Arghya Jana Literature Guide

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, (written c. 1387), is a richly varied compilation of fictional stories as told by a group of twenty-nine persons involved in a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury, England during the fourteenth century. This journey is to take those travelers who desire religious catharsis to the shrine of the holy martyr St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury. The device of a springtime pilgrimage provided Chaucer with a diverse range of characters and experiences, with him being both a narrator and an observer. Written in Middle English, each tale depicts parables from each traveler. England, in Chaucer's time, was a nation of social and economic growth. Medievalism was a dominant influence in the lives of Englishmen, but the Renaissance had assumed definite form, and the country stood on the threshold of the modern world. Medieval Europeans asserted that the ideals of spiritual community, social groups and ...

1.    'One day I wrote her name.........'       Where does this line occur? Who wrote the name? Whose name did he write and on what?                                                                 Or 2.    'One day I wrote her name.................'       Where does this line occur? Whose name did the Poet write? How many times did the Poet write the name? What was the effect?                                ...

1.    'In verse my love to show'       Why does the Poet want to write verse?                                                            Ans.   The Poet's love was true and he was particularly keen to show it in his verse written in praise of his lady-love. Sidney’s feeling is deep and true. His lady-love Stella might feel delighted with the verse written by the poet. Her delight at the sight of the product of the poet's poetic pain might compel her to read this. She might feel curious. Stella might also learn how deep the poet's love for her was . Her knowledge of love might make her pitiful to him. Her pity might...

Metaphor Analysis Throughout Oedipus the King, Sophocles employs one continuous metaphor: light vs. darkness, and sight vs. blindness.  A reference to this metaphor occurs early in the play, when Oedipus falsely accuses Tiresias and Creon of conspiracy: Creon, the soul of trust, my loyal friend from the start steals against me... so hungry to overthrow me he sets this wizard on me, this scheming quack, this fortune-teller peddling lies, eyes peeled for his own profit-seer blind in his craft! Tiresias responds by using the same metaphor: So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this.  You with your precious eyes, you're blind to the corruption of your life, to the house you live in, those you live with-who are your parents? Do you know? All unknowing you are the scourge of your own flesh and blood, the dead below the earth and the living here above, and the double lash of your mother and your father's curse will whip you from this ...