Hassan

Hussain Khalil
Lecturer: Saman Mohammed
Literature: Poetry
December 7, 2018, 2018
The Victorian Age

One of the most significance periods in the English literature, it consider a revolutionary
.time for many of writers and other figures in that period

The Victorian age started from 1837-1901, referring to Queen Victoria during her role, where

she was the only queen in the country, while in other country there was more than too kings

.like Germany

England was in its highest strength that time by occupying many countries like America,

South Africa, Australia and India during Queen Victoria's role and widely expanded after her

death. In that time there was strict rules for all aspect of life; politically, culturally. From the

political side as we talked about it there was no higher than the rules and the community was

obliged to applied it otherwise they will face a punishment made by the political system, so

those rules were as a red line for the people which controlled their life. the Culture that time

were divided into three classes; Upper class, Middle class, Working class, so there was a huge

differences between those classes, were the Upper class were consider to be from the

Aristocratic family, wealthy, have the control on the remain classes and they should obey to

their orders. The Middle class were specialists in their job or work and they were financially

secure, somehow they were not facing big problems as poverty and lack of jobs or works. The

Working class were the machine of that time and has no rights and no voice, so they were

working just to secure themselves from death. Those classes were not in a harmony

environment as a machine that contain several parts that work together but all parts are not

from one factory. The problem of the Gender most be consider too, because also man and

women they were not having imbalance between their lives, so man were supposed to work

and be the one who has responsibility toward his family and the outside word (Society), like

facing the problems of the strict rules of business and politics also he must have the authority
 Hassan

in on his family, while women their responsibility were conducted inside the house in raising

children, taking care of her husband, the order in home from cleaning and etc…., in A Doll's

House book by Henry Ibsen where he wrote this on December 1879 is a remarkable paly

which he explain the harsh reality of how women were living under the pressure, rules all

their lives. Another issue that can be discussed is (Race), were they create the chain of being

which it starts from the top as the higher one (GOD) who has the super power, then Angels,

Humans, Animals, plants, and ends with the rocks, beside that chain they ranked nations in

.another chain putting the British nation at the top of it

In my point of view there were similarities between this period and what was happening

inside the Kurdish nation in north Syria before 2012, we can say that there was no public

democracy or equality between man and women, because there were strict rules made by the

ruling authority, and the habits and traditions that set limits for peoples way of thinking,

behaviors, developing their future to a better life but no one could change that fact till the

Syrian civil war started and by observing the outside world somehow that condition has

changed because of the demonstrations and asking for their rights and the most important

thing was migration that leads to the clash culture with other nationalities like; Iraqis, Turk,

.Europe countries which a huge impact on their mentality appeared

So for our society still we are in a transitional period like the transitional period of the

Victorian era toward Modernism. It means that we have a long journey to reach that point of

modern life and the coming future, so our duty as Kurds is to stand together, be honest toward

each other, learn from our previous mistakes that our grandparents couldn’t solve them, and

taking responsibility seriously to build a stable, free, dependent country, and that will not be

done till every person knows his role in life as a Kurd. Many dreams had become truth and

reality through history, so why we cannot achieve it since we have constituents state which

are: people(Kurds), land(territory), and authority which refer to which kind of authority can

be more activate for our benefit by sitting rules for democracy that protect people's rights,

freedom of speech (politically, civil society), a modern educational system which keeps the

mentality of humans in process toward the best life, securing the standard of living and social
 Hassan

protection. This, of course, is not only my dream rather it is the dream of every Kurd from the

four parts of the great Kurdistan. Nothing is impossible if we supported each other by

.understanding and acceptance

Elizabeth Barrette Browning

A Victorian poet born in 1806 in Durham country, London. She was depending on

herself in education and she wrote her first epic poem when she was 10 years old. In

1836 they moved to live in London because of some financial issue, which forced her

father to sell their own house, she was famous between the literary poets. Her health

.was deteriorated and led to her death in 1861

One of the poems that excited me was "The Cry of the Children" 1843, were she is

describing child labors, when they are hardly working in order to remain a life and to

secure their families too from the strict rules that limited their wishes, views and set a

.border between them and the real live

So this a perfect imagery poem that we can clearly those kids are forbidden from the

taste of life and how they are weeping at their mothers comparing themselves with

other nature creatures like; lambs and fawns were they are enjoying the life that they

have, while they are working forcibly in the coal mines and factories in England,

means that they are like machines; cannot stop, cannot get tired, cannot get a rest or a

.free time enjoying the normal life as the other creatures beside their mothers
 Hassan

"Pheu pheu, ti prosderkesthe m ommasin, tekna;" 

[[Alas, alas, why do you gaze at me with your eyes, my children.]]—
Medea.
Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, 
      Ere the sorrow comes with years ? 
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, — 
      And that cannot stop their tears. 
The young lambs are bleating in the meadows ; 
   The young birds are chirping in the nest ; 
The young fawns are playing with the shadows ; 
   The young flowers are blowing toward the west— 
But the young, young children, O my brothers, 
      They are weeping bitterly ! 
They are weeping in the playtime of the others, 
      In the country of the free. 

Do you question the young children in the sorrow, 

      Why their tears are falling so ? 
The old man may weep for his to-morrow 
      Which is lost in Long Ago — 
The old tree is leafless in the forest — 
   The old year is ending in the frost — 
The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest — 
   The old hope is hardest to be lost : 
But the young, young children, O my brothers, 
      Do you ask them why they stand 
Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers, 
      In our happy Fatherland ? 
Hassan