Friday, August 29, 2014

My little child was died


                                                                     By Shisir Parajuli
I remember that date very well: 9th September 1999. I was in hospital. The hospital looked very horrified; the environment of the hospital seemed very gloomy as a very wild storm coming very soon. The dogs howling outside. It was Room no: 201 and bed no: 003 looked gloomier than other beds and rooms. The boy who was on the bed laid stiffs, his legs hanged outside from the bed, his body looked curved and static. He was in the pool of blood and he produced the sound of pain as if he got some sharp pin in his heart. And that sound makes me crazy because it was the sound produced by my little son.

            I can’t really imagine that day, when the doctor bended his head by saying that he was no-more. How could he leave me, huh! He promised me that he will always stay with us and cares us. How God could steal our child from us? How God could be selfish? Didn’t he had any idea of our son leave us we were be alone?

            As the doctor said me he was died from tuberculosis. My mind didn’t work at that time, only ears heard something from doctor’s mouth. He murmured something and tried to console me but I was lying in the floor as if I am going too died very soon.

            The doctor helped me to stand and fixed me to the small chair. Then, he said ‘Please sir control yourself and take the dead body of you child.’ ‘NO! MY SON WAS NOT DIED’, I replied toward doctor with loud voice. My son was not died. ‘Look! Look towards his eyes, his eyes says something to me’. He promised me that he will stay with us forever and you doctor said that he was died. How could I believe in your voice? No God can’t be rude like that. How could I give this message to his mother that her son was died? My wife’s prays, her faith upon god can’t be waste and be like garbage. No, I can’t! She will die if she saw her son’s death body.

            No one wants to listen my story so that I told my painful story to you my dear pet. Listen my rest of the story. The people in the hospital tried their best to console me and gave me sympathy but I was doing like obstinacy child and crazy like, the most important things from my life was lost or destroyed.

            After three hour, I controlled myself and came to the real world where my child leaves us, where I can’t imagine anything about this artificial world. I went near to my little child’s death body as doctor said that he was died but his eyes says something towards me. I can’t see that eyes in taking longer times. I was not able to read his eyes because I was also the part of his ultimate death because I can’t manage proper money and medicine for him. We basically belong to poor family, you know. But nobody wanted to listen my painful story that, ‘my child was died’.

            ‘Not everyone in this world has the fate to cherish the fullest form of love. Some are born, just to experience the abbreviation of it’. My child, my boy leaves us. That time…that moment… that second… I… I… I just thought…
‘My little child was died’

Analysis of Austin’s Irony and Richards’s Emotive Language


                                                            By: Shisir Parajuli
            Every word has a meaning. This meaning is correlated with words. Word’s meaning has been different through out different context. Meaning of words differs from person to person, culture to culture, society to society and country to country. Word’s meanings have different types, it can function somewhere as irony, somewhere as literal meaning, somewhere as emotive meaning. Meaning of words can be subjective because determination of the meaning can be fixed only by the critical role of readers. Meaning of one words will be common for one but that meaning can be uncommon for others because it is the effect of alternatives view of language system which is the series that deals with discontinuous games, or games of language; fixing of the meaning of the text is not absolutely specific but contextually determined by the readers of the text. And as a reader of the theories of Austin and Richards; I am dealing with each of the theories with three stories.
Austin theory of speech act rejects the old logical positivist view of language as description of a state of affairs in the world. Austin theory of speech act is closely related with irony because performance of an act in saying something. He further defines different types of speech act, including constative and performative. As Austin defines speech act in one hand and Richards defines his emotive theory through literal and emotive meaning. Where literal meaning closely related with referential meaning which is related with an idea of an object and emotive meaning related with context or emotions.
            Austin’s theory of the speech act and Richards’s theory of emotive language resembles with each others. Speech act distinguishes between constative and performative, the former begin an ‘assertion’ or ‘description’ the latter being an ‘utterance which allows us to do something by means of speech itself.’ A performative is a way of doing things with words, as in the example of promise, baptising or christening, the naming of ships, or the priest saying ‘I now pronounce you man and wife,’ whereby the words enforce a social reality within a given and common understood cultural context. The act of public exhibition that results in a transactions between performer and audience; an utterance that, via its public display, causes a linguistic interaction with the exhibition’s object.
I.A. Richards’s emotive theories distinguish between emotive and referential meaning. Emotive meaning functions as a dynamic rather than description. Referential meaning on the other hand relates with descriptive. Emotive meaning ‘express’ rather than ‘inform.’ Marguerite H. Foster in his ‘Poetry and Emotive meaning’ also defines same as I.A. Richards in his ‘The meaning of meaning’ defines emotive terms’ as the use of words to express or excite feelings and attitude, and ‘the symbolic use of words is statement; the recording, the support, the organization and the communication of references’ (657).
Austin’s speech act and Richards’s emotive theories seem similar in the perception of meaning as; constative meaning relates with referential meaning or direct meaning and performative meaning relates with emotive meaning or contextual meaning. These two theories related with irony because irony means something that meaning is different from our perception it means that the meaning of irony closely related with the Austin’s speech act where irony can perform as constative and performative as well. Then the meaning of one words differ from context to context and reader to reader that meaning also deals with emotive theories of Richards’s which is also related with the meaning of words with literal and emotive meaning.
David J. Amante in his ‘The Theory of Ironic Speech’ defines " Ironic speech acts have three participants: an ironist (or eiron, henceforth both terms will be used), one or more observers of irony, and a target for irony"  (77). Irony is the matter of perception and it must, to become manifest, be seen by an observer or it does not exist. Observer means the audience who participants of the related text. Who observes the text care fully and justified the text through dealing with different context as historically, socially and in the terms of religious aspect.
Firstly, Sadat Hasan Manto’s story ‘Open it’ has also these three participants of ironic speech act where an ironist is the writer or author of the story, observers are audiences of the text and targets of the text are the suffering women representing Sakina. Secondly, Richards mayne’s story F**D has also three aspect of participants where ironist is the author, observers are audiences and targets are that the setting of the story and husband and wife who are struggling for preparing chicken.
Ted Cohen in his ‘Figurative Speech and Figurative Acts’ argues that "Austin’s speech act consist of three kinds of acts- three way of doing things with words" (669). He generated the abbreviated formula- which he qualifies extensively-
            Acts of saying something: locutions (L)
            Acts done in saying something: illocutions (I)
            Acts done by saying something: perlocutions (P)
We can apply the Manto’s story to this formula as in this way:
            (L): Soldier said to her Open it.
            (I): Soldier urged her Open it.
            (P): Soldier persuaded her to Open it.
Austin thinks that illocutions are related to locutions by conventions (whatever exactly that may mean) and that perlocutions are not connected in this way. The commission of a locution leads to the occurrence of an illocution, but it does so automatically by means of the rules of language. Austin thought that sentences were either performative or constative that a clean distinction could be made between them. Austin language of illocutionary and perlocutionary effects allows us to analyze every text’s orientation towards affecting an audience rather than committing ourselves to the debilitating either/ or taxonomy of persuasive versus referential discourse that is the product of the related text.
            Irony is one of the influential device which is used in the literary works for different perceptive. Mainly irony is used in literary works to makes meaning of one text different from one another. Using of irony makes the text more interesting. As Manto and Mayne also use irony in their text to make that text strong in both emotionally and intellectually. On the basis of that idea; Jack C. Gray in his ‘Irony: A Practical Definition’ defines "Irony is widely employed literary device. There are almost as many different kinds of irony as there are instances of it, and it can produce emotional and intellectual effects in endless variety" (220). Irony makes the readers quite aware about the hidden meaning of the text. If the reader observes the text carefully then their emotional and intellectual effects affect the text.
            Gray further says "Irony can be a figure of speech, an effect, an attention, an outcome, a pretended ignorance, and merely a vague sort of quality" (220). Irony makes the text more exasperating and perplexing. Short glance of looking toward the text is not sufficient to understand the irony of the text. The figure of speech as metaphor and simile makes the irony more stronger. As in the Mayne’s story F**D we can’t understand the text for the first time. Using of sensual images like ‘full curves of her breast and leg, lips parted, her head thrown back’ etc in the story makes our perception different than the actual meaning of the story.
            Irony means showing one thing but telling another thing. The text which have irony makes the meaning of one thing different in literally and actually or textually so as Brooks and Warren in their book ‘Modern Rhetoric’ give an amended and enlarged discussion of irony as "Irony always involves a discrepancy between the literal meaning of a statement and its actual meaning" (363). Manto’s story Open it has also irony. If we go through the story we can find the meaning of Open it different literal level and actual level. The text shows irony toward the action of volunteer, father happiness and doctor sweat. In the last moment of story the victim girl Sakina is in her death bed where she is motionless. The doctor checks her pulse and said ‘The window, open it!’ At the sound of the words, Sakina’s death body moves and undid her salwar and lowered it. Her father is happy but doctor drenched with sweat from head to toe. The utterance ‘Open it’ makes the irony here where Sakina is habituated with gang rape by volunteer and understand the order same as she used to do it before coming to hospital.
            From the middle 19th century the pornography has been widely used in the text. Actually the very term pornography refers the explicit depiction of sexual subject matter; a display of material of an erotic nature. Pornography uses sensual images and erotic feelings by using female characters. Jennifer Saul in her book ‘Pornography, Speech Acts and Context’ argues with Catharine Mackinnon idea as "The pornography is the subordination of women" (230). Speech act works of pornography are little attention has been devoted to the more general idea that works of pornography can be understood.
            Mackinnon claims that pornography silences women. Langton defends this claim as well, arguing that works of pornography can be understood as illocutionary acts of silencing women.  Both Manto’s and Mayne’s stories have pornographic sense. In the both story women are silencing. In the manto’s Open it; main character Sakina is being victim and being silence and Mayne’s story F**D the women who works in the kitchen presenting as a pornographic sense. Viewers of these two stories surface mean the pornographic sense that dealing with women. Pornography also deals with Austin’s speech act and Richards’s emotive theories because the meaning of pornography in the text seems related with speech act as in the story Open it where the doctor’s utterance makes the different sense toward Sakina that resembles with both irony and pornography and in the story F**D the readers find out different meaning as different from actual meaning and emotive meaning. The text is actually deals with preparing the meal in the kitchen but we found different meaning than the textual meaning.
            In conclusion, Austin’s speech act and Richards’s emotive theories concerns with the different meaning of one text. Pornography also talks with Austin’s speech act and Richards’s emotive theories because the meaning of pornography in the text seems related with speech act and emotive theories in terms of meaning. Irony always involves a discrepancy between the literal meaning of a statement and its actual meaning or textual meaning. Irony develops with the development of figure of speech, an effect, an attention, an outcome, a pretended ignorance, and merely a vague sort of quality. Literary device needs the irony. There are almost as many different kinds of irony as there are instances of it, and it can produce emotional and intellectual effects in endless variety. Austin’s speech act and Richards’s emotive theories effects allows us to analyze every text’s orientation towards affecting an reader rather than committing ourselves to the debilitating either/ or taxonomy of persuasive versus referential discourse that is the product of the related text. Both theories perform with the meaning of text that meaning of words can be subjective because determination of the meaning can be fixed only by the critical role of readers. Word’s meanings have different types, it can function somewhere as irony, somewhere as literal meaning, somewhere as emotive meaning and that all types of meaning deals with both speech acts and emotive theories. 

      Works Cited
Amante, David J. "The Theory of Ironic Speech Acts." Poetics Today 2.2
            (Winter, 1981). 77-96
Cohen, Ted. "Figurative Speech and Figurative Acts." The Journal of Philosophy
           72.19 (Nov.6, 1975). 669-684
Foster, Marguerite H. "Poetry and Emotive Meaning." The Journal of Philosophy
           47. 3 (Nov.9, 1950). 657-660
Saul, Jennifer. "Pornography, Speech Acts and Context." Proceedings of the
           Aristotelian Society 106 (2006). 229-248
               




           

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Defining Literature


                                                                           By: Bipin Karki
             Literature is the reflection of socio-historical, political, cultural, economic aspects of the society.  It is the mirror of the society. Specially, literature is in written form. It can be further distinguished according to major form of it such as novel, poetry, story and drama. Literature does not have the fixed, final, single meaning. It differs according to sex, gender, education, class, nationality, belief and so on. In literature, writers use the figurative language such as irony, metaphor, pun, paradox, ambiguity, simile, conceit, etc. In literature, there is an artistic expression. It conveys ideas, feelings, view, ambitions, and emotions of a writer in a beautiful language. It is imaginative because writer changes the name, character, place and so on and modifies them in different ways. In literature, the literary writers show their creativity. In literature, human life and society are colored with the polished language of literary writers. It is larger than life and more powerful than the real.
Different critics have different opinions regarding the origin and definition of literature. There are also contradictions among different critics but their main argument seems to be somehow similar. Widdowson states that “the origin of literature started along with some oral performances like folk songs, ballets, speeches, hymns and so on. These are the essentials aspects of ancient period. To make the god happy they used to perform drama. They think that, if drama will not perform god will be unhappy and plague may occur” Widdowson 29. According to him, literature originated in oral forms such as folk songs, hymas and so on. Later, with the origin of different writer, the form of literature changed and it got a written form. Literature is that form of art which not only pleases human being; it also draws the attention of god and pleases the god. Literary art touches the platonic ideas which are presented in a realist form. In ancient time also, it was supposed that literary performance can solve different kinds of riddles and accordingly drama is performed taking it as a means of solution of the riddles.
Plato accuses the literary writer as imitators. He says that literature is twice removed from the reality. All human beings are copied from the nature, whatever they write is also copied so, there is twice copy          .                                                                                  
In this brief survey of the originating classical discourse of ‘literature’; the Neo-Platonist tradition, beginning with Plotinus (third century A.D), took the Aristotelian position in imitation much further. For platinum, poets had a truly noble role- almost god like in their ability to create- since their art touched the realm of platonic ‘ideas’ on which, as we have heard, the created world was modeled. Ironically, then, Plato’s own ideas about the unsatisfactoriness of the poet and poetry in the pursuit of truth wear turned back against him by the Neo-Platonists: poetic imitation was regarded as the highest of all imitations because it offered access to the divine archetypes rather than merely copying existing materialities. (Widdowson 29)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Plato was negative towards poetry, he criticize poetry. He believed that poetry as mimetic art. He believed that poets simply copy the word of appearance. He says that poets should be banished from the nation. But the neo Platonists and Aristotle are in favor of literature or poetry. ‘Neo-Platonist views were profoundly influential throughout the Renaissance (Widdiwson 30).’
Literature changes from the folk songs, oral myths to the English word literature. Widdoson argues that “The English word literature dories either directly or by way of the Acognate French literature from the Latin literature. The root word from which is littera meaning is letter of the alphabet” (31). After a while it is not only a word. It is like to read and write. In this sense the definition of literature is gradually wide. 
In the late eighteenth century the literature development lead it to the professional. During this period literature get professionalized which help in the commercialization of literature almost at the end of eighteenth century.  Widdowson states that:
This self conscious pride in the paid professional status of the individual author or writer word which themselves become more frequent in the later part of the eighteenth century reveals the shift from aristocratic patronage as the matrix for the production of literary writing to the commercial environment in which individuals author sell different kinds of written wares in different kinds of market. (33)
As this, literature became more professional. Coming the eighteenth century, literature got new enlighten it is because it became more professional genre expanding its area. It started to cover all the aspects of the world. By covering every aspects of human being, literature became more realistic.
            English language and literature got the value of academic subject in nineteenth century. “This subject is offered by the University college of London in 1820” (Widdowson 42). Its purpose of teaching literature and language is to make people civilized, moral or of having good human quality.
            According to OED’s definition “Literature is the pieces of writing that are valued as work of art, especially novels, plays and poems (in contrast to technical books and newspaper, magazines etc.)” (898).It focuses on the written documents not in the visual text.
            By the means of written literary works, it provides us pleasure, fun and entertainment. The literary works without pleasure, entertainment are not considered as literary work. It is the characteristics of literature as literary work. Widdowson argues “It has in it an element of entertaining display and surely we expect literature to be in some sense entertaining, or, to put it in slightly different terms to afford pleasure. That literature is an adult game, a sort of make- believe, is suggested in some of the words we applied to pieces of literature- “fiction”, “story”, “tale”, ‘play’” (1).By means of literature, people become free from irritation, boredom, anxiety, sufferings,  pain and so on. It shows that literature provides pleasure, entertainment and it works as a medicine of irritation, anxiety, pain, suffering etc.
             Literary devices have mainly four kinds of genre (forms). They are different on its characteristics. They are play, essay, poem and story.
             The play is performed on the stage by the characters. The characters perform their role through dialogue. That is why dialogue is the core quality of play. “The distinctive appearance of a script, with its stage directions, character parts and divisions into acts and scenes, identifies drama as a unique form of literature. A play is written to be performed in front of an audience by characters and presents the story through and action” (908). It is made for performance. It is to be seen, dialogue and acted
            In the essay, the essayist puts main idea and  tries to support those main ideas with details and arguments. The essayist expresses his/her ideas, feelings, views, emotions in a convincing way. In this sense, persuasion is the major feature of essay. It is directly addressed to the readers. “The essay in its pure form uses words to establish ideas that are addressed directly by the essayist to the reader. Thus, it’s essential quality is persuasion” (5). Essay attempts the reader to persuade something by means of argument which is directly addressed to the reader by the author.
            In a poem a poet uses personal feelings, emotions and views which are not directly addressed to any reader rather they are overheard by the reader. In the poem the poet speaks himself/ herself rather than to any reader while speaking. The poet thinks deeply or meditates and discloses his/her feelings. Poets use the figurative language, such as irony, metaphor, simile, pun and so on.
            A story is narrated through a narrator. It is the inner quality of the story. The words of a story are directly addressed towards reader. It gives moral lesson. The elements of a story are plot, characters, point of view, style, tone and language, symbolism etc.
            Literature has got the direct relation to readers. It cannot exist without reader. Literature is made by the reader. There is a great role of reader. Literature has not the single, final, fix meaning it depends upon the readers’ social, economic, historical age gender knowledge etc. “Every literary work has somewhat different meanings to different people depending on their age, gender, nationality … and experiences” (8).so there are multiples meaning of literary texts. If any writer writes any literary works and if there is not any reader it is meaningless, but if there is reader then it is fruitful, and then only it get success. Literature speaks through the ideas of reader. In literary text readers have to create meaning. For, them what is said is equally important to what is not said in the text. It represents what is not said in the society.                                           In conclusion, literature having different genres tends to reflect the society. It explores the class, gender, race conflict, exploitation, discrimination and so on by the means of its different forms. It visualizes the society, the socio-economic condition, political, historical etc. It tries to minimize the problems of the society and have an ideal society. Literature provides delight, pleasure, entertainment, fun, romance and so on. It decreases irritation, boredom, anxiety, pain and sufferings. It tries to explore the problems of the society by using figurative language. It is said that women should read literature. It teaches moral lesson. It provides lesson to be moral and ideal women guides the family and if females are ideal, their family become moral. If it is moral then the society becomes moral. So women should be taught literature. By the means of literature, society can be changed, developed and idealized. It is a means of development. Hence, literature visualizes, reflects the economic, political, historical and political condition of the society.  
                                                                  Works cited
            Berman, Morto and  William, Borto.  An Introduction to Literature. Second Edition.
Kirszner,G. Laurie and Mandell, R. Stephin. Literature, Fourth Edition, United states       of America, Heinle and Heinle:1991.
            Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of current English, Seventh Edition.
Scholes, Robert. Comley, R, Nancy. Klaus and H Carl,Silverman. Michael, Elements         of Literature. New Delhi: Oxford University press, 1998.
Widdowson, Peter. Literature. London: Routledge, 1999.   

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Irony in Shakespeare’s poem on "My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun"


                                                                                                  By: Sarita Pantha
Irony is the simplest form which consists of saying one thing while meaning something opposite. I. A. Richards in his ‘Principles of Literary Criticism’ defined "Irony as equilibrium of opposing attitudes and evaluations" (32). Irony in this sense consists in the bringing on of the opposite, the complementary impulses; that is why poetry which is exposed to it is not of the highest order, and why irony itself is so constantly a characteristics of poetry. Irony may be dramatic, situational, or verbal. Dramatic irony occurs when a narrator or character perceives less than readers do. Situational irony occurs when what happens is at odds with what readers are led to expect; Verbal irony occurs when the narrator says one thing but actually means another.
"My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun" by William Shakespeare shows these different kinds of irony through different metaphor and similes. Metaphor and similes helps us to identify the exactness of the idea which is expressed by poet or author. That ideas deal with the very term irony. The poem starts with simple negation of resemblance situation where similarity is insisted upon as a custom. The poet misuses the metaphorical area a poetic language doing a false comparison. Irony can be defined as the balance between opposing attitudes. Such irony can be found clearly in sonnet 130 of Shakespeare. Shakespeare mainly uses the verbal irony in sonnet 130. Actually verbal irony means the poet or speaker of the poem says one thing but he or she actually means another meaning. For instance in the poem where his mistress eyes are comparing with the sun, Lips with coral, Breast with snow and blackness with wire hair. The false comparison showing the negative aspect of his mistress. The misuse of metaphorical dimension of poetical language done by the poet.
The poet also uses conditional stanza to compare his mistress with unmatchable things i.e. also called anti simile. That anti simile also creates the verbal irony.
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. Shakespeare compares his mistress with natural thing and asks himself about her beauty. If we look the 3rd and 4th stanza from sonnet 130 we can’t help ourselves from laughing. The poet creates false comparisons which is unbelievable and ridiculous. All this comparison show gap between what the words seems to be saying and what they are saying so, the reader might get confusion. Note that verbal irony depends on knowledge of the fictional speakers ironic intention, which is shared both by the speaker and the reader; structural irony depends on a knowledge of the authors ironic intention, which is shared by the reader but is not intended by the fictional speaker.  An irony can add clue to sarcasm is the exaggerated inflection of the speaker's voice.
            Irony can be shown through different styles; including metaphor, simile and adjectives, etc. In this regards M. H. Abrams in his "A Glossary of Literary Terms" defines term "Irony as qualified by an adjective is used to identify various literary devices and modes of organization" (143). The sonnet My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun is also full of different adjectives which help to promote in the development of irony in the poem. For instance: red, white, pleasing, dun, black, etc. These adjective help us to know the better the metaphor and similes which is decorated in the poem and that decoration helps us to know the irony in the poem.
 He had seen different color of rose like red, white but he did not see roses in her cheeks it show the irony towards his mistress. And he compares her breath with bad smell not with the perfume which is more delight. Disparity contrast and disharmony are the major aspect of irony. It is thought that perhaps all words are not adequate for the representation of things. In the above lines the poet shows the negative aspect of his mistress.
            I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
            That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
            I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. The given lines show that beloved like to hear his mistress speak but the sound is not pleasing than the music and he never saw a goddess walk on the ground but he only saw his beloved walk in the ground. These four lines also show the verbal irony in the given stanza. Shakespeare shows the negative comparison it the given sonnet. 
In sonnet My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun the speaker of the poem puts the little ideas with big words through love, appearances, women and feminist, etc. The whole sonnet is a parody and parody also concerned with verbal irony because the author or poet uses those types of metaphor which is laughable by listening. The poet doesn’t even use the grandiose metaphor or allusion. The poem is mainly concerned with total and consuming of love.
Historically Shakespeare tells the beauty of his mistress among his friends through the help of irony connecting with the beauty of her but ironically. At the period of Shakespeare the entire all poet writes the poem describing their beloved through highly decorative metaphor but Shakespeare write the poem with the help of irony to be unique among them and always. The Shakespeare uses the dead metaphor as "My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun".
Walter Raleigh in his Printed book "Shakespeare” writes Keats knew the position well, and has commented on it, though not tragically in some passages of his letters. "Men of Genius," he says," are great as certain ethereal chemicals operating on the mass of neutral intellect- but they have not any individuality, any determined character. "And again "A poet is the most in poetical of anything in existence, because he has no identity – he is continually informing and filling some other body" (16).
In the sonnet My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun the poet may seem commendable, we must not forget that Shakespeare himself was the master of the compliment and frequently made use of the very same sorts of exaggerated comparisons in satirized way. In the poem the exaggeration of his mistress does not clearly portrait that person and won’t justify the actual amount of reality and that exaggeration may leads to confusion. Whether Shakespeare compare his love to dead metaphor and other false comparisons he conclude his poem with highly motivating his love by saying; "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare". The term yet shows the also irony in this poem that his rest of the stanzas are only for ironic propose but he thinks his love is greater than that false comparisons.
In conclusion Shakespeare as in his sonnet My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun uses irony to compare his love with unbelievable or ridiculous things. The first line of the poem shows the clear picture of verbal irony as "My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun".  Verbal irony occurs when the narrator says one thing but actually means another. Here the poet also says something but we understand another. The irony of the poem does not clearly portrait that person and won’t justify the actual amount of reality and that exaggeration may leads to confusion. Sonnet My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun is full of adjectives which help us to know the better about the metaphor and similes which is decorated in the poem and that decoration helps us to know the irony in the poem. Irony is the simplest form which consists of saying one thing while meaning something opposite as equilibrium of opposing attitudes and evaluations. Irony in this sense consists in the bringing on of the opposite, the complementary impulses; that is why poetry which is exposed to it is not of the highest order, and why irony itself is so constantly a characteristics of poetry which is.  So My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun by William Shakespeare shows these different kinds of irony through different metaphor and similes. The poem starts and ends with simple negation of resemblance situation where similarity is insisted upon as a custom.
                                                         
     Work sited
Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Eighth Edition, 2005. (142-143).
Ferguson, Margaret. Salter, Jo Mary. Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology  of
               Poetry. Fifth Edition. 2005. (1)
Raleigh, Walter. Shakeapeare. INC, New York. 1953, 1957. (16).
Richards, I. A. Principles of Literary Criticism.London: Rotuludge ,1924. (32).





Research Paper Writing


                                           By: Salina Pun

            The research paper is an excellent tool. It is a mini-classroom intended solely for your benefit. It is an intense learning process focused on a topic you choose. Of course, it is possible that the instructor will assign a specific topic, but typically topic choice is left up to the writer and is even sometimes regarded as a test of the writer’s judgment. The student who chooses a vast topic, such as wars throughout the ages, has taken on too big a job. On the other hand, the student who chooses to write on the history of the tire iron is proposing a topic that is too small. Writing a research paper also has practical effects that could help you in later life.
            Research comes from the Middle French word rechercher, meaning “to seek out.” Writing a research paper requires you to seek out information about a subject, take a stand on it, and back it up with the opinions, ideas, and views of others. What results is a printed paper variously known as a term paper or library paper, usually between five and fifteen pages long—most instructors specify a minimum length—in which you present your views and findings on the chosen subject.
            One obvious reason for the research paper is that writing it forces you to learn lots about your chosen subject. Sifting through the pros and cons of opinions on any subject is a priceless learning experience. Another reason is that writing the paper teaches you the conventions of scholarly writing, among them the accepted styles of documentation and the ethics of research.
1d Anthony in his book Writing the Research Paper says:
You will become familiar with the library through the “learning by doing” method. Even the simplest library is an intricate storehouse of information, bristling with indexes, encyclopaedias, and abstracts. How to seek out from this maze of sources a single piece of information is a skill you learn by actual doing. Writing a research paper may also mean interviewing experts about your subject and blending their ideas with your own distinct point of view. (5)
 In short, you, like everyone else, can profit from knowing how to do research. There are other benefits as well. Writing the research paper is an exercise in logic, imagination, and common sense. As you chip away at the mass of data and information available on your chosen topic, you learn How to track down information, how to organize, how to use the Internet in your research, how to discriminate between useless and useful opinions, how to summarize, how to budget your time, how to conceive of and manage a research project from start to finish. Papers assigned in colleges are one of two kinds: the report paper or the thesis paper. The report paper summarizes and reports your findings on a particular subject. You neither judge nor evaluate the findings; you simply relate them in a logical sequence. For instance, a paper that describes the opinions of experts in the debate over global warming is a report paper. Likewise a paper that chronologically narrates the final days of Hitler is a report paper.
            Probably no single step is as important to the whole process of writing a research paper as the choice of a topic. You’re like a traveller who is choosing where to go. If it’s someplace you like, you’ll enjoy getting there. If it turns out to be a place you don’t like, getting there will make you miserable. Ideally you should choose a topic that interests you, that is complex enough to need several research sources, and that will not bore—or talk down to—your reader.
            Research paper writing is an academic work. It requires the skills of organizing data, using classification and displays identifying and implementing key aspects of academic text structures and using the internet materials properly. Classification is an important element in academic writing because it can be applied from intermediate to very advanced levels. Classification is a central concern of many disciplines in the hard natural sciences, and in social sciences including language studies as well.
Hira Lal Subedi in his book Academic Writing says:
Research papers needs exploring the internet and other resources. The internet is completely useful for writing an academic text because it lets the writer enter into a virtual community in which all kinds of information and help are available. We need to navigate the internet in order to discover the information we intend to find. When we use the internet information, we need to give credit to the electronic resources in in-text citations and references. In order to write an academic text we need to use the printed resources along with the internet. We should not forget that libraries are still wonderful resources. We can make use of traditional as well as e-libraries which we feel easy to use and rich in the information we need. (69)
            Life would be simpler for the researcher if there were one universal format applicable to all disciplines. Unfortunately, there isn’t. Every research paper must therefore conform to a specific format, like the one invented by the Modern Language
Association (MLA), a society of language scholars; or the American Psychological Association (APA), a society of scientific scholars; or the Chicago Manual of Style
(CMS), created by a board of editors. The format governs the entire paper, from the placement of the title, to the width of the margins, to the notation used in acknowledging material from other sources. This sort of standardization makes it easier to write a scholarly paper as well as to read one. Part of your baptism of scholarship is to become familiar with the major citation styles used by different disciplines—most of which are covered in this book. Your instructor no doubt will tell you what documentation style to use. Once you know that, you can concentrate on mastering that style and ignore the others.
            In conclusion, writing research paper needs good determination and attention toward subject matter. Everybody can’t get involved in this job. Every research paper must therefore conform to a specific format. Research papers needs exploring the internet which is completely useful for writing an academic text because it lets the writer enter into a virtual community in which all kinds of information and help are available. When we use the internet information, we need to give credit to the electronic resources in in-text citations and references. Research paper writing is an academic work. Organizing data, using classification and displays identifying and implementing key aspects of academic text structures and using the internet materials should be used properly. Research paper requires good information about a subject, take a stand on it, and back it up with the opinions, ideas, and views of others to support the main ideas of the paper.

     Works Cited
Kumar, R. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Delhi: Pearson
            Education. 2006.
Subedi, H. L. Academic Writing. Kathmandu: Pradhan Book House. 2012.
Winkler, Anthony. C. Writing the Research Paper. Boston: Wadsworth. 2008.


Confessional poetry


Confessional poetry is the poetry of the personal or “I.” This style of writing emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s and is associated with poets such as Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and W.D. Snodgrass. Lowell’s book Life Studies was a highly personal account of his life and familial ties, and had a significant impact on American poetry. Plath and Sexton were both students of Lowell and noted that his work influenced their own writing.
            The confessional poetry of the mid-twentieth century dealt with subject matter that previously had not been openly discussed in American poetry. Private experiences with and feelings about death, trauma, depression and relationships were addressed in this type of poetry, often in an autobiographical manner. Sexton in particular was interested in the psychological aspect of poetry, having started writing at the suggestion of her therapist.
            The confessional poets were not merely recording their emotions on paper; craft and construction were extremely important to their work. While their treatment of the poetic self may have been groundbreaking and shocking to some readers, these poets maintained a high level of craftsmanship through their careful attention to and use of prosody.
            One of the most well-known poems by a confessional poet is “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath. Addressed to her father, the poem contains references to the Holocaust but uses a sing-song rhythm that echoes the nursery rhymes of childhood:
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time--
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal
            Another confessional poet of this generation was John Berryman. His major work was The Dream Songs, which consists of 385 poems about a character named Henry and his friend Mr. Bones. Many of the poems contain elements of Berryman’s own life and traumas, such as his father’s suicide. Below is an excerpt from “Dream Song 1”:
All the world like a woolen lover
once did seem on Henry’s side.
Then came a departure.
Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought.
I don’t see how Henry, pried
open for all the world to see, survived.
            The confessional poets of the 1950s and 1960s pioneered a type of writing that forever changed the landscape of American poetry. The tradition of confessional poetry has been a major influence on generations of writers and continues to this day; Marie Howe and Sharon Olds are two contemporary poets whose writing largely draws upon their personal experience.
Confessional poetry
            Confessional poetry or 'Confessionalism' is a style of poetry that emerged in the United States during the 1950s. It has been described as poetry "of the personal," focusing on extreme moments of individual experience, the psyche, and personal trauma, including previously taboo matter such as mental illness, sexuality, and suicide, often set in relation to broader social themes.[1] It is sometimes also classified as Postmodernism.[2]
            The school of "Confessional Poetry" was associated with several poets who redefined American poetry in the '50s and '60s, including Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Anne Sexton, Allen Ginsberg, and W. D. Snodgrass.[3][4]
Contents
·         2 Further developments
·         3 Reaction
·         4 See also
·         5 Notes
·         6 References


Life Studies and the emergence of Confessionalism
            In 1959 M. L. Rosenthal first used the term "confessional" in a review of Robert Lowell's Life Studies entitled "Poetry as Confession",[5] Rosenthal differentiated the confessional approach from other modes of lyric poetry by way of its use of confidences that (Rosenthal said) went “beyond customary bounds of reticence or personal embarrassment”.[6] Rosenthal notes that in earlier tendencies towards the confessional there was typically a "mask" that hid the poet's "actual face", and states that “Lowell removes the mask. His speaker is unequivocally himself, and it is hard not to think of Life Studies as a series of personal confidences, rather shameful, that one is honor-bound not to reveal”.[7] In a review of the book in The Kenyon Review, John Thompson wrote, "For these poems, the question of propriety no longer exists. They have made a conquest: what they have won is a major expansion of the territory of poetry."[8]
            There were however clear moves towards the "confessional" mode before the publication of Life Studies. Delmore Schwartz's confessional long poem Genesis had been published in 1943; and John Berryman had written a sonnet sequence in 1947 about an adulterous affair he'd had with a woman named Chris while he was married to his first wife, Eileen (however, since publishing the sonnets would have revealed the affair to his wife, Berryman didn't actually publish the sequence, titled Berryman's Sonnets, until 1967, after he divorced from his first wife).[9][10] Snodgrass' Heart's Needle, in which he writes about the aftermath of his divorce, also preceded Life Studies.
            Life Studies was nonetheless the first book in the confessional mode that captured the reading public's attention and the first to officially be labeled "confessional." Most notably "confessional" were the poems in the final section of Life Studies in which Lowell alludes to his struggles with mental illness and his experiences in a mental hospital. Plath remarked upon the influence of these types of poems from Life Studies in an interview in which she stated, "I've been very excited by what I feel is the new breakthrough that came with, say, Robert Lowell's Life Studies, this intense breakthrough into very serious, very personal, emotional experience which I feel has been partly taboo. Robert Lowell's poems about his experience in a mental hospital, for example, interested me very much."[11] A. Alvarez however considered that some poems in Life Studies seemed “more compulsively concerned with the processes of psychoanalysis than with those of poetry”;[12] while conversely Michael Hofmann saw the verbal merit of Lowell's work only diminished by emphasis on “what I would call the C-word, 'Confessionalism'”.[13]
Further developments
Other key texts of the American "confessional" school of poetry include Plath's Ariel, Berryman's The Dream Songs, and Sexton's To Bedlam and Part Way Back.
Another significant, if transitional figure was Adrienne Rich;[14] while one of the most prominent, consciously "confessional" poets to emerge in the 1980s was Sharon Olds whose focus on taboo sexual subject matter built off of the work of Ginsberg.
Reaction
In the 1970s and 1980s, some writers rebelled against Confessionalism in American poetry, arguing that it was too self-indulgent. For instance, one of the foremost poets of the Deep Image school, Robert Bly, was highly critical of what he perceived to be the solipsistic tendencies of Confessional poets. He referenced this aesthetic distaste when he praised the poet Antonio Machado for "his emphasis on the suffering of others rather than his own".[15] However, many others writers during this period, like Sharon Olds, Marie Howe, and Franz Wright, were strongly influenced by the precedent set by Confessional poetry with its themes of taboo autobiographical experience, of the psyche and the self, and revelations of childhood and adult traumas.
The poetic movement of New Formalism, a return to rhyme and meter, would also spring from a backlash against free verse that had become popular in Confessional poetry. Another poetry movement that formed, in part, as a reaction to confessional poetry included the Language poets.
Confessional Poetry
            Though her work in many ways confounds the designation, Sylvia Plath can be better appreciated when one understands the genre of confessional poetry, in which she is often grouped.
            Confessional poetry is a genre of poetry first identified in the decades immediately following the Second World War. It was initiated with the publication of Robert Lowell's Life Studies (1959); other poets whose work typifies this style include Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, and Anne Sexton. With its origins in the British romantic poets of the 19th century, such as Wordsworth and Coleridge, confessional poetry of the modern era focused on inward expressions of conflict and emotion through the use extremely personal details from the poet's life. Critics sometimes include the Beat poets, particularly Allen Ginsberg, in this movement.
Confessional poetry was a reaction to the depersonalized, academic poetry of writers like T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden, who wrote in the 1920s and 1930s. These paragons of modernism believed poetry was a thing apart from its creator, and that there was no room for the self in poetry. The confessional poets did not adhere to this perspective, instead writing from a deeply personal perspective and filling their work with intimate and controversial details from their private lives.
Robert Lowell, the veritable founding father of the movement, was a professor at Boston University, where he taught poetry workshops that Sexton and Plath attended. Life Studies dealt with many of Lowell's family dysfunctions, alcoholism, and sexual guilt, thereby breaking with previous poetic tradition and veering more toward the freer forms of William Carlos Williams. M.L. Rosenthal first used the term "confessional poetry" when writing a review about Lowell's work.
Anne Sexton wrote poetry that dealt with her personal life, including her experiences with psychotherapy, sex, depression, and rage. One of her most significant works, To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960), dealt with such excruciating topics as molestation by a father.
Sylvia Plath is commonly seen as a confessional poet, although some critics dispute her placement within this movement, arguing that her work is more universal than commonly assumed. Nevertheless, Ariel, published posthumously in 1965, deals with the very personal issues of suicide, sex, her children, and, most dramatically, her complicated relationship with her deceased father. Poems like "Daddy," "Ariel," and "Lady Lazarus" are stunning in their originality, wit, and brutality.
            The confessional poets have garnered a lot of critical interest, but there is a tendency to conflate their art and lives too fully - the usage of a personal pronoun in their work is not an unequivocal invitation to assume that the subject of the poem is always the poet. Critic Mary A. Murphy writes about the poets that "their poems are not open wounds on the page. Their work is a crafted response to their overwhelming emotional impulses. They use the sharply defined sensory prompts and the everyday language of the common person learned from the imagist school. The profound intimacy of the poetry demands such an accessibility." While the tales of personal tragedies might be the most fascinating aspect of their work for many readers, the confessional poets were also masters of their craft. Plath is well understood as a reflection of both sides of the debate.
Major Themes
Death
Death is an ever-present reality in Plath's poetry, and manifests in several different ways.
            One common theme is the void left by her father's death. In "Full Fathom Five," she speaks of his death and burial, mourning that she is forever exiled. In "The Colossus," she tries in vain to put him back together again and make him speak. In "Daddy," she goes further in claiming that she wants to kill him herself, finally exorcising his vicious hold over her mind and her work.
            Death is also dealt with in terms of suicide, which eerily corresponds to her own suicide attempts and eventual death by suicide. In "Lady Lazarus," she claims that she has mastered the art of dying after trying to kill herself multiple times. She sneers that everyone is used to crowding in and watching her self-destruct. Suicide, though, is presented as a desirable alternative in many of these works. The poems suggest it would release her from the difficulties of life, and bring her transcendence wherein her mind could free itself from its corporeal cage. This desire is exhilaratingly expressed in "Ariel," and bleakly and resignedly expressed in "Edge." Death is an immensely vivid aspect of Plath's work, both in metaphorical and literal representations.
Victimization
            Plath felt like a victim to the men in her life, including her father, her husband, and the great male-dominated literary world. Her poetry can often be understood as response to these feelings of victimization, and many of the poems with a male figure can be interpreted as referring to any or all of these male forces in her life.
            In regards to her father, she realized she could never escape his terrible hold over her; she expressed her sense of victimhood in "The Colossus" and "Daddy," using powerful metaphors and comparisons to limn a man who figured heavily in her psyche.
            Her husband also victimized her through the power he exerted as a man, both by assuming he should have the literary career and through his infidelity. Plath felt relegated to a subordinate, "feminine" position which stripped from her any autonomy or power. Her poems from the "Colossus" era express her frustration over the strictures under which she operated. For instance, "A Life" evokes a menacing and bleak future for Plath. However, in her later poems, she seems finally able to transcend her status as victim by fully embracing her creative gifts ("Ariel"), metaphorically killing her father ("Daddy"), and committing suicide ("Lady Lazarus", "Edge").
Patriarchy
            Plath lived and worked in 1950s/1960s England and America, societies characterized by very strict gender norms. Women were expected to remain safely ensconced in the house, with motherhood as their ultimate joy and goal. Women who ventured into the arts found it difficult to attain much attention for their work, and were often subject to marginalization and disdain. Plath explored and challenged this reductionist tendency through her work, offering poems of intense vitality and stunning language. She depicted the bleakness of the domestic scene, the disappointment of pregnancy, the despair over her husband's infidelity, her tortured relationship with her father, and her attempts to find her own creative voice amidst the crushing weight of patriarchy. She shied away from using genteel language and avoided writing only of traditionally "female" topics. Most impressively, the work remains poetic and artistic - rather than political - because of her willing to admit ambivalence over all these expectations, admitting that both perspectives can prove a trap.
Nature
            Images and allusions to nature permeate Plath's poetry. She often evokes the sea and the fields to great effect. The sea is usually associated with her father; it is powerful, unpredictable, mesmerizing, and dangerous. In "Full Fathom Five," her father is depicted as a sea god. An image of the sea is also used in "Contusion," there suggesting a terrible sense of loss and loneliness.
            She also pulled from her personal life, writing of horse-riding on the English fields, in "Sheep in Fog" and "Ariel." In these cases, she uses the activity to suggest an otherworldly, mystical arena in which creative thought or unfettered emotion can be expressed.
            Nature is also manifested in the bright red tulips which jolt the listless Plath from her post-operation stupor, insisting that she return to the world of the living. Here, nature is a provoker, an instigator - it does not want her to give up. Nature is a ubiquitous theme in Plath's work; it is a potent force that is sometimes unpredictable, but usually works to encourage her creative output.
The self
            Plath has often been grouped into the confessional movement of poetry. One of the reasons for this classification is that she wrote extensively of her own life, her own thoughts, her own worries. Any great artist both creates his or her art and is created by it, and Plath was always endeavoring to know herself better through her writing. She tried to come to terms with her personal demons, and tried to work through her problematic relationships. For instance, she tried to understand her ambivalence about motherhood, and tried to vent her rage at her failed marriage.
            However, her exploration of herself can also be understood as an exploration of the idea of the self, as it stands opposed to society as a whole and to other people, whom she did not particularly like. Joyce Carol Oates wrote that even Plath's children seemed to be merely the objects of her perception, rather than subjective extensions of herself. The specifics of Plath's work were drawn from her life, but endeavored to transcend those to ask more universal questions. Most infamously, Plath imagined her self as a Jew, another wounded and persecuted victim. She also tried to engage with the idea of self in terms of the mind and body dialectic. "Edge" and "Sheep in Fog" explore her desire to leave the earthly life, but express some ambivalence about what is to come after. "Ariel" suggests it is glory and oneness with nature, but the other two poems do not seem to know what will happen to the mind/soul once the body is eradicated. This conflict - between the self and the world outside - can be used to understand almost all of Plath's poems.
The Body
Many of Plath's poems deal with the body, in terms of motherhood, wounds, operations, and death.
            In "Metaphors," she describes how her body does not feel like it is her own; she is simply a "means" towards delivering a child. In "Tulips" and "A Life," the body has undergone an operation. With the surgery comes an excising of emotion, attachment, connection, and responsibility. The physical cut has resulted in an emotional severing, which is a relief to the depressed woman. "Cut" depicts the thrill Plath feels on almost cutting her own thumb off. It is suggested that she feels more alive as she contemplates her nearly-decapitated thumb, and watches the blood pool on the floor. "Contusion" takes things further - she has received a bruise for some reason, but unlike in "Cut," where she eventually seems to grow uneasy with the wound, she seems to welcome the physical pain, since the bruise suggests an imminent end to her suffering. Suicide, the most profound and dramatic thing one can do to one's own body, is also central to many of her poems.
            Overall, it is clear that Plath was constantly discerning the relationship between mind and body, and was fascinated with the implications of bodily pain.
Motherhood
            Motherhood is a major theme in Plath's work. She was profoundly ambivalent about this prescribed role for women, writing in "Metaphors" about how she felt insignificant as a pregnant woman, a mere "means" to an end. She lamented how grotesque she looked, and expressed her resignation over a perceived lack of options. However, in "Child," she delights in her child's perception of and engagement with the world. Of course, "Child" ends with the suggestions that she knows her child will someday see the harsh reality of life. Plath did not want her children to be contaminated by her own despair. This fear may also have manifested itself in her last poem, "Edge," in which some critics have discerned a desire to kill her children and take them with her far from the terrors of life. Other poems in her oeuvre express the same tension. Overall, Plath clearly loved her children, but was not completely content in either pregnancy or motherhood.