2.6 Money - Poetic Appreciation

Write a poetic appreciation of the poem 'Money' with the help of following points:

* About the poem, poet and the title

*  Form of the poem, theme and message 

* The language features, style, poetic devices used in the poem

* Opinion about the poem 

* About the poem, poet and the title :

This poem is written by a well-known Welsh poet and writer W. H. Davies. This poem 'Money' is taken from 'The Collected Poems' volume published in 1916. This poem tells about the rich man who wants to be a poor man to find the real happiness. It is when we do not have money or have lost our money we realize how important the money is. At the end, the poet says that now he does not have money but he has few true friends.

* Form of the poem, theme and message : 

This poem is written in five stanzas. It is a philosophical poem. The poem gives us a moral lesson that if you have money all are your friends but they are false as they are just interested in your wealth only. The world is a false one where humanity is dead.  According to the poet, poor men's hearts are light and they work  hard from morning till night. The poet says now I have no money but I have few real friends. It means the real happiness is not in becoming rich but in becoming poor. The theme of the poem is 'Money cannot buy happiness'. It is a  significant poem with a moral lesson.

* The language features, style, poetic devices used in the poem : 

The poet has used a very simple language with a deep message. The rhyme scheme is ' abcb, defe, ghih, jklk, amam'. Many figures of speech like Simile, Antithesis, Onomatopoeia, Repetition, Metaphor, Apostrophe etc. are used in it.

* Opinion about the poem :

In my opinion, this poem is an interesting one which gives a message that money doesn't bring happiness. It conveys the harsh reality of life -  "Money doesn't change people, it only exposes them." I liked the poem, but I don't agree it completely as the poor today are not as happy as the poet thinks. They have their own problems in life.

4.3 Around The World In Eighty Days

 Characters : 

Main Characters -

1) Phileas  Fogg  - Protagonist

2) Passepartout - A loyal servant/valet

3)  Aouda - Indian Princess

4) Detective Fix - Detective

Minor Characters - 

1) John Sullivan  - A banker

2) Samuel Fallentin  - A banker

3) Andrew Stuart - An  engineer

4)Gauthier Ralph - The Director of the Bank of England

5) Thomas Flanagan -The brewer

6) James Strand -A bank robber

7) Reverend Samual Wilson - A clergyman

A wager (bet)  among 5 Reform club friends( Sullivan, Fallentin, Andrew Stuart, Ralph, Flanagan) and Fogg .

Wager Amount : Twenty thousand pounds 

ROUTE : London --> Venice (Italy) -->Brindisi --> Suez (Egypt) --> Bombay ( Mumbai, India) --> Allahabad  (India) --> Calcutta (Kolkata, India) --> Singapore --> Hong Kong --> Shanghai ((China) --> Yokohama (Japan) --> San Francisco (USA) --> Omaha -->  New York (USA) -->to Queenstown  (Ireland)--> Dublin -->Liverpool --> London.

Journey started on 2nd October at 8:45 p.m. ended on 21st December at 8:45 p.m.

Character Sketch :

1)  Phileas Fogg : Phileas Fogg  is the protagonist of the novel 'Around  The World In Eighty Days.' He is calculative person, very punctual, living isolated life. He did not have any close friend or any relative.He was a member of Reform Club. He had a bet with his Reform Club friends of Twenty Thousand Pounds of travelling around the world in eighty days. He started his journey on  2nd October and it should be ended on 21st Dec. Nobody was sure that it is possible as there would be many unexpected hurdles. But he anyhow overcome all the obstacles and completed this journey within 79 days.Thus he won the wager unexpectedly as well as got a loyal valet in the form of Passepartout and a love in the form of Aouda.

2) Aouda :  Aouda is another major character. She was the daughter of Parsi merchant.She married to the old Raja of Bundelkhand. When Raja dies, she is about to be sacrificed as a Sati. When the protagonist  and his butler - Passepartout were in India, they rescued her. Thus, they kept her with them as they wanted to send her to her distant relative. But in  Hong Kong, they found out that  her distant relative has moved to Holland, so they decided to take her with them to Europe. Aouda feels indebted for her companions and gradually falls in love with Fogg. At the end of the novel, she proposes Fogg for marriage, though they believe  he has lost the wager, thus he became penniless. He accepts  and tells her that he also loves her. Then he wins the bet and they get married. Their marriage reveals the actual date. In this way, because of her, Fogg realises he has time to reach the Reform Club and Wins the wager.

3) Passepartout :  Passepartout is a newly appointed French butler/ valet of Phileas Fogg. He is one of the major characters in the novel. He is loyal, honest, selfless person who accompanies Fogg on his journey around the world. He is obedient, innocent, comical, softspoken, impulsive fellow. He helps the protagonist to accomplish the wager.

Themes : 

1) Adventure and excitement

2) Time

3) Importance of human connections

4) Honour

5) Presence of mind and wit

2.8 Small Towns and Rivers - Poetic Appreciation

 Write a poetic appreciation of the poem 'Small Towns and Rivers' with the help of following points:

* About the poem poet and the title

* The theme

* The language features, style, poetic devices used in the poem

* Message, values, morals in the poem

* Opinion about the poem 

* About the poem, poet and the title: The poem 'Small Towns and Rivers' is written by a great poet, novelist, journalist and a former civil servant from Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, Mamang Dai, who writes in English as well as Adi language. She is the recipient of Padmashree award and Sahitya Akademi Award. This present poem, 'Small Towns  and Rivers' is taken from the collection of the poems 'The River Poems', published in 2004. The poem describes a landscape and Nature where river is a dominant phenomenon. Here the poetess makes us aware that river is also a live thing around her hometown. She uses the sentences like 'river has soul' and 'river knows immortality of water'.

* The theme : The theme of this poem is 'death'. The poem is based on the belief of the tribal people from the North East, that the souls of the beloved ones always continue to dwell in the natural elements around. So she remembers death when she sees the emerging towns. Here she states that when the towns prosper, the nature has been destroyed. The poet has expressed anxiety at the development in the small towns.

* The language features, style, poetic devices used in the poem : The poem consists  seven stanzas. It is in free verse. There is the use of unusual length of poetic lines- some lines are short, some are little lengthier. The poet has used very simple, easy and lucid language so that the readers can easily understand the poem. The poetic devices like Metaphor, Onomatopoeia,Transferred Epithet, Repetition, Simile and Personification are used here in this poem. Here river has given a human quality of having a soul. The poem has an excellent visual imagery where she depicts river during summer and winter season. 

* Message, values, morals in the poem : The poet has mixed feelings for the Nature and towns. Through this poem, she appeals the people to conserve the Nature.

* Opinion about the poem : In my opinion this poem is simple, easy to understand with great message to conserve Nature. We have to take care of it.

2.7 She Walks In Beauty - Poetic Appreciation

 Poetic Appreciation of 'She Walks In Beauty'

 *About the poem/ poet/ title: "She Walks In Beauty" is a poem written by a famous English Romantic Poet, George Gordon Byron who is also known as Lord Byron.The poet belongs to the group of 'Younger Romantic'. The poem appreciates the enchanting beauty of an unnamed woman who is truly remarkable, having an aura or cloud.

* Theme : The theme of the poem is Beauty and Harmony. The poet not only praises her external beauty but also her I ner goodness which makes her so captivatingly attractive and flawless. The poet compares her to the night sky describing her serene and perfect beauty.

* Poetic devices, language and style : This is a short 18 lime lyrical poem celebrating female beauty. This poem consists three stanzas of six lines ie sestets of attractive rhymes. The rhyme scheme used in it is 'ababab'. The language is rich and complex which gives mystical quality to the woman in the poem. The poetic devices like Simile, Alliteration, Antithesis, Metaphor, Repetition, Personification, Inversion, Synecdoche add complexity of the poem. The poem is with full of visual imagery. He uses the pairs of contradictory words to describe the enchanting beauty of the woman.

* Values, message : The poet, Lord Byron gives message to the readers that the external beauty is the reflection of inner goodness.

* Opinion about the poem :  In my opinion, the poem is full of elegance. It creates the powerful impact on the readers' minds, making them understand the meaning of  being 'really beautiful'.