An Appreciation of “Easter 1916”.- Poem-William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats is one of the prominent British Poets of the twentieth century.An Irish poet, he was closely associated with the Irish Literary Revival and the Abbey theatre. But unlike many other Irish writers like Sean O’Casey, Yeats was not revolutionary in his attitudes. He was not quite persuaded to believe that all that bloodshed was wise and he did not think of patriotism as a very good or suitable subject of poetry. On 24th of April, 1916 an Easter Sunday the Irish revolutionary leaders occupies the General Post Office in Dublin and proclaimed Ireland a free republic. However their forces were defeated by the British army within a week. Sixteen of the leaders were court-martialed and shot dead . Although militarily, the uprising was insignificant, it captured the imagination of the Irish People.

The literal meaning of the poem is easy enough to grasp. The poem possesses a remarkable lyrical intensity. It has no metaphysical level and the poet is seen devoted to the expression of his vision of abstract reality .Even though Yeats had much in opposite with many of the actions of the revolutionaries, this uprising moved him deeply and this poem is a sincere ambiguous tribute to the leaders of the movement. The poem begins with a note of self-criticism for Yeats had been guilty of complacent detachment from his fellow Irishmen. But now he recognizes that through the events of Easter week, his fellow countrymen have achieved admirable heroic intensity; they have achieved a permanence, he recognizes and confirms by including them in his song. He contrasts “the polite meaningless words’ which constituted the “Casual Comedy” of pre-revolutionary Ireland. The Ireland had been mortally warned with the tragic “terrible beauty” that was born of the Easter rising.

Yeats goes onto catalogue the men and women whom he had previously undervalued; Constance Markiewing acknowledged to be the loveliest girl in country Sligo and an expert rider and hunter, whose voice had grown shrill in political argument: Padriac, the poet and founder of St. Edna’s school who was shot by the British; ThomasMacdonagh, a poet and critic who shared Pearse’s fate; and John Macbride who had hurt Yeats by marrying Maud Gonne, the great love of his life. Yeats bitterly refers to him as a drunken vainglorious lout; but all of them even Macbride have been changed utterly and have become part of the terrible beauty of Ireland after uprising.

However after paying tributes to these leaders, Yeats, the poet of mixed emotions, goes on to ruminate on the nature of revolutionary heroism. These people were obsessed with one purpose alone – the liberation of Ireland. This obsession made them unchanging objects in a world of change and flux. Rock like in this unchanging determination, they also become stone like impeding the flow of life. Yeats brings in images of change-horses splashing in water, moor hens calling to moor cocks, the clouds that cast shadows on the stream but the stone in the middle of the stream remains unchanging. The revolutionaries although heroic are also like the unfeeling hard stones in the river of life. A prolonged sacrifice can harden the heart. At what stage can we say that the sacrifice already made will suffice. Yeats opines that it is not for the human beings to decide this but for the God. All we can do is mutter the names of those who have sacrificed hemselves just as a mother utters a child’s name when the child is lulled to sleep.

But then Yeats realizes that these people are not asleep but dead and he wonders if he sacrifices of the martyrs are necessary. It was possible that England might keep her romise and give freedom to Ireland but for the Irish, it was enough to know that they

dreamed of the liberation of their country and died because of their dreams. Yeats

celebrates in his poetry, the heroic intensity that Macdonagh and MacBride and Conneley

and Pierse had achieved. The poem is an ambivalent celebration of the heroism of Easter, 916. The doubts and misgivings in the poem are characteristically Yeatism. e is, in a

sense, the poet of mixed feelings. It is this uncertainty that gives the poem its intension and

complexity and makes it one of the finest of all political poems.

Meaning of Politics in Comparative Politics

Samuel E Finer says that Politics is a “continuous, time less, ever changing and universal activity having its key manifestations in the making of a decision to face and solve a predicament”. It flows from a special kind of activity, a form of human behavior. It refers to the making or taking of a decision in which some political action is involved. David Easton treats it is an action for the “authoritative allocation of values”. Harold Laswell, and Robert. A. Dahl describe it, ‘as a special case in exercise of power’. But Jean Blondal gives emphasis on the ‘decision making Process.’

In comparative politics ‘politics has three connotations, Political activity, Political process, and Power. Political activity consists of the efforts by which conditions of conflicts are created and resolved in a way pertaining to the interest of the people, as far as possible, who play their part in the struggle for power. 

The tension and conflicts are reduced and resolved through the operation of some permanent mechanism of tension reduction. If Politics is the authoritative allocation of’ ‘value’ it is bound to arise some measure of conflicts between ‘Values’ as desired by the people and ‘values’ as held by authorities. This leads to conflicts, that demand their solution and what leads to efforts in this regard constitute political activity. Political process is an extension of political activity. It includes the activities of all agencies that have their role in the decision-making process. It also includes even ‘non-state agencies’.A study of the way of groups and associations operate shows that they are not free from the trends of struggle for power; they have their ‘internal governments’ to deal with their internal conflicts and tensions. What is particularly important for our purpose is that these ‘non-state’

associations influence the government of the country for the sake of protecting and promoting

their specific interests.

 Thus, there occurs a very sharp process of interaction between the groups inter se and between the groups and the government of the country. Participate in policy formation  by the government or become the government, is the political process. Finally, the scope of comparative politics includes the subject of political power. The term ‘power’ has been defined by different writers in different ways. For instance, while Carl J Friedrich describes it as ‘a certain kind of human relationship’. Tawney regards it as the capacity of an individual, or a group of individuals to modify the conduct of other individuals or groups in the manner which he desires. Referring to the role of power in the matter of decision-making, 

Lasswell says: “The making of decision is an inter personal process: the policies which other persons are to pursue are what is decided upon. Power as participation in the making of decisions is an interpersonal relation. Politics thus connotes a special case in the exercise of power an exercise of power – an exercise in the attempt to change the conduct of others in one’s own

direction”

Comparative politics: Different perspectives

Comparative Politics is a study in the direction of expanding horizon of Political Science. It is a study of Political realities by means of new techniques and approaches. Itis not a study of government, but governments with the taking of decisions in all levels. Formally, comparative study has been part of what is called the study of Foreign governments, in which the governmental structures and the formal organisations of state constitutions were treated in a discipline, historical or legalistic, manner, Primary emphasis has been placed on written documents like constitution and legal principles for the allocation of Political Power.

Comparative politics as discipline has vital importance because a great deal of experimentation is now going on with new techniques, new definitions, new research tools. The main reason for the intellectual development, perhaps, because of the wide spread feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction with the traditional descriptive approach to the subject. In the traditional view point, the term comparative politics, refers to a subject matter, a field of specialty within the academic study of politics (that, is, political science), and a method of an approach to the study of politics. The subject matter of comparative politics is the domestic politics of countries or peoples. (Mark Kesselman,Joel Krieger) Comparative Politics is the study of political systems ,not as isolated cases but through generalisation and comparisons

(G.A.Almond ,G.B Powell).

R.K Roberts classified the historical development of the subject in to three phases Unsophisticated, Sophisticated, and increasingly Sophisticated. In the first phase includes the contribution made by Aristotle, Machiavelli, Bryce and Weber to the study of politic. These writers simply utilised the comparative method for the primary purpose of the better understanding the working of political organisations. In the second phase some important writers like Samuel. H. Beer, M. Hass, Bernard Ulam and Roy. C Macrids made their contribution to the development of comparative politics. They used various strategies of comparison such as area studies, Configurative approach, Institutional comparison, a problem-based orientation, and with various methodological problems. In the third phase the contribution of David Easton, Gabriel Almond, James Coleman, Karl Deutsch, G. B Powell, Robert A. Dahl may be included in this phase. These writers made use of interrelated set of concepts for the sake of presenting their contribution on the basis of comparative analysis. They used some specialized vocabulary in their own ways. David Easton used inputs, out puts, demand, feedback; Almond offers a set of input output function; Karl Deutsch used a cybernetic language etc.

In new comparative politics, in the 1970s and 1980s, comparative politics became defined largely by ideological and methodological debates. Left and Right accused each other of bias and distortions while advocates of qualitative and quantitative methods argued over how to structure and use research. Yet even as these debates raged among scholars, new global debates taking shape that would shake the foundations of comparative politics once again. The first major development was rapid industrialization in Asia. The second major event was the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. A third and related development was what has come to be known as the “third wave, of democracy (Patric O Neil)

GERALD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844 - 1889- INTRODUCTION

Hopkins is victorian by birth, but in his poetic sensibility and technique he is essentially a modern.

Born in stratford, Essex 28 July 1844, Hopkins was educated at Highgate school; and Balliolcollege, Oxford. He was particularly interested in classics . The Oxford Movement affected him.

He joined the roman catholic Church in 1966. ln Mar 1866 he took three vital decision to become a priest, to become a Jesuit and to burn his poems. He worked A The Chair Of Greek at University College, Dublin from 1884 till his death in 1889. Right from his young age he proved his mettle as a poet. But from his conversion in 1866, he gave up poetry. However he came back to poetry by writing the celebratdd " wreck of the Dentscland" (Winter 1875-76) Probably he felt that his poetic talent must be used to glorify God. However, his poems came to light only when Robert Bridges published them under the title, Poems of Gerald Hopkins, now first published with notes in 1918

Quickly these poems were noted for their technical virtuosity and innovative qualities. His vocabulary, diction and rhythm are specially praise worthy. They have the unmistakable stamp of originality and boldness. Hopkins in the latter part of his career was probably influenced by Duns Scotus's (Scottish Frunciscan philosopher) concept of thinness' (haecceitas) an the idea of whatness' (quidditas) stressed by Thomas Aquinas Hopkins in hii poems tries to comprehend the inward pattern of an object. He termed in 'inscap' perhaps he brought about great changes by making the language very near to the spoken world. Also he employed the traditionalAnglo-Saxon Rhythm; sprung rhythm. ln "The wreck of the Dentschland' he used sprung rhythm from the first time. ln sprung Rhythm too as in conventional verse has reet. Every foot has at least one strongly stressed syllable. Hopkins himself explains it as follows. (But it consists) "On scanning by accents or stress alone, Without any account of the number of the number of syllables, so that a foot may be on strong syllable or it may be many light and one slrong' (Letter to R.W.Dixon). ln another letter to Robert Bridges Hopkins makes it clear that'sprung rhythm' is perhaps that musl natural, rhetoric and emphatic of all possible rhythms. Along with lhe stressed syllable oriented scanning, the poet also makes use of many cther musical devices compound adieclives, end rhyme, half rhynre, word play, assonance, alliteration etc.

Hopkins' poetic career shows three distinct periods; 1) The early romantic period.2) the middle period beginning with "The Wreck..." highly experimental. 3) The period of the sonnets of desolation;

intense in emotion but quite sever and austere in language.

School fecility

Name of the school area in which the school is located please tick on your answer rural urban how many students are studying in your school less than 500 for the school organised for participants in the following place right for yes or no a science exhibition b square C sports cultural events De quiz competition 5 does the school how its own library yes no if yes then number of books in the library less than 100 books more than 100 books see which of the following features does your library have newspapers magazines reading room for students Asus to physically disabled students what is the total number of computers in your school that can be used for educational purpose for the students number of computers how many of these computers have access to the internet for educational purpose all the most see some D and C does the computer room have power back facility yes no does the school have to wait for students and teachers yes no if yes number of toilets in this code number of toys for boys number of toilets for girls number of toilets for staff are integers which one of the following does your school have internet access electrical connection staff room with an attached washroom drinking water facility water storage facility answers to school classroom for physically disabled students Associates to physically disabled students playground with the school premises playground outside is bright outdoor games facility for indoor games separate activity room hall for students and teachers parent teacher Association

France national football team

The great Frace ,The France national football team (French: Équipe de France de football) represents France in international football and is controlled by the French Football Federation, also known as FFF, or in French: Fédération française de football. The team's colours are blue, white and red, and the coq gaulois its symbol. France are colloquially known as Les Bleus (The Blues). The French side are the reigning World Cup holders, having won the 2018 FIFA World Cup on 15 July 2018. France play home matches at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, and the manager is Didier Deschamps. They have won two FIFA World Cups, two UEFA European Championships, two FIFA Confederations Cups and one Olympic tournament. France experienced much of its success in four major eras: in the 1950s, 1980s, late 1990s/early 2000s, and late 2010s, respectively, which resulted in numerous major honours. France was one of the four European teams that participated in the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and, although having been eliminated in the qualification stage six times, is one of only three teams that have entered every World Cup qualifying cycle.

and also  .In 1958, the team, led by Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine, finished in third place at the FIFA World Cup. In 1984, France, led by Ballon d'Or winner Michel Platini, won UEFA Euro 1984. Under the leadership of Didier Deschamps and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane, France won the FIFA World Cup in 1998. Two years later, the team triumphed at UEFA Euro 2000. France won the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2001 and 2003, and reached the 2006 FIFA World Cup final, which it lost 5–3 on penalties to Italy. The team also reached the final of UEFA Euro 2016, where they lost 1–0 to Portugal football in extra time. France won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, defeating Croatia 4–2 in the final match on 15 July 2018.

YOU know,France was the first national team that has won the three most important men’s titles recognized by FIFA: the World Cup, the Confederations Cup, and the Olympic tournament after victory in the Confederations Cup in 2001. Since 2001, Argentina (after 2004 Olympics) and Brazil (after 2016 Olympics) are the other two national teams that have won these three titles. They have also won their respective continental championship (Copa América for Argentina and Brazil, and UEFA European Championship for France)

COMMUNICATION-BASICS

COMMUNICATION-BASICS Introduction Communication is a key element in any human activity. Communication is a learned skill. However, while most people are born with the physical ability to talk, not all can communicate well unless they make special efforts to develop and refine this communication skill. Very often, we take the ease with which we communicate with each other for granted, so much so that we sometimes forget how complex the communication process actually is. Communication takes place when we are supposedly at the same level of understanding and comprehension as other interlocutors. Common forms of communication include speaking, writing, gestures, touch, using pictures and broadcasting. Communication is therefore not what is said whether verbally or non- verbally, but what is understood. What is communication? Communication is a word derived from the Latin word communis or commūnicāre, which means ‘to make common’ or ‘to share’. Communication is the act of conveying intended meaning to another person through the use of mutually understood signs and language. Communication is the art of transmitting information, ideas and attitudes from one person to another. Communication is the process of meaningful interaction among human beings. The basic steps of communication are: the forming of communicative intent, message composition, message encoding, and transmission of signal, reception of signal, message decoding and finally interpretation of the message by the recipient. 

Characteristics of Communication The characteristics of communication include: 

1. Communication is a process: Communication is a 2 way process which involves; listening to others (Receiving) message Asserting/Expressing (Sending). 2. Communication is a dynamic: it is ever changing depending on the variables at play. 3. . Communication is a complex a process. 4. Communication is a two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange (encode-decode) information but also create and share meaning. 5. Communication involves the sharing of information using a code. 6. Communication occurs between people and sometimes animals 7. Communication is irreversible: once one has communicated something it cannot be recalled back. 8. Communication is a system 

9. Communication must have the elements of communication: Source, receiver, channel, message, noise, feedback. 10. Communication can be verbal/ non verbal or visual. 11. Communication can be accidental especially in non-verbal Functions of communication Human beings communicate for various reasons.

 Here are some of the reasons why we must communicate: 1. To change in behaviour 2. To influence others 3. To express our thoughts and emotions through words & actions. 4. It is a tool for controlling and motivating people. 5. It is a social and emotional process. 6. Communication for improving self-confidence 7. Entertain 8. Educate 9. Establish relationships 10. Inform 11. Solve problems 12. Make orders 13. Give directions Forms of Communicating Verbal Communication All forms of communication can be categorized as either verbal or nonverbal. Both verbal and nonverbal communication can be subdivided into either vocal or non- vocal. Verbal communication involves using speech to exchange information with others. We usually communicate verbally in face-to-face conversations such as; meetings, interviews, conferences, speeches, phone calls e.t.c. Much of the communication that takes place between people is both verbal and non-verbal; that is, it is based on language and gestures. 

Verbal communication of the vocal category includes spoken language, while non-vocal verbal communication involves written communication as well as communication is transmitted through transmitted through sign language, finger spelling, Braille, or other similar alternatives to verbal language. Paraverbal/paralinguistic/ paralanguage features Paralinguistic or paralanguage features are the aspects of spoken communication that do not involve words. They add emphasis or shades of meaning to what people say Paralinguistic features accompany verbal communication and are the vocal signals beyond the basic verbal message. Paralinguistic elements in a person's speech, convey meaning beyond the words and grammar used. Examples of paralinguistic features include pitch, rate, quality of voice and amplitude. Other forms of paralanguage can also include laughter or imitative speech. Prosody, which is the rhythm, pattern, stress, rate, volume, inflection and intonation of a person's speech, is also a form of paralanguage. People express meaning not just in what they say but in the way they say it. The paralinguistic features employed by a speaker provide hint to the meaning, communicate the speakers’ attitudes and convey their emotion. Paralinguistic features also alert the listener as to how to interpret the message. Many of these paralinguistic features are culturally coded and inherent in verbal communication, often at a subconscious level. Non-Verbal Non-verbal communication is a type of communication that employs gestures and body language. The term "body language" is sometimes used to denote non-verbal communications. "Body Language" is the communication of personal feelings, emotions, attitudes, and thoughts through body-movements such as gestures, postures, facial expressions, touch, smell, walking styles and positions among others.

 These movements can be done either consciously or involuntarily; more often they ‘happen’ subconsciously, and are accompanied, or not accompanied, by words. There are basically three elements in any face-to-face communication. These three elements account differently for the meaning of the message:  Words account for 7%  Tone of voice accounts for 38% and  Body language accounts for 55% of the message. Our body language and tone of voice should be consistent with the words we use. This is only possible when we say what we mean to say and say it rightly. Otherwise we can confuse people and reduce the prospect of getting our message across to be understood. Non-verbal communication can lead to misunderstandings, communication failure and even conflicts if the interlocutors are careless. Non-verbal communication includes: 

(P)OSTURES & GESTURES (E)YE CONTACT (O)RIENTATION (P)RESENTATION (L)OOKS (E)PRESSIONS OF EMOTION

 Body language and kinesics are based on the behavioral patterns of non-verbal communication. Body language can actually contradict verbal communications and reveal our inner feelings about any particular person or topic either intentionally or unintentionally. The way in which you fold your arms, cross your legs, sit, stand, walk, move your head, eyes, lips reveal what you may be thinking or feeling. For example, you may be sitting and conversing with a person; suddenly, he leans forward and with both arms clutches the chair. By doing so he non-verbally communicates to you his desire to end the meeting. Body language has shed new light on the dynamics of relationships. Hands Gestures Hands and arms are used by most of us to communicate our thoughts. People rub arms together, keep their arms closed, and clinch the fists. All these tell what the person has in his mind involuntary. It is a way that people non-verbally communicate positive expectations. Hands clenched together seems to be a confident gesture as some people who use it are often smiling and sound happy. However, if the hands are clenched too tightly, it is indicative of frustration or hostile attitude. Eye Gestures/facial expression Facial expression, offers the most readily observable group of gestures. We focus our eyes on the face more often than on any other part of the body, and the expressions we see there have widely accepted meanings. If a prospect's eyes are downcast and face turned away, you're being shut out, however, if the mouth move, he is probably considering your presentation. If his eyes engage yours for several seconds at a time with a slight, one-sided smile extending at least to nose level, he is weighing your proposal. It is only when you see 'eye to eye' with another person that a real basis for communication can be established. Other forms of nonverbal communication include: Touch, smell, distance. The number of people in a communication situation affects the use of non-verbal communication. The more the persons involved, the more complex the use and understanding of the non-verbal communication becomes. However, to decipher the non-verbal communication it is important to see, interpret and understand them holistically and in a context, while identifying the different types of personalities involved. Levels of communication 1. Intrapersonal (Within a person) 2. Interpersonal (Face to face) 3. Group communication 4. Mass communication 5. Inter country/ Development

INTRODUCTION TO INCOME TAX

 INTRODUCTION TO INCOME TAX -India

Tax:an overview. Tax is a fee charged by a Government on a Product, Activity or Income. There are

two types of Taxes- Direct taxes and Indirect taxes. If the tax is directly levied on the income or wealth of a person then it’s called direct taxes, Eg. Income Tax. If tax is levied on the price of a product, good or service then it’s called indirect tax, Eg. Sales tax. Taxes are the basic source of income for governments for meeting expenses of like education, defence, health care, infrastructure etc.

Income tax.

Income tax is a form of direct tax, i.e, it is levied directly from the tax payer on his ‘income’.Every person, whose taxable income for the assessment year exceeds the minimum taxable limit, is liable to pay the income tax at rates in force during the current financial year.

The Income Tax Act ,1961, which came into force on 1st April 1962 is the base act

regarding income tax in India. Since 1962 it has been amended and re-amended drastically.

Union finance budgets of every year propose new amendments and tax reforms and these

changes get added to the income tax rules when the parliament approves it. Total income and tax payable. Income tax is levied on the total income of the assesse. Total income is computed as

per the provisions of the income tax Act, it is the amount arrived after deductions from

gross total income are made. The procedure of computation of total income is given below-

Basis of charge and general rules of income tax

 Income tax is an annual tax on income.

 Income of previous year is taxable in the next following assessment year at the rates

applicable to the assessment year.

 Income tax rates are fixed by the annual union budget(Finance act).

 Tax is charged on every ‘person’ defined in sec2(31).

 The tax is charged on the total income of every person computed in accordance with

the provisions of Income Tax Act.

 Income tax is to be deducted at source or paid in advance as provided under the

provisions of the act.

Important amendments for the Annual Year 2016-17

 Rate of surcharge increased to 12% from 10% for all non-corporate assessees if

income exceeds 1 Crore.

 Wealth tax abolished from annual year 2016-17.

 Yoga will be included under the definition of ‘charitable purpose’ and such

organisations will be considered as charitable institutes.

 100% deduction under section 80G for contributions made to Swatch BharathKosh and

Clean Ganga Fund.

 Investment made under newly introduced SukanyaSamriddi account will be eligible

for deduction u/s 80C.

 The existing limits of 15,000 and 20,000 u/s 80D with respect of mediclaim paid

by individuals and senior citizen raised to 25,000 and 30,000 respectively.

 The 80DDB deduction for Super senior citizen regarding expenditure of medical

treatment of specified diseases increased to 80,000 from 60,000.

 Exemption u/s 80DD with regard to maintenance of disabled dependant raised to

75,000 or 1,25,000 (disability or severe disability) from 50,000 and 1,00,000.

 Limit u/s 80U is proposed to be increased from 50,000 to 75,000 in case of

disability and from 1,00,000 to 1,25,000 in case of severe disability.

 Deduction u/s 80CCC is proposed to increase from 1,00,000 to 1,50,000 in case of

contribution made to pension fund.

 Deduction u/s 80CCD will be 1,50,000 in place of 1,00,000 to contribution made

to national pension scheme.

 TDS will be introduced to immovable property transactions.

 100% deduction will be allowed u/s 80G in respect of donations made to National

Fund for Control of Drug Abuse (NFCDA).

Importance of may 4

Apocryphally, the reference was first used on May 4, 1979, the day Margaret Thatcher took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. An online news article from the Danish public broadcaster says her political party, the Conservatives, placed a congratulatory advertisement in The London Evening News, saying "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations."

The saying was used in a UK Parliamentdefence debate on May 4th 1994.

Astrophysicist and author Jeanne Cavelosused the saying on page 94 of her 1999 book The Science of Star Wars.

In 2008, the first Facebook groups appeared, celebrating Luke Skywalker Day, with the same catchphrase.While the initial group never received widespread acclaim, the phenomenon spread to college campuses a few years later, and Star Wars Day was born.

In 2011, the first organized celebration of Star Wars Day took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the Toronto Underground Cinema. Produced by Sean Ward and Alice Quinn, festivities included an Original Trilogy Trivia Game Show; a costume contest with celebrity judges; and the web's best tribute films, mash-ups, parodies, and remixes on the big screen. The second annual edition took place on Friday, May 4, 2012.

Fans (even government officials) have celebrated Star Wars in a variety of ways in social media and on television.

Since 2013, The Walt Disney Company has officially observed the holiday with several Star Wars events and festivities at Disneylandand Walt Disney World.[10] Disney had purchased Lucasfilm including the rights to Star Wars in late 2012.

Minor League baseball teams such as the Toledo Mud Hens and the Durham Bulls[13]have worn special uniforms as part of Star Wars Day promotions.

On Star Wars Day 2015, astronauts in the International Space Station watched Star Wars.

History of Barangay

A barangay  also pronounced the same in Spanish), formerly referred to as barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward. In metropolitan areas, the term often refers to an inner city neighbourhood, a suburb or a suburban neighborhood. The word barangay originated from balangay, a kind of boat used by a group of Austronesian peoples when they migrated to the Philippines.

Municipalities and cities in the Philippines are subdivided into barangays, with the exception of the municipalities of Adams in Ilocos Norte and Kalayaan, Palawan which each contain only one barangay. The barangay itself is sometimes informally subdivided into smaller areas called purok (English: zone), barangay zones consisting of a cluster of houses, and sitios, which are territorial enclaves—usually rural—far from the barangay center. As of June 2015, there were 42,029 barangays throughout the Philippines When the first Spaniards arrived in the Philippines in the 16th century, they found well-organized independent villages called barangays. The name barangay originated from balangay, a Malay word meaning "sailboat".

The first barangays started as relatively small communities of around 50 to 100 families. By the time of contact with Spaniards, many barangays have developed into large communities. The encomienda of 1604 shows that many affluent and powerful coastal barangays in Sulu, Butuan, Panay, Leyte and Cebu, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Pasig, Laguna, and Cagayan River were flourishing trading centers. Some of these barangays had large populations. In Panay, some barangays had 20,000 inhabitants; in Leyte (Baybay), 15,000 inhabitants; in Cebu, 3,500 residents; in Vitis (Pampanga), 7,000 inhabitants; Pangasinan, 4,000 residents. There were smaller barangays with fewer number of people. But these were generally inland communities; or if they were coastal, they were not located in areas which were good for business pursuits. These smaller barangays had around thirty to one hundred houses only, and the population varies from one hundred to five hundred persons. According to Legazpi, he founded communities with only twenty to thirty people. Traditionally,[6] the original “barangays” were coastal settlements of the migration of these Malayo-Polynesian people (who came to the archipelago) from other places in Southeast Asia (see chiefdom). Most of the ancient barangays were coastal or riverine in nature. This is because most of the people were relying on fishing for their supply of protein and for their livelihood. They also traveled mostly by water up and down rivers, and along the coasts. Trails always followed river systems, which were also a major source of water for bathing, washing, and drinking.

The coastal barangays were more accessible to trade with foreigners. These were ideal places for economic activity to develop. Business with traders from other countries also meant contact with other cultures and civilizations, such as those of Japan, Han Chinese, Indian people, and Arab people.These coastal communities acquired more cosmopolitan cultures, with developed social structures (sovereign principalities), ruled by established royalties and nobilities During the Spanish rule, through a resettlement policy called the Reducción, smaller scattered barangays were consolidated (and thus, "reduced") to form compact towns. Each barangay was headed by the cabeza de barangay (barangay chief), who formed part of the Principalía - the elite ruling class of the municipalities of the Spanish Philippines. This position was inherited from the first datus, and came to be known as such during the Spanish regime. The Spanish Monarch ruled each barangay through the Cabeza, who also collected taxes (called tribute) from the residents for the Spanish Crown.

When the Americans arrived, "slight changes in the structure of local government was effected".Later, Rural Councils with four councilors were created to assist, now renamed Barrio Lieutenant; it was later renamed Barrio Council, and then Barangay Council.

The Spanish term barrio (abbv. "Bo.") was used for much of the 20th century until 1974, when President Ferdinand Marcos ordered their renaming to barangays. The name survived the 1986 EDSA Revolution, though older people would still use the term barrio. The Municipal Council was abolished upon transfer of powers to the barangay system. Marcos used to call the barangay part of Philippine participatory democracy, and most of his writings involving the New Society praised the role of baranganic democracy in nation-building.

After the 1986 EDSA Revolution and the drafting of the 1987 Constitution, the Municipal Council was restored, making the barangay the smallest unit of Philippine government. The first barangay elections held under the new constitution was held on March 28, 1989, under Republic Act number 6679.

The last barangay elections were held in October 2013. Barangay elections scheduled in October 2017 were postponed following the signing of Republic Act number 10952.The postponement has been criticized by election watchdogs and in both the Philippine Congress and Senate.The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting considers the postponement a move that would "only deny the people their rights to choose their leaders.

apa itu cinta ? / what is love ?/ano ang pag-ibig ?

what is love ?
Love encompasses a variety of different emotional and mental states, typically strongly and positively experienced, ranging from the deepest interpersonal affection to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love of a mother differs from the love of a spouse differs from the love of food. Most commonly, love refers to a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment. Love can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another". It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's self or animals.Ancient Greek philosophers identified four forms of love: essentially, familial love (in Greek, storge), friendly love (philia), romantic love (eros), and divine love (agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of love: infatuated love, self-love, and courtly love. Non-Western traditions have also distinguished variants or symbioses of these states. Love has additional religious or spiritual meaning. This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts. Love may be understood as a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.

FREUD'S STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN MIND

Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality development that guides psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology.

 Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behavior is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and

superego.

 This "structural theory" of personality places great importance on how conflicts among the parts of the mind shape behavior and personality. These conflicts are mostly unconscious.

 According to Freud, personality develops during childhood and is critically shaped

through a series of five psychosexual stages, which he called his psychosexual theory of

development.

 During each stage, a child is presented with a conflict between biological drives and social expectations; successful navigation of these internal conflicts will lead

to mastery of each developmental stage, and ultimately to a fully mature personality.

 Freud's ideas have since been met with criticism, in part because of his singular focus

on sexuality as the main driver of human personality development.

FREUD'S STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN MIND

According to Freud, our personality develops from the interactions among what he proposed as the three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and superego. Conflicts among these three structures, and our efforts to find balance among what each of them "desires," determines how we behave and approach the world. What balance we strike in any given situation determines how we will resolve the conflict between two overarching behavioral tendencies: our biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives vs. our socialized internal control over those drives.

The Superego

The superego is concerned with social rules and morals—similar to what many people call their "conscience" or their "moral compass." It develops as a child learns what their culture considers right and wrong. If your superego walked past the same stranger, it would not take their ice cream because it would know that that would be rude. However, if both your id and your superego were involved, and your id was strong enough to override your superego's concern, you would still take the ice cream, but afterward you would most likely feel guilt and shame over your actions.

The Ego

In contrast to the instinctual id and the moral superego, the ego is the rational, pragmatic part of our personality. It is less primitive than the id and is partly conscious and partly unconscious. It's what Freud considered to be the "self," and its job is to balance the demands of the id and superego in the practical context of reality. So, if you walked past the stranger with ice cream one more time, your ego would mediate the conflict between your id ("I want that ice cream right now") and superego ("It's wrong to take someone else's ice cream") and decide to go buy your own ice cream. While this may mean you have to wait 10 more minutes, which would frustrate your id, your ego decides to make that sacrifice as part of the compromise– satisfying your desire for ice cream while also avoiding an unpleasant social situation and potential feelings of shame. Freud believed that the id, ego, and superego are in constant conflict and that adult personality and behavior are rooted in the results of these internal struggles throughout childhood. He believed that a person who has a strong ego has a healthy personality and that imbalances in this system can lead to neurosis (what we now think of as anxiety and depression) and unhealthy behaviors.

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Freud (1905) proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of fixed stages. These are called psychosexual stages because each stage represents the fixation of libido (roughly translated as sexual drives or instincts) on a different area of the body. As a person grows physically certain areas of their body become important as sources of potential frustration (erogenous zones), pleasure or both. Freud believed that life was built round tension and pleasure. Freud also believed that all tension was due to the build up of libido (sexual energy) and that all pleasure came from its discharge. In describing human personality development as psychosexual Freud meant to convey that what develops is the way in which sexual energy accumulates and is discharged as we mature biologically. (NB Freud used the term 'sexual' in a very general way to mean all pleasurable actions and thoughts).

Freud stressed that the first five years of life are crucial to the formation of adult personality. The id must be controlled in order to satisfy social demands; this sets up a conflict between frustrated wishes and social norms. The ego and superego develop in order to exercise this control and direct the need for gratification into socially acceptable channels. Gratification centers in different areas of the body at different stages of growth, making the conflict at each

stage psychosexual

. Oral Stage (0-1 year)

In the first stage of personality development the libido is centered in a baby's mouth. It gets

much satisfaction from putting all sorts of things in its mouth to satisfy the libido, and thus its id demands. Which at this stage in life are oral, or mouth orientated, such as sucking, biting, and breastfeeding. Freud said oral stimulation could lead to an oral fixation in later life. We see oralpersonalities all around us such as smokers, nail-biters, finger-chewers, and thumb suckers. 

Oral

personalities engage in such oral behaviors, particularly when under stress.

Anal Stage (1-3 years)

The libido now becomes focused on the anus and the child derives great pleasure from defecating. The child is now fully aware that they are a person in their own right and that their wishes can bring them into conflict with the demands of the outside world (i.e. their ego has developed). Freud believed that this type of conflict tends to come to a head in potty training, in which adults impose restrictions on when and where the child can defecate. The nature of this first conflict with authority can determine the child's future relationship with all forms of authority. Early or harsh potty training can lead to the child becoming an anal-retentive personality who hates mess, is obsessively tidy, punctual and respectful of authority. They can be stubborn and tight-fisted with their cash and possessions. This is all related to pleasure got from holding on to their faeces when toddlers, and their mum's then insisting that they get rid of it by placing them on the potty until they perform!

Phallic Stage (3 to 5 or 6 years)

Sensitivity now becomes concentrated in the genitals and masturbation (in both sexes) becomes a new source of pleasure. The child becomes aware of anatomical sex differences, which sets in

motion the conflict between erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry, jealousy and fear which Freud called the Oedipus complex (in boys) and the Electra complex (in girls). This is resolved through the process of identification, which involves the child adopting thecharacteristics of the same sex parent 

 Oedipus Complex

The most important aspect of the phallic stage is the Oedipus complex. This is one of Freud's most controversial ideas and one that many people reject outright. The name of the Oedipus complex derives from the Greek myth where Oedipus, a young man, kills his father and marries his mother. Upon discovering this he pokes his eyes out and becomes blind. This Oedipal is the generic (i.e. general) term for both Oedipus and Electra complexes. In the young boy, the Oedipus complex or more correctly, conflict, arises because the boy develops sexual (pleasurable) desires for his mother. He wants to possess his mother exclusively and get rid of his father to enable him to do so. Irrationally, the boy thinks that if his father were to find out about all this, his father would take away what he loves the most. During the phallic stage what the boy loves most is his penis. Hence the boy develops castration anxiety. The little boy then sets out to resolve this problem by imitating, copying and joining in masculine dad-type behaviors. This is called identification, and is how the three-to-five year old boy resolves his Oedipus complex. Identification means internally adopting the values, attitudes and behaviors of another person. The consequence of this is that the boy takes on the male gender role, and adopts an ego ideal and values that become the superego. Freud (1909) offered the Little Hans case study as evidence of the Oedipus complex.

 Electra Complex

For girls, the Oedipus or Electra complex is less than satisfactory. Briefly, the girl desiresthe father, but realizes that she does not have a penis. This leads to the development of penis envy and the wish to be a boy. The girl resolves this by repressing her desire for her father and substituting the wish for a penis with the wish for a baby. The girl blames her mother for her 'castrated state' and this creates great tension. The girl then represses her feelings (to remove the tension) and identifies with the mother to take on the female gender role.

Latency Stage (5 or 6 to puberty)

No further psychosexual development takes place during this stage (latent means hidden). The

libido is dormant. Freud thought that most sexual impulses are repressed during the latent stage and sexual energy can be sublimated (re: defense mechanisms) towards school work, hobbies and friendships. Much of the child's energy is channeled into developing new skills and

acquiring new knowledge and play becomes largely confined to other children of the same

gender.

Genital Stage (puberty to adult)

This is the last stage of Freud's psychosexual theory of personality development and begins in

puberty. It is a time of adolescent sexual experimentation, the successful resolution of which is

settling down in a loving one-to-one relationship with another person in our 20's. Sexual instinct is directed to heterosexual pleasure, rather than self pleasure like during the phallic stage. For Freud, the proper outlet of the sexual instinct in adults was through heterosexual intercourse. Fixation and conflict may prevent this with the consequence that sexual perversions may develop. For example, fixation at the oral stage may result in a person gaining sexual

pleasure primarily from kissing and oral sex, rather than sexual intercourse.

FEMINIST POETICS- Elaine Showalter

 FEMINIST POETICS

Elaine Showalter (1941---) is an American literary critic and feminist. She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in the US. Her well-known works include: ‘Towards Feminist Poetics’(1979), Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media(1997). And ‘Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (2001) Feminist criticism started as a revolt against male domination in literature. Behind it lies, two centuries of struggle for the recognition of women’s social and political rights. The basic view of feminist criticism is that Western civilization is pervasively patriarchal, the prevailing concepts of gender are largely cultural constructs generated by the pervasive patriarchal biases and that the patriarchal ideology pervades those writings which have been traditionally considered great literature.

In the essay, ‘Towards a Feminist Poetics’, Elaine Showalter advocates a new way of reading. The author traces the history of women’s literature and divides it into three phases----‘Feminine’(1840 -1880), “Feminist’ (1880-1920), and ‘Female” (1920 to the present)Women should turn to female experience as the source of an autonomous art. The feminist criticism, free from the divided consciousness of ‘daughters’ and ‘sisters’ is to be made a permanent home. Feminist criticism can be divided into two varieties. 

The first one is concerned with women as reader of male produced literature. Showalter calls this kind of analysis as ‘the feminist critique’. It is a historical grounded enquiry. Its subjects include the images and the stereotypes of women in literature, the omissions and misconceptions about women in criticism, and the exploitation and manipulation of the female audience in popular culture and film. The second type is concerned with woman as writer, i.e with woman as the producer of literature; its subjects include the psychodynamics of female creativity, linguistics and the problems of female language. Showalter calls this type of analysis as ‘gynocritics’. It is a type of criticism designed by feminists to evaluate works by women as feminist works. It takes into consideration the circumstances in which a work of art is produced, the point of view of the author, and the motivation and attitudes of the characters.

One of the problems of feminist critique is that it is male-oriented. If we study the stereotypes of women, and the limited roles women play in literary history, we are trying to learn not what women have felt and experienced, but only what men have thought women should be. Showalter traces different phases in the evolution of a female tradition. He calls these phases as follows: the Feminine, the Feminist and the Female stages. During the Feminine phase, (1840 – 1880) women wrote in an effort to equalise the intellectual achievements of the male culture and internalized its assumptions of female nature. The distinguishing sign of this period is the male pseudonym. The feminist content of feminine is typically oblique, displaced, ironic and subversive; one has to read it between the lines, in the missed possibilities. In the feminist phase (1880 – 1920) women reject the accommodation postures of femininity and to use literature to dramatize the ordeals of wronged womanhood.

In the female phase (1920 onwards) women rejected both imitation and protest. They considered these two as forms of dependence. Instead, they turn to female experiences as the source of autonomous art. For example, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf begin to think in terms of male and female sentences and divide their work into ‘masculine’ journalism and ‘feminine’ fiction. The feminist criticism revised and even subverted related ideologies especially Marxist aesthetics and structuralism. It altered their vocabularies and methods to include the variable of gender.

The current theoretical impasse in feminist criticism comes from the dividedconsciousness of women, the split in each of them. Women are both the daughters of the male tradition, or their teachers, and professors, or publishers, a tradition which asks them to be rational, marginal and grateful. Women are also the sisters in a new women’s movement, which demands them to renounce the pseudo-success of token womanhood. The task of feminist critics is to find a new language; a new way of reading that can integrate women’s intelligence and experience their reason and their suffering. This enterprise should not be confined to women. Critics, poets and philosophers should share it with them. Showalter concludes saying that feminist criticism is not visiting. It is here to stay 

Feminist criticism is a theory and practice of analysing works of art, which undertakes recognize women’s cultural roles and other achievements and social and political rights.

An important work of feminist criticism was Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of one’s Own” . According to her, patriarchy prevented women from realising their creative potentialities. The “Second Sex” by Mary Elman, “Sexual Politics” by Late Millet, etc, are books which launched a much more radical criticism of the patriarchy. The assumptions and concepts of feminism:

I. Western civilization is pervasively patriarchal. Male domination subordinated women in all cultural domains: familial, religious, political, economic, social, legal and artistic.

II. It is recognized that while one’s sex is determined by anatomy, the prevailing concepts of gender are largely cultural constructs.

III. The patriarchal ideology pervades those writings which have been traditionallyconsidered great literature and which until recently have been written mainly bymen for men.A major interest of feminist critics is to reconstruct the ways we deal with literaturein order to do justice to female points of view, concerns, and values

Preface to the Second Edition of Lyrical Ballads 1800 - William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth(1770 – 18500), one of the most famous of all Nature poets, set off the Romantic revolt in English with the publication of ‘Lyrical Ballads’ in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. He published his masterpiece ‘The Prelude’ a long autobiographical poem in 1805. ‘The Preface to the Second Edition of The Lyrical Ballads, 1800’ contains Wordsworth’s philosophy of poetry. He argues that poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech. The themes of his poetry are inspired by ‘humble and rustic life’ Wordsworth’s “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads” with an Appendix on poetic diction is universally acclaimed as a manifesto of Romantic criticism. The principal object of Lyrical Ballads is to illustrate how good poetry can be written on common incidents in the lives of ordinary human beings in simple, natural language. Wordsworth has given a number of memorable definitions of poetry such as “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which takes its origin from emotions recollected from tranquility” He says “Poetry is the breath and finer sprit of all knowledge.” Wordsworth emphasizes on the poet’s freedom of expression and the free play of imagination. He denounces the poetic diction of the Neo- classical poets for their artificiality. He does not consider metre and rhyme as absolutely essential for good poetry, He realizes that metre when superadded can give pleasure. He asserts that there is essentially no difference between the language of poetry and that of prose. However with the exception of his early poems, Wordsworth did not adhere to his own principles.

SUMMARY OF THE PASSAGE

Wordsworth’s critical pronouncements are found in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads. They constitute the romantic manifesto. In the Preface to the Second Edition of the Lyrical Ballads, 1800, states the object of writing the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads.

 He expresses his hesitation to defend his theory of poetry for a number of reasons: Firstly, the reader might get the impression that the poet was foolishly and selfishly hoping to persuade them to appreciate the new variety of poems he was placing before them. If his poems possessed a genuine quality, the reader would certainly receive it. He was not in favour of advertising his own poems. Secondly, the poet felt that a substantial and sound view of poetry cannot be condensed within the limited framework of the Preface. If he were to do justice to the task, he would have to examine the prevalent public taste, the changes have occurred in social and literary trends as also the impact of language on the human mind. All this would require a lot of space. In spite of his initial reluctance, Wordsworth did not wish to abruptly present a totally unfamiliar kind of poetry. He found it his duty to prepare his readers for this new variety of poems. Wordsworth expected strong opposition to his volume. Therefore, he intended his Preface. Wordsworth’s principal object of the Lyrical Ballads is to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate and describe them, as far as is possible, in a selection of language really used by men and at the same time, treat the subject imaginatively so that ordinary thing would appear unusual. Besides, he hoped to make such incidents and situations interesting by relating them to the primary laws of our nature, particularly the way we associate idea in a state of excitement. Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, since, in such a condition, human passions are less under control, more mature and can express themselves in a plainer and more emphatic language. Secondly, our basic emotions co-exist in a state of greater simplicity ad so they may be reflected upon and communicated more effectively. Thirdly, the manners of rural life originate from these basic passions and lastly, in that condition such feelings blend with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.

       Wordsworth took special pain to purge the rustic speech of all its defects, coarseness

and faulty constructions before employing it in his poems because the simple country folk are constantly in touch with the best aspects of nature from which the best part of language evolves. Thirdly, as the rural population is restricted to the narrow circle, their manner of expression is more passionate, vivid and powerful. Fourthly, rustic speech is more precise and philosophical than the artificial diction of such poets who deliberately separate themselves from the language and feeling of ordinary people. Thus the principal object of the Lyrical Ballads is to illustrate how good poetry can be written on simple themes of ordinary human beings in simple, natural language. 

    Wordsworth asserts that the poems in the Lyrical Ballads have the moral purpose of enlightening the readers and purifying their affections. He had the habit of meditation and it so regulated and transformed his emotions that the sentiments he has expressed are bound to increase the comprehension of the readers as also to purify and reinforce their own emotions. He says: “For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility” However, worthy and noble poems are produced only when the poet has thought long and deep on the subject matter. Wordsworth considers a poet as a man of more than usual organic sensibility, but also one who has “thought long and deeply”, the poet’s feelings are modified by his thoughts which represent all our past feelings; he becomes capable of connecting on thought with another in this manner he is able to discover what is really important and worthwhile. By continued repetition such mental exercises, our feelings will be connected with important subjects so that such a noble perception of things will become habitual. Naturally, whenever he composes poems, such a poet will deal only with noble themes and loftysentiments in a worthy manner. Such poems will have a desirable impact on the readers’ sensibility too. Wordsworth implies that if a poet is always given to noble thoughts and worthy ideas he will never fail to compose poems of a noble note. In “Lyrical Ballads” Wordsworth adopts the simple language of common men. Personifications, figures of speech, antithesis and similar devices are rarely used.

Wordsworth maintained and practised in “Lyrical Ballads” his theory that there is hardly any difference between the language of prose and that of poetry. The language of large portion of every good poem differs from that of good prose only in the use of metre. The choice of words and phrases is done with real feeling and taste. As the subjects of poems are chosen judiciously, they are expressed in a judiciously chosen dignified and variegated metaphors and figures. In the preface to the “Lyrical Ballads” published in 1798 Wordsworth tells the reading public that his poems were a kind of experiment to know how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower class society is successful in producing poetic pleasure. Wordsworth asserts that even in the best poetry, the truly significant passages follow an order of words which is similar to that found in a good prose composition. The sole difference between the two is that the language of poetry is arranged according to the law of metre. Wordsworth declares that “there neither is nor can be any essential difference

between the language of prose and metrical composition” they are intimately related in their nature, function and appeal. According to the poet, poetry shed’s no tears such as Angels weep, but natural and human tears. That is to say, both prose and verse employ the same materials, spring from the same source, and appeal to the same faculties. Thus Wordsworth establishes that there is no essential difference between prose and metrical composition.

Wordsworth points out that in the view of several critics the very use of rhyme and metre distinguishes the language of poetry from that of prose and that this in itself justifies the use of certain other artificial distinctions, which afford pleasure and so are willingly accepted by the readers. In other words, poetry, by its very nature, differs from prose. The use of poetic diction is as much a source of pleasure as rhyme and metre, and so it is equally justified.

Wordsworth does not subscribe to these views; He insistently recommends the use of “a selection of language really used by men”. And if such a selection is made with true taste and feeling, the language of poetry would be free from the coarseness and vulgarity of ordinary life. Such diction is a sufficient distinction, and the addition of metre to it becomes a further source of pleasure. He holds the view that metre and rhyme are not indispensable to poetry. There can exist genuine poetry even without metre. Metre is merely superadded Wordsworth observes that the poet is basically a man speaking to men. He is a person who writes not for his own pleasure but primarily to express his own thoughts and emotions to his readers. He is a person endowed with a more lively sensibility, more

enthusiasm and tenderness than ordinary people. He has a greater knowledge of human beings. He has a greater degree of imagination and so he can feel or react emotionally to events and incidents which he has not directly experienced. In addition, he has a disposition to be affected, more than other men, by absent things as if they were present. Having a more comprehensive soul, the poet can share the emotional experiences of others.

He can identify himself emotionally with others and he can express the feelings and sentiments of others. He has greater amount of zeal and enthusiasm for life than ordinary people. He rejoices in the spirit of life, in the activities of mankind and in Nature at large and takes pleasure in communicating his own joy in life to others. Moreover he has greater readiness and power in expressing what he thinks and feels.

Wordsworth agrees with Aristotle’s concept that poetry is the most philosophic of all writing. The object of poetry is truth, no individual and local, but general and operative. Poetic truth is much higher than the truth of history or philosophy. In fact, poetry is more philosophical than philosophy itself. While history deals merely with particular facts and philosophy, with abstract truths, poetry alone deals both with the particular and the universal. Poetry aims at universal truths and also illustrates them through particular instances and illustrations. It is the mirror of human life and nature. Poetry is guided by sole consideration, namely, that of imparting pleasure to the readers while giving a faithful picture of nature and reality. On the other hand, the historian and the philosopher, labour under several obstacles. Poetry, says Wordsworth is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which takes its origin from emotions recollected from tranquility. 

This definition of poetry gives us an idea of Wordsworth’s poetics. This definition highlights the spontaneity and emotionalism of poetry. He says: “Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all sciences. This definition explains how poetry blends passions and knowledge. According to Wordsworth, poetic truth is superior to scientific truth, for it is based on universal facts of life and hence can be appreciated by all. While the scientist makes only a surface study, the poet probes into the inner reality and arrives at the soul of things. As he is a man of fine sensibility, the truth which he discovers is surcharged with his personal emotions. 

    These emotions are recollected in tranquility and in a rare mood gush out as a spontaneous poetic outpouring. Wordsworth affixes an Appendix to his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads to express his views on Poetic diction. In poetic diction Wordsworth could not agree with his neo- classical fiends. He wanted poetry to be a medium for expressing the feelings and aspiration of common man in common language. Wordsworth wrote Lyrical Ballads to justify his theory and to see if he could produce pleasure by writing in the language of common man. In the preface in 1978, he told the readers that his poems were a kind of experiment too knows how far the language of conversation among the middle class and lower class in the society was suited for poetry. In the second and the third editions, he stated that his object was to choose incidents and situations from common life and describe them in a language used by men. He preferred the language of these men because they communicate with the best objects in nature and they express their emotions in simple and unelaborated expression. He maintained that there is hardly any difference between the language of prose and that of poetry. His poetic diction is therefore, devoid of personifications, phrases, figures of speech, antithesis and similar devices. He emphasized the selection of language. Words and phrases should be chosen with true taste and feeling. But the selection and choice of words implies the neo-classical attitude of the poets. 

This accounts for the comment that Wordsworth actually ends in good neo-classicism. The whole trend of Wordsworth’s writings, both poetic and critical, was towards the simplification of life. Even his theory of poetic diction is only another aspect of his general effort to pierce down through artificiality and conventions to nature and reality.

Aristotle’s views on tragedy-essay

ARISTOTLE

             Aristotle lived from 384 B.C. to 322 B.C. He was the most distinguished disciple of Plato. Among his critical treatise, only two are extant- ‘Poetics’ and ‘Rhetoric’, the former deals with the art of poetry and the latter with the art of speaking.

THE PLAN OF POETICS

              Poetics contains twenty six small chapters. The first four chapters and the twentyfifth are devoted to poetry; the fifth in general way to comedy, epic, and tragedy; the following fourteen exclusively to tragedy; the next three to poetic diction; the next to epic poetry; and the last to a comparison of epic poetry and tragedy. Aristotle’s main concern thus appears to be tragedy, which was considered the most developed form of poetry in his day. Poetry, comedy, and epic come in for consideration because a discussion of tragedy would be incomplete without some reference to its parent and sister forms.

ARISTOTLE’S OBSERVATION ON POETRY

1. Its Nature.

              Aristotle calls poet an imitator. The poet imitates things ‘as they were or are’, ‘as they are said or thought to be’ or ‘as they ought to be’. In other words the poet imitates what is past or present, what is commonly believed, and what is ideal. He believes that there is a natural pleasure in imitation. This is an inborn natural instinct. There is also another inborn instinct i.e. the instinct for harmony and rhythm. This manifests itself in metrical composition. But unlike Plato, Aristotle does not consider the poet’s imitations of life as twice removed from reality, but reveal universal truths. To prove this, Aristotle makes a comparison between poetry and history. The poet does not relate what has happened, but what may happen. The historian relates what has happened. Poetry therefore is more philosophical and higher than history. Poetry expresses the universal, history the particular. The pictures of poetry are truths based on facts on the laws of probability or necessity. Thus Aristotle answers Plato’s severest charge against poetry.

2. Its functions.

              Aristotle considers pleasure as the end of poetry. Poetry springs from the instincts of imitation and rhythm and harmony. They are indulged in for the pleasure they give. Poetry is pleasing both to the poet and to the reader. Aristotle nowhere states that the function of poetry is to teach. However, he considers teaching desirable, if it is incidental to the pleasure it gives. Such a pleasure is regarded as superior to all others, for, it has a dual purpose i.e. teaching as well as pleasing.

3. Its emotional appeal.

            Poetry makes an immediate appeal to the emotions. For example, tragedy aroused the emotions of pity and fear- pity at the undeserved suffering and fear for the worst that may befall him. Plato considers them harmful to the healthy growth of mind. Aristotle has no such fear. According to him these emotions are aroused with a view to their purgation or catharsis. Everybody has occasions of fear and pity in life. If they go on accumulating they become harmful to the soul. But in tragedy, the sufferings we witness are not our own and these emotions find a free and full outlet. Thereby they relieve the soul of their excess. We are lifted of ourselves and emerge nobler than before. It is this that pleases in a tragic tale. Thus tragedy transmutes these disturbing emotions into “calm of mind”. So the emotional appeal of poetry is not harmful but health-giving.

ARISTOTLE’S OBSERVATION ON TRAGEDY

1. Its origin

                Poetry can imitate two kinds of actions- the nobler actions of good men or the mean actions of bad men. Tragedy was born from the former and comedy from the latter. Tragedy has resemblances to epic and comedy to satire. Aristotle considers tragedy superior to epic. Tragedy has all the epic elements in a shorter compass.

2. Its characteristics.

                   Aristotle defines tragedy as “ an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of certain magnitude, in a language embellished in with each kinds of artistic ornaments, the several kinds being found in the separate part of the play, in the form of action, not of narrative, through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions”. By a serious action Aristotle means a tale of suffering exciting the emotions of pity and fear. The action should be complete which means that it must have a proper beginning, middle and end. It should also be arranged sequentially also. In other words it should have an organic unity. The action must be of certain magnitude. i.e. It should have reasonable length. It should be neither too long nor too short. Then only it can be easily remembered. It should have a length enough to unfold the events naturally. By artistic ornament, Aristotle means rhythm, harmony and song. They are

all designed to enrich the language of the play. The form of action in tragedy  distinguishes it from narrative verse. In tragedy, the tale is told with the help of characters. Their speeches and actions make the tale. In the narrative the poet is free to speak in his own person. In tragedy, the dramatist is nowhere seen. All is done by his characters. It is meant to be acted as well as read. The narrative, on the other hand is meant to be read only 

3. Its constituent Parts.

                  Aristotle finds six constituent parts in tragedy. They are: Plot, character, thought, diction, song and spectacle. The Greek equivalents of these terms are: ethos, muthos, dianoia, lexis, melos and opsis. By plot is meant the arrangement of the incidents in the play in a logical and coherent way. Aristotle considers plot as the chef part of the tragedy because tragedy is an imitation not of men but men in action. Aristotle says: “without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character’. The actions themselves issue from characters. Character, he says, determines men’s qualities, but it is by their action that they are happy or sad. It is by their deeds that we know them. So it is these deeds that are woven into plot that matters. Character, is thus next only in importance to plot. Thought refers to what the character thinks or feels. It reveals itself in speech. As plot imitates action, character imitates men, so thought imitates men’s mental and emotional reactions to the circumstances in which

they find themselves. All these three i.e. plot, character and thought constitutes the poet’s objects in imitation in tragedy. To accomplish them, he employs the medium diction. By diction is meant, words embellished with each kind of artistic ornament. Song is one of them. Spectacle, the last of the six parts, is in fact the work of the stage mechanic. But it constitutes the manner in which the tragedy is presented to the audience.

4. The Structure of the Plot.

                 The plot is the soul of the tragedy. It should have unity of action. It means that only those actions in the life of the hero which are intimately connected with one another and appear together as one whole forms the plot. If any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjoined. The events comprising the plot will concern only one man. Otherwise there will be no necessary connection between them. By unity of time, Aristotle means the conformity between the time taken by the events of the play and that taken in their representation on the stage. The unity of place means the conformity between the scene of tragic events and the time taken by them to happen. A good tragic plot arouses the feelings of pity and fear in the audience- pity for the undeserved suffering of the hero and fear for the worst that may happen to him. The plot is divisible into two parts- complication and denouement. The former ties the

events into a tangle knot, latter untie it. Complication includes all the actions from the beginning to the point where it takes a turn for good or ill. The denouement extends from the turning point to the end. The first is commonly called the rising action, and the second the falling action.

5. Simple and Complex Plot.

                 The plot may be simple or complex. In a simple plot there are no puzzling situations such as peripeteia and anagnorisis. Peripeteia is generally explained as ‘reversal of the situation’ and anagnorisis as ‘recognition’ or ‘discovery’. By reversal of situation is meant reversal of intention (e.g. a move to kill an enemy turning on one’s own head, or killing an enemy and later discovering him to be a friend.) The discovery of these false moves is anagnoris. In other words it means a change from ignorance to knowledge. Both peripeteia and anagnorisis please because there is an element of surprise in them. A plot that makes use of them is complex. A perfect tragedy should be arranged not on the simple but on the complex plot.

6. Tragic Hero. 

           According to Aristotle, the ideal tragic hero should be good but neither too bad not too perfect. He should be a man whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or  depriving but by some error or frailty. This error is hamartia or the tragic flaw. For example, in ‘Hamlet’, it is his procrastination or inability to take action that leads to his down-fall. It is not a deliberate vice but flaw of characters and it makes the play tragic one.

7. Aristotle’s opinion about Comedy. 

                 Aristotle regards comedy as inferior to tragedy. He traces its roots to satire. Satiric verse originated in phallic songs sung in honour of Dionysus, the god of fertility, as epic originated from hymns to gods and praises of famous men. Consequently tragedy represents men as noble as they can be, and comedy taking its origin from satirical verse, represents men as worse than they are, but satire ridicules personality or rather the “sinner’ while comedy ridicules sin or rather human vices. Unlike Plato, Aristotle does not consider the characters in comedy as vicious. According to him they are rendered ludicrous by some defect that is neither painful nor destructive. They are not contemptible also. Like poetry, comedy shows not what has happened, but what may happen. The characters are presented in particular situations in which every human being would have acted in the same way. Thus, general, not individual weakness is displayed in them. 

8. Aristotle’s opinion about epic. 

                  The epic is earlier in origin than tragedy or comedy. In its nature it resembles tragedy, for it is an imitation of a serious action, whole, with a beginning, middle and an end. The structure also is like that of the tragedy, for the plot has a complication, and denouement, it can be complex, or simple, with or without perepeteia and anagnorisis. Its effect is the same, namely catharsis. But it lacks the song and spectacle found in tragedy. In its form it is different from tragedy, for it is narrative and is much longer than a tragedy. It is meant to be read or recited. While the tragedy presents only one main event, an epic contains several events which add to its variety and grandeur. Thirdly, an epic poet can introduce many improbable but marvelous incidents which presented on the stage may appear absurd, while they remain unnoticed when perceived by the imagination. They add to the pleasure of the poem, and Aristotle recommended probable impossibilities though not improbable possibilities. The supernatural element in the epic is an example of it. Aristotle still

considers tragedy superior to epic though the latter appeals to the cultured, refined  people and has no need of theatrical aid to achieve its effect. But Aristotle finds that tragedy with its music produced greater pleasure and its limited length attains more unity.

 9. Aristotle’s observation on Style.

              Aristotle lays down clearness and propriety as two essentials of good writing. According to him current words are the best. But writing should aim at dignity and charm. These are best attained by the use of archaic words, foreign words, dialect words and newly coined words. They have an element of surprise in them. Metaphorical use of words is to be preferred to the plain. Aristotle says that a perfect poetic style uses words of all kinds in a judicious combination. Compound words are the most suitable for the lyric, rare or unfamiliar words suit the epic form, and metaphorical use of language is best for drama. In the “Rhetoric” Aristotle comments that common, familiar words are best for prose that deals with everyday subjects. But metaphorical language may be employed to introduce an element of novelty and surprise. Multiplicity of clauses, parenthesis and ambiguity should be avoided in prose. Words may be arranged in two ways called loose style and periodic style. The former consists of a whole sentence with a beginning and an end. The periodic style is more intelligible and graceful

10. The Value of Aristotle’s Criticism.

                          Aristotle’s approach to literature is that of a scientist. Aristotle wanted literature to be an art and not to do the work of morality. He points the difference between politics and poetry. Politics is a social science, therefore it should be judged by the contribution it makes to social well-being. Poetry, on the other hand, should be judged by its capacity to please the audience. He judges literature by aesthetic standards alone. Unlike Plato, he does not regard poetry as twice removed from reality. Instead, he considers the representations in poetry as true to the facts of human life. He points out its capacity to see the permanent features of life. He suggests what kind of plot, character and style please men. He finds that perepetiea and anagnorisis, please most in a tragic plot, hamartia in the tragic hero, and metaphor in style. Tragedy, comedy and epic are all, in this way, considered with reference to the effect on the minds and hearts of their spectators. Poetics deals with the art of poetry and many more problems of literature and has therefore attracted greater attention than any other works of criticism.