Historical Overview of British Poetry From 14th Century to 17the Century (Part-1), #apnsir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ8KOWt6uNM

 

I got a number of requests from different corners of Odisha to make a video on Historical Overview of English literature from 14^th century to 17^th century basing on Odisha state model syllabus. The first part of the video series is now live on YouTube and in this blogpost I post the transcript of the important part of the video. I hope this post will serve as a valuable note on the topic.

 

Dear friends, when we consider English literature from 14^th century to 17^th century, it incorporates the following periods. They are namely,

1.      The Age of Chaucer                                       (1350-1400)

2.      The Age of Revival                                         (1400-1550)

3.      The Age of Elizabeth                                     (1550-1625)

4.      The Puritan Age                                             (1625-1660)

5.      Restoration Age                                             (1660-1700)

 

The period from 1350 to 1400 is widely referred as the age of Chaucer. So whenever we mention the term ‘The Age of Chaucer,’ we mean a time period that roughly begins from the year 1350 and continues up to 1400. It is needless to say that Chaucer was the most prominent as well as the representative poet of this time. As a result, this age was named after Chaucer. I must mention that Mathew Arnold called Chaucer, “the father of our splendid English poetry.”

 

One thing I must tell you that this classification of periods should not be rigid like water-tight compartments. These periods are approximations. For example, some books mention that the age of Chaucer begins from the year 1350 but some other books may mention that the age of Chaucer begins from the year 1340. Such different references may confuse you. In this connection, I must tell you that such classifications are just done for the sake of convenience and better understanding of Literature. And these classifications of periods are simply approximations. So do not take it rigidly and break your heads. 

 

Now let us delve into the historical perspectives of the age of Chaucer because 14^th century is represented by Chaucer.

 

The age of Chaucer or 14^th century was a period of great political, social, religious, and literary activity. In 14^th century England became the meeting ground of the old and the new, the mediaeval and the renaissance. It was a time when the old order was yielding place to the new. The renaissance influences were disrupting the mediaeval beliefs and habits of mind. There were three prominent institutions of mediaeval age. They were 1. Feudalism 2. Chivalry and Knight errantry and 3 Church.  During Chaucer’s age, all of them witnessed a decline in their power and prestige. 

 

During 14^th century two great movements may be noted in the complex life of England. They were,

1.      The growth of a National Spirit

2.      Discontent among the people and the Peasants’ Revolt.

 

Under the heading “the growth of a National Spirit”, I must mention that in this age there was an upsurge of Nationalism and England was emerging as a strong nation. It was in this period that the crucial HUNDRED YEARS WAR between England and France took place. This war awakened English Nationalism and gave rise to a national consciousness. England won glorious victories at Crecy in the year 1346 and Poitiers in 1356. This gave a feeling of national pride and self-respect to the people of England. During this time the French Language lost its official prestige and English became the speech not only of the common people but of courts and parliament as well. The great works done by Chaucer, Langland and Wycliffe gave a distinct edge to English.

 

Now let us shift our discussion to the second movement. I have already hinted it at the beginning of my video, by the heading “Discontent among the people and the Peasants’ Revolt”. Why there was so much unrest and discontent in this age? Allow me to explain it to you. The unrest and discontent mainly had its roots in the growing differences between the idle wealthy classes and the over taxed peasants. The Hundred Years’ War, no doubt, made England a united nation and colonial power, but it also imposed unheard of hardships upon the people. The wars of kings depleted the royal treasury and led to unjust taxation on common people. The matters were further worsened by the great plague known as Black Death. It is estimated that half of England’s population died of Black Death in no time. All this resentment led to The Peasants Revolt of 1381.

 

Now I want to shift our discussion to the religious background of the age. The religious outlook of the age underwent many upheavals. There was dissatisfaction of people with rampant corruption in the church. Poets like Langland and Gower freely denounced the growing corruption in the church. These poets through their teachings wanted to revive the real Christianity. Thus the ideas of reformation were already becoming a force in the age of Chaucer. The Lollard movement led by John Wycliffe paved the way for reformation and the rise of Protestantism.     

 

In addition to all these currents and cross currents of the age we find some other influences. One of them is the rise of modern spirit. People were asserting their rights of free thought and independent judgement. In other words, democratic spirit was growing. In this direction, the peasants’ movement did much to weaken the medieval feudal system and gave self-confidence to people. 

 

The rise of humanism and a growing spirit of New Learning influenced the age of Chaucer. In this context, Hudson writes, “Ecclesiastical ideas (ecclesiastical ideas mean ideas related to Christian church and clergy) and the mediaeval habits of mind were still the controlling elements in Chaucer’s period, but their sway was now to some extent broken by the influx of a fresh and very different spirit”. “This fresh and very different spirit “is nothing but Italian renaissance which was to reach its full flowering in England during the age of queen Elizabeth. To make the things easy let me remind you that the age of Elizabeth spans from 1550 to 1625.

 

In addition to all these points you can also add “the decay of medieval chivalry” as another outcome of the age. Let me first explain what is medieval chivalry. In medieval Europe, the nobility was expected to uphold a set of principles called chivalry. Those set of principles included courage, military prowess, honour, loyalty, justice, good manners, and generosity but by the 14th century CE the notion of chivalry had become more romantic and idealized. In the age of Chaucer, the mediaeval chivalry was no more a practical system. Moreover, it turned out to be a mere sentiment. This is what we mean when we stress on the point, “the decay of mediaeval chivalry”

 

Dear students, at the end we can say 14^th century England was a meeting ground of the Mediaeval and the Modern, the Old and the New, the Religious and the Secular. Get me 200 likes then I will make the next part of this video series. Bye!

 With love,

#apnsir

 

A PSALM OF LIFE BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

 

From the pen-APN

 

Some poems work like magic spell and inspire the best in readers to achieve newer heights of humanity."A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is also such a poem that gives a clarion call to make the most of one's time and become the best version of one's self. 

This poem is a part of +2 Syllabus in the state of Odisha. Council of Higher Secondary Education, Odisha has included in the subject English of XII class. 

The link of a video tutorial produced by me is inserted here for the benefit of general public.  If the Video is not visible then CLICK HERE.

Yours Sincerely,

APN

If you like our efforts, you can donate our team to carry out our mission "Quality Education For All"

A Time-Tested Truth

Ignoring all hustle and bustle and all distractions, I could close my eyes for a minute and drew a deep breath. Amidst a short-lived silence, a wave of thought crossed my mind. I held that precious thought and immediately wrote it, after I woke up from that meditative state. The lines that had echoed in me was "When you add value to someone's life, you grow spiritually." I shared that comforting thoughts to my friends and now I share it here. In addition, I insert a video link on CLOZE TEST which makes a regular item in most Competitive Exams. The idea behind it is just to add some value to the lives of human beings around me.

Love you all.

From the pen-APN 

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wCCMzKkyCmMj2mNZeGU1xq99zoVrS6tk/view?usp=sharing

 

Reviving an Old Friendship (The Blog)

From the Pen-APN

After 7 months, again, I visit this page. The habit of writing which has been frozen for many a day is again shaken to life. Today is Ganesha Chaturthi, a day when every religious Hindu bows down before the Elephant-God for enlightenment and wisdom. I also bow down before that infinite intelligence and sincerely pray to have new perspectives of life which may add value to humanity and the continuum of civilization.  
Julius Robert Mayer heralded that energy can neither be created nor destroyed in 1841, but the principle existed before that too. Nature is always absolutely systematic. However, it is just human ignorance that brings disruptions. Sooner or later, any disruption, in any form, will again align with the inviolable principles of Nature. The flow of Nature is the one constant that will prevail in the end. With this wave of thought, it can be deduced that any creative energy, which an individual holds, will also be governed by the principles of Nature. It means creative energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It will only change from one form to another.
I say it because when I discontinued writing in the blog, my creative energies were channelized into different forms like YouTube video making and producing educational contents.
Today on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, I once again revive the pages of this blog which is my old friend and insert the recent videos of my two YouTube channels which now consume the major part of my creative energy. Hope with this post again the pages of the blog LIFE WITH ATMAPRAKASH (APN’S) will indeed come to LIFE.

With regards,

APN

https://youtu.be/cW150to1h0Y

https://youtu.be/WZYcWr3pClA

SOCIAL MEDIA IN A FEW LINES

From the pen-APN

"In a crowd, we stay alone, digitally absorbed and emotionally detached. Although sharing is today at the optimal level, feelings of caring are at sub-zero level. May it be selfies or may it be videos, a lot of such stuff is incessantly made and dumped into the cyber world where a cybercitizen may show an apparent empathy by giving a thumb or an emoticon but genuinely nothing is cared or felt deep inside. Everything is just a cycle of continuous mechanical clicking, like robots, on trails of some unending posts surfacing one after another. Such robotic dance of fingers on the keypad while attending the posts on various platforms is nothing but a hullaballoo that adds more noise, which further aids to choke the serene early life-style of human beings as a responsible and cohesive partner of a precious society which  has taken a long time to evolve in the human history.”

Write Your Life For Your Loved Ones!

From The Pen-APN

By love and writing only you can transmit the interpretation of your life and the existential knowledge that you have gathered. The wisdom and experience of your life that you have already lived must be gifted to someone who makes your next generation. But to establish a link with your past and the consciousness and conscience of another human being who is your future representative you need the strength of spirit and an elevated consciousness to establish a connection between your next generation and your generation. Perhaps this thought is best represented by the word, SAMSKARA.

Holding your son's or daughter's hands imagine the time when he/she got birth and then remember the moments how he/she started experiencing the world around. It is true that what you have already experienced, he/she is yet to experience them. However, your views about your world are no more congruous and they have already changed and have taken some new form. And in such a new context another human is born as your son or daughter who is unaware of your era. He or she has all new and fresh vie-points which may jar with your conception and this is how the monster of generation gap is born.

Every moment we change but it seems to us that we have not changed much. But the irony of life is that the changes are so continuous and so deeply ingrained in us and they are so imperceptible that we fail to sense it. Often, people around us complain that we have changed radically but we say a curt, "No, not at all."

At last, it can be concluded that "as you write, you uncover the hidden gems inside you that you didn't even know were there."

Write your life and help your near and dear ones understand the world better.

RAIN

From the pen-APN

When the music of rain

Soaks the green leaves

And the rivulets dance

And muddy fields are reborn  

Then in a lonely place

Far from sight

Splashing with joys

Of togetherness and love

Life gathers up

The Golden moments

Of love and human bonding

While the clouds are still raining…

Milk

From the pen-APN

Utter poverty had sucked the lifeblood of the mother and her feeble body was no more lactating. And the famished baby in her lap was crying desperately for a few drops of milk. All her efforts to relieve the child went in vain. Then gradually the cry stopped, and the baby showed no signs of struggle for attention. The helpless mother stood like a motionless statue looking with hunger-filled eyes at the vibrant coloured packets of milk winking through the glass doors of a well-stocked shop. The baby was no more crying and tears had dried at the corners of her eyes…
N.B.
(What is the value of that policy which does not include the welfare of the poorest of the poor of my state???)

A Kingly Madness

From the pen-APN

Standing in the middle of a busy road, he was stretching his body to his full height like a great emperor. His bearded face like Chatrapati Sivaji, his skyward gaze to the mid-day blazing sun and his hand movements in kingly gestures were all creating an unusual but spectacular sight for the onlookers.  

His eyes were replete with flashes of happiness and it teemed with courage. He did not seem to belong to the world around him but he was stamping his feet rhythmically on the earth like a monarch and was turning around sporadically not caring a damn for the people passing by him or around him.   He was just happy in his own ways irrespective of the remarks and the sneering looks of all spectators. He was the king of his own world.

The sun above corroborated his king like manners by shedding its light upon him.  He was talking to the lampposts, to the tall buildings and to himself. And all of them stood motionless as if they could recognize a regal importance in him and never interfered with the frenzied ecstatic movements. His torn clothes, unkempt hair and dirty appearance rightly matched the appearance of a warrior who had returned from a war front after a deadly struggle.

They chuckled and called him, “MAD” but he was a king of his thoughts. Neither the sun, nor the tall buildings, nor the lampposts revolted against his claims…..And he indeed enjoyed the king’s life in spite of his torn clothes, unkempt hair and bearded face, because he cared not a damn about the remarks of the so-called sane persons.   

Immortalizing Some Moments of Joy

   

From the pen-APN

In life’s journey, sometimes you stop for a while, not because you are caught in a storm but because the journey seems more delightful than your desired destination. And you with your good companion discover joy, beauty and sunshine all dancing around you on a musical note of togetherness……

And maybe your companion, who loves you now most, draws her cell phone and clicks your photos because all such blessed moments may slip away in the passage of time but the memories will linger for all times to come .    

Musings of a Footpath Dweller

From the pen-APN

I am sleeping on the footpath and the only torn blanket that I have wrapped around my body is my world. The blinding street lights, colossal edifices, crowded malls, wide roads, the bustling traffic and restless crowd around me cannot excite me. I am a non-entity in the fast-moving and fast-changing world. For years, the footpath has given me shelter and the glittery world by the sides of footpath has thoroughly convinced me of my littleness. All know I am in poverty and poverty is in me and I am alive like grass which is crushed under feet but stubbornly clings to life……..My life pitiably lingers on the footpath.

Needless to say…..I experience the gnawing poverty and at the same time, I bear testimony to the moral poverty of my country’s rulers and the insatiable greed of big shots who are seated at the helm of power.  

My impoverished shabbiness is jarringly out of place with the glitters of the swanky supermarkets and the posh city culture but I am undone. I have to stay in them unwanted like a cacophony in a beautiful piece of music. I cannot do much to mend my fate but, in these days, I have learnt to stay oblivious to the tall promises of “Achhe din ayenge” made by many politicians who hold power, wield power and swag power.   

Today morning, I was hired to carry a political party’s banner in a rally for half a day’s wage. I carried my old body and hurriedly advanced in spite of my advanced age because the party worker won’t pay me unless I held his banner high and walked straight in the rally. The pity is that my back is irrevocably bent by my leaders and by their faulty policies whereas I have no option but to hold their banner high in exchange of a half day’s wage or a few kilograms of subsidized rice.

They frame laws for me to make poorer so that I can hold their banner high in rallies at a little expense. I am no statesman but from deep within my heart a voice painfully cries and asks a question, “What is the value of that progress which cannot touch the lives of the poorest of the poor?”

Tomorrow, I may be hired by some other party but the question will remain the same.

Now I am almost dead with my own struggles and I am assured of one thing that I have to go on like this a few more days till my body lies motionless on the footpath and the municipality people come to remove my corpse. But until that day I have to carry their flag because the show must continue…..

A Revelation That Comes with 5 September, 2018

                                                                                         

From the pen-APN

Life finds a meaning when one’s own familial well-being is ensured and the individual’s inner attitude to serve others shines spontaneously and out of gratitude towards society. It feels good to be an instrument of progress in peace of mind and accompanying ease of action arising from a clear conscience. I will say it is God’s grace when your life is blessed with such invaluable gifts. The first gift is that all the minimum requirements for a decent life are fulfilled and the second gift is that you are in good health and in sound state of mind to serve the world around. When these two things meet together life becomes a beautiful song.  

September 5, the special day dedicated to teachers, made my heart supple and made me understand the above truth amidst the love and joy of some happy students.  

Into a Life Mechanical

From the pen-APN

In the fast-changing world, every moment the norms of life are changing. Man is continually changing. His/her attitudes, beliefs, thinking and the situations around him/her are changing from moment to moment. In such an ever-transforming world, every individual is toiling hard to keep balance.

Newly invented tools, new scientific discoveries and use of modern technology in all walks of life have given super speed to these processes of change. In short, the world has become super-dynamic. The world shows kaleidoscopic changes as if it was the trailer of a super-fast Hollywood action film with time-lapse effect.

Today a preschooler of the twenty-first century can amaze an adult of the 80’s by his/her agility to deal with modern gadgets, computers, smart-phones and allied technologies.  

In such a world where there is steep competition to survive and where everything is valued on the basis of utility and where everything is judges basing on skills, profit-loss implications, the vocation of poetry, drama, literature and fine arts seem incongruous.

It seems Literature will soon fashion itself on the notes of some jarring metallic sounds of industrial machines. Now, literature is losing the charm of the morning sunrise and the magic of dew-laden grass. In the opposite, Literature has started to accommodate in its body the digital rhythms of robotic operations, breathless run of automobiles, the strife between warring zones, the extreme fight for depleting resources and the dying voice of morality.

The nature-poetry, the fresh puff of breeze, the burbling cascades, the varied tall and short plants, which give a characteristic green to earth, are all going to fade away in the closed cubicles, which are artificially chilled with air-conditioners.    

If all things run like machines and with machines disrespecting the fine sensibilities of literature, we will soon turn into some robots and we will be no more the human beings. We will be like the battery-powered doll which mechanically beats the drums to declare that there is some life in it but all know that such liveliness is without a heart. It is simply mechanical and functional.

Whitish Ash of Burnt Memories

From the pen-APN

A lamp was glimmering somewhere but its light was visible to me in the night. It was a starless night and the atmosphere was humid and the soil was wet because for two days it had rained continuously.

The glowing lamp’s hope , the dark night’s despair and the teary rain’s anguish were somehow whispering my life’s tale.  

I was standing inhaling the smell of wet ground and listening to the mixed sounds of so many nocturnal insects. In the shrill noise of those unseen creatures and in the thickness of darkness, I was experiencing a fleeting night, which would soon end, heralding a new morning with some sunshine.

As I internalized my attention to read the scars on my own heart, to my surprise, I discovered no scars but some burnt out whitish ash all ready to manure the substratum of my heart with more feelings, with more compassion and more humanity. And the ash was nothing but my burnt out memories arising out of an unhappy relation.

Fixing my eyes in the distant starless dark sky, my lips produced a faint smile and  a thought-wave crossed my mind bringing a conclusion that  “she was nothing but a strong fire and she burnt me like hellfire. But, lo! I was not killed and the remnant dusty ash deep in my heart is but a sign that I am now a purified one- free and blest, like a winged creature chasing the morning sun.”

The night had passed and a smiling sun was rising in the east sky.

A Meditative Joyful Song

From the pen-APN

With many Smiles of hope fading in despair,

With much of life murdered by unfaithful affair,

Life still stands tall with a meditative joyful song,

Of forgiveness, of humanity and a heart strong…

A Night Journey in the Fog Via Kalinga Ghat

From the pen-APN

In the stealth of a moonless night, my vehicle was climbing down Kalinga Ghat. The hills that stood by the sides of the road were hardly visible as thick fog had covered the Ghat road. The fog was so thick that anything was hardly visible beyond 15 meters. It was the month of May and such heavy fog in the night was unexpected.

I groped my limited knowledge of Geography. I remembered some content of my Geography textbook which I used to read during my class 10. It said that what is perceived as fog by the people at the top of mountain looks like cloud to the people at the foot of that mountain.

My speed was reduced to sub 20 km/hr because I was now piercing through the thick layers of water vapors. The windshield wiper of my car was rhythmically cleaning the windshield. I wanted to stop my car and get down and click a half dozen of photos in the headlamp of my car but my friend who was accompanying me discouraged me from doing so.

Getting out of the car in that foggy night amidst the wilds of the hills was enchanting but it had some risks too.

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”  I realized the meaning of this maxim, in real sense, when I had to accede to the requests of my friend.

I stayed inside the car with the doors shut but I shot a short video of that foggy night through the windshield and I had to remain contented without having the feel of the cloud/fog vapors on my skin.

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."