GENERAL ENGLISH MODULE- 1

OF LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI

ON RUNNING AFTER ONE’S HAT

A CUP OF TEA

STRONG MERCY

Poem: Of La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Poet: John Keats

1) About the poet and the poem.

The real John Keats is far more interesting than the languid aesthete of popular myth. Keats was born in 1795, the son of a stable attendant. As a young teen, he was extroverted, scrappy, and liked fist fighting. In 1810 he became an apprentice to an apothecary-surgeon, and in 1815 he went to medical school at Guy's Hospital in London. In 1816, although he could have been licensed to prepare and sell medicines, he chose to devote his life entirely to writing poetry.

Of La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a ballad. A ballad is a short narrative poem which is written to be sung and has a simple but dramatic theme. But “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” is intended to be read, not sung. Characteristics of a Ballad: • It is a relatively short narrative poem.• It has a simple and dramatic action. • The ballads tell of love, death, the supernatural, a historical event, or a combination of these. • It has a refrain.• Ballads often open abruptly.• It uses crisp/short dialogue.• Ballad colours (white, black, red and brown) are used to express the human emotions.

The title "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is French and it means ‘The beautiful lady without mercy/pity’. The title is an allusion to a much earlier work of literature. It's from a medieval romance by the French poet Alain Chartier. The poem itself has many of the same elements as a medieval romance (knights, fair ladies, fairies, dream sequences…), so by titling the poem with a line from a famous romance, Keats calls up all those associations right from the beginning.

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is in the form of a dialogue between two speakers. The first is the unnamed speaker who comes across a sick, sad knight and pesters him with questions for the first three stanzas (anonymous passerby) Stanzas 4-12 are the knight's response. Notice that the "I" of stanzas 4-12 is different from the "I" of stanzas 1-3.

The speaker of the poem comes across a "knight at arms" alone, and apparently dying, in a field somewhere. He asks him what's going on, and the knight's answer takes up the rest of the poem. The knight says that he met a beautiful fairy lady in the fields. He started hanging out with her, making flower garlands for her, letting her ride on his horse, and generally flirting like knights do. Finally, she invited him back to her fairy cave. Sweet, thought the knight. But after they were through kissing, she "lulled" him to sleep, and he had a nightmare about all the knights and kings and princes that the woman had previously seduced – they were all dead. And then he woke up, alone, on the side of a hill somewhere.

Symbolism through imagery and metaphor.

He uses a lot of rich imagery to describe the seasons. He's also very perceptive of the knight's physical and emotional state. The speaker notices that the knight is "haggard" and depressed-looking, and seems to have a fever.

· Lilies are often associated with death in Western culture, so the "lily" on the knight's forehead doesn't bode well for him. We can also be pretty sure that the knight doesn't have a flower glued to his forehead, so the speaker is employing a metaphor when he says that he "see[s] a lily on thy brow." Besides the association with death, lilies are pale white, so a slightly less morbid reading of this line would be that the knight isn't dying, but is just sickly pale.

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· Roses are often associated with love, but the knight's "rose" is "fading" and "wither[ing]." Sounds like a pretty clear metaphor for the end of a romantic relationship. But like the lily, the rose describes the knight's complexion. The rose is "fading" from the knight's "cheeks." So the rose metaphor is doing double duty – it's describing both his "fading" love affair, and his increasingly pale complexion.

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· Chapter: On Running After One’s Hat

· Author:G.K.Chesterton

· The essay written by G.K.Chesterton starts with Chesterton saying that he feels an almost savage envy on hearing that London has been flooded in his absence. Chesterton says that his own Battersea is the most beautiful of human localities. He says that it must be a vision of Venice. He also says that there is nothing as perfectly poetical as an island and when a district is flooded it becomes an archipelago.

· Chesterton says that some consider such romantic views of flood or five slightly lacking in reality. But he says that really this romantic view of such inconveniences is quite as practical as the other. The true optimist who sees in such things an opportunity for enjoyment is quite as logical as and much more sensible than the ordinary “Indignant Ratepayer” who sees in them the opportunity for grumbling.

· He says, for instance there is a current impression that it is unpleasant to have to run after one’s hat. He says it should not be unpleasant and that a man running after a hat is not half so ridiculous as a man running after a wife.

· He says a man might regard himself as a jolly huntsman pursuing a wild animal. He says that hat- hunting on windy days will be the sport of the upper classes in the future. He says that the hunter would feel that they are not inflicting pain.

· He says that the same principle can be applied to every other typical domestic story, like trying to get a fly out of the milk or a piece of cork out of his glass of wine or trying to pull out a drawer that is jammed.

· He thus says that he does not think that it is altogether fanciful or incredible to suppose that even the floods in London may be accepted and enjoyed poetically. He says, the water that girdled the houses and shops of London must, if anything, have only increased their previous witchery and wonders.

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Short Story: A Cup Of Tea,

Author; Katherine Mansfield

A Cup of Tea is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the Story-Teller in May 1922. It later appeared in The Dove's Nest and Other Stories.

Summary

Rosemary Fell, a young, wealthy woman, goes shopping at a florist's and in an antique shop. Before going to the car, Rosemary is approached by Miss Smith, a poor girl who asks for enough money to buy tea. Instead, Rosemary drives the girl to her plush house. At the Fells' home, Miss Smith eats her fill. She then begins to tell Rosemary of her life when the husband, Philip, comes in. Although initially surprised, Philip recovers and asks to speak to Rosemary alone. In the library, Philip conveys his disapproval. When Rosemary resists dismissing Miss Smith, Philip tries another, more successful, tactic. He plays to Rosemary's jealousy by telling her how pretty Miss Smith is. Rosemary retrieves three pound notes, and, presumably, sends the girl away. This dismissal is a far cry from Rosemary's first vow to "Be frightfully nice to her" and to "Look after her." Later, Rosemary goes to her husband and informs him "Miss Smith won't dine with us tonight." She first asks about the antique box from the morning, but then arrives at her true concern: She quietly asks him, "[A]m I pretty?

The story, “A Cup of Tea” tells us how people show generosity to people whom they consider their inferior. People do so partly to show off their superiority to the poorer beings. Generosity in most cases is only to satisfy one’s ego. The story further shows how generosity and benevolence evaporates when the object of pity goes against one’s self interest, ego and vanity. Rosemary Fell was very rich. Though she was not very pretty, she made up for it as she lived in extreme style and fashion. One cold night, after coming out of a shop of fancy antiques, she came across a girl by the name of Miss Smith. The poor girl wanted the price of a cup of tea from Rosemary. It seemed to be a very romantic adventure for Rosemary like those events that take place in novelos or on the stage. She thought of doing something generous. She asked the girl to come home and take tea with her. The poor girl was startled at it. She did not believe Rosemary at first. She even suspected that Rosemary might hand her over to the police.

But at last Rosemary took her home. All the generous impulses worked in Rosemary. She wanted to show that those nice things that happened in novels and fairy tales about godmothers and generous rich people did really happen in real life also. She felt the unity in all of all women too. She thought it was a duty of a woman to help another woman. She took the girl upstairs to her bed room. The girl was very nervous at the unexpected turn of things. But Rosemary was all encouragement. She even helped her take off her clothes. She asked her maid servant to bring her some brandy and then tea. The poor girl was too hungry. She declared that she would faint if she did not take some tea at once. Rosemary gave her tea, sandwiches, and bread and butter. The meal had a very good effect on the girl. She looked much better.Now it was the turn of Rosemary to enquire about the girl and shower her generosity on the poor creature. She was going to begin her enquiry when her husband, Phillip, came in. Rosemary introduced the poor girl, Miss Smith, to him as her friend. Phillip was a little astonished. He asked his wife to come to the library. When they were alone he asked her about the girl. Rosemary told him all about it and her intention to keep the girl in her house and be generous to her. Phillip, a practical man, knew that it was not practical. He told his wife. But Rosemary who knew more of romantic novels than life would not listen to him. She only wondered why it was not possible if it could be possible in books.The husband knew more about life. He replied that it was not possible because Miss Smith was very pretty and he was almost bowled over when he first saw her. He even warned her that it would be a mistake if she kept her in the house. The wise husband’s arrow hit the right point. The great generosity of Rosemary faced an acid test of reality. She was jealous of the poor girl whom her husband found so pretty. Her romantic generosity simply evaporated like vapor in the face of petty jealousy. Rosemary went away to her writing room. She took out three pounds. She gave the girl the money and sent her away. Rosemary put on her nice dress, did her hair, darkened her eyes, put her pearls and came to her husband. She told him that Miss Smith would not stay for dinner and that she gave her some money. Suddenly she asked him whether he liked her. She asked him to kiss her and asked him whether she could buy the little box that she had seen in the antique shop. At last she asked him if she was pretty. Rosemary was jealous. She wanted to be reassured that her husband loved her still.

Character Sketch: Rosemary Fell

Rosemary Fell is the main character in the story ‘A Cup of Tea’, written by Katherine Mansfield. She explored the inner recesses of the human psyche. Her short stories dramatize human emotions creating situations, which are at once tender and brittle. ‘A Cup of Tea’ is one of her most popular short stories. In this story Mansfield focuses on the working of a woman’s mind when her romantic dreams come into conflict with reality. In this way she dramatizes small the effect that small human failings like jealousy can have.Rosemary Fell, the main character, is an extremely rich lady and not just comfortably rich. The author brings out this point by writing that Rosemary went shopping to Paris from London. She bought loads of flowers from one of the most fashionable streets in London. At the shop too she would throw her weight around by telling them her likes and dislikes. She was a snobbish kind of a person. She had the antique shop, from which she shopped, to herself and thus always preferred to go there. And the shopkeeper too kept flattering her by which she was carried away.‘Rosemary ‘, according to the author, ‘was not exactly beautiful’, but she could be called ‘pretty’ if one examined her closely. She was young, brilliant extremely modern and a well-dressed lady. In addition to these qualities, Rosemary was a vain person. She couldn’t help noticing the charm of her hands against the blue velvet, while she was shopping in the antique shop.Rosemary loved reading books and novels. She would read all the latest books. But the negative aspect of this habit of hers is that she was always lost in the world of dreams, fantasy and romanticism. She did not know about the realities of the world. When a beggar girl came to Rosemary for alms for a cup of tea, she was surprised at the poverty of the girl that she couldn’t even afford a cup of tea. She felt as if this event was a part of some novel and lost in her romantic world, she took the girl that wonderful things do happen and fairy godmothers were real. Also that, rich people too have hearts and all women were sisters.Rosemary was an impulsive woman. She didn’t think before she acted. She did prove this when she took the beggar-girl home without thinking of the reaction of her husband and other servants at her house. The author points out certain superficial attitudes and lack of serious-mindedness in Rosemary. She present the picture of an extrovert at peace with herself and the world.In the last part of the story the romantic world in which Rosemary lived, came into conflict with the realistic world. A word of praise for the girl from Rosemary’s husband, Philip, makes Rosemary jealous. She felt insecure although her husband adored her. She became restless. She forgot all the dreams she had for that beggar-girl and sent her away with a present of money. Thus jealousy, the universal human failing, turns her into a hard realist. In fact it is here that she succeeds in giving a humanistic touch to her character.To conclude one can say that the character of Rosemary is well portrayed. One can find traces of realism in Rosemary as we do find shallow women around us. Yet her transformation into humanism in the end makes one feel sorry for her, though we may not like her. The main themes of class consciousness and feminism have been developed through the character of Rosemary Fell.

Poem: STRONG MERCY,

Poet; RABINDRANATH TAGORE

I (the devotee) seek so many things with all my heart. But you (God) have saved me denying.All through my life your cruel kindness has filled my being. The things you gave me without asking –This sky full of light this body, this soul and this mind. Saving me ever from too much craving. For these great gifts you are making me fit. The way that leads to youSometimes I forget, sometimes I keep. But you are so cruel from me you often step aside.This is but your kindness, I know now you drive me away to take me later making me fit for my union with you, saving me from my half-hearted love.