffering of being have started in her life. The Female-director time and again points out the existence of society, what you all are doing? And what is your purpose of doing that? Especially when she asks a couple that how much you love each other, this reminds me “The Waste Land” by T. S. Eliot where he asks the same question. These questions are towards our identity and existence. The psychological disorder of Female director because she never got enough love in her life and when she told the story of Bhairavi and how she murdered her husband; it reminds me the characters of Edgar Allan Poe who murders cold bloodedly and also accepts the crime as the character of Bhairavi has accepted with enough reasons of murder.

       

         This play can offend us badly and variously because when we observe the life Of Sandhya and compare our life by asking our self that what we are doing and for how many days we will continue doing this? It will make us think deeply. Every reading gives us new thinking and deconstructs our own thoughts.