Life is not full of sadness. It is an empty dream. A dream presents many pleasant things which vanish as soon as it breaks.

Similarly, some pessimistic people consider life as unreal and empty as dream. If they find any happy thing, they dont accept and enjoy it. They discard it as unreal too. Such people are dead in there spirit. They value life in terms of its physical aspect. But the poet empathetically says that life is real and earnest. It furnishes great opportunities for bettering ourselves. Grave or death is not the destination of life. The Bible contains a remark, 'Dust thou art, to dust returnest'. It is a remark about body. Body vanishes but the soul does not dissolve. Death can not trap soul. Life means to act at present. It is neither for enjoyment nor for to joy and sorrow. Instead of paying attention to joy and sorrow, we aught to act, we must not waste time in expecting a more suitable time to come. We should think that tomorrow is far away from today. Therefore, we must act right from now. Death envelopes the weak, the brave and the coward. All are marching to each other's grave. Time runs away and every body of us are lossing our valuable period of life day by day. Life is getting shorter day by day. In this short period a long art can not possibly be tried and achieved. Life is a temporary rest camp. We are all soldiers in the world's broad field of battle. When we grow tired, we take rest in that rest camp. The poet urges us to be creative and to be a hero in the battle. We must not surrender. We must not be driven like dumb cattle. Dumb cattle lack creativity. But we must be brave enough to face our life's battle. Further the right time for work is present. Neither future nor past is suitable. Future may seem very pleasant. But it is not dependable. Similarly, past is already passed and is buried like a dead body. Thus we are left with only present. We should act in the living present. In our heart we must keep faith in God. God will reward us for our work. While working, we have to follow the footprints of great men in past. By reading their biography and by following their footprints and examples we can make our own lives great and sublime. Our own greatness and bublimity will be recorded as examples for the future generations too. If any person gets disappointed or fails in his material or spiritual pursuits, he may look at the examples, set up by us, and may get adequate consolation. Hope of success is regenerated in him. Instead of being doomed to utter despair, he feels vibrant with hopes. Therefore the poet advises us to get rid of sloth and be brave enough to face any situation in our lives. We must not cease at any; point of time. Pursuits and achievements must continue. Our endeavour must also continue with undiminished faith in God. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

Daffodils

In Daffodils, Wordsworth is reminiscing about a day when he was out walking and saw his host of daffodils. He is looking back on how much of an impression it has had on him. In the first two lines of the poems Wordsworth applies the image of a cloud to himself, which symbolises his integration with the natural world. Both he and the cloud are aspects of the world, which is subject to the laws of nature but they can still retain their freedom in spite of this. Other images in the poem reinforce this the dancing flowers, the lake, the breeze and the continuous stars and they are associated with self-joy and contented solitude. Wordsworth expresses feelings for nature through these symbolic objects. He personifies the daffodils as dancers, dancing gaily as part of the beauty of nature (L.6), and compares them to the stars, which reflect the beauty and consistency of nature (L.7 and 8). He centres on the role of the imagination in the interplay between the mind and environment and it is only after he has experienced this scene does he turn to contemplation of it and it thereafter becomes a reflective and restorative memory for him. He realises the full extent of the wealth the scene has given him in a spiritual way (L.17 and 18) and it stays with him always as an inspiration.

O captain! My captain!
O Captain! My Captain is a moving poem in which Whitman expresses his profound sense of grief at a tragic end of a leader of men is addressed to Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents of the United States of America, who fought a war (the American Civil War) against the Southern States to give the Negro slaves freedom and human dignity. The war was won, the slaves were freed, but Lincoln, soon after his election as president for a second term, fell a victim to an assassins bullet. The leader is being conceived as the brave captain of a ship who falls dead on the deck just when the journey is over and the victory is won. Whitman delivers the message to the captain and declares that their fearful and dangerous trip is done. Their ship had withstood every destructive encounter and their prized reward that they longed for is won. Their weary ship is drawing near the sea-port, the church bells are ringing to celebrate a victory and the people are rejoicing. Yet in the midst the celebration, he sees that within the grim and the daring vessel, his heart would spill profusely with drops of blood of immeasurable sadness to see his captain lying cold and dead. Whitman pleads desperately to the captain to get up from his bed and see that the people are flying the flag just for him. The people are blowing their trumpets and bugles and are waiting to present him with bunches of flowers and decorated garlands to honour him-the victor. The seashores are swaying with crowds of cheering people. All the faces of the people on the shore are eager to see the captain addressing them from the deck. Yet the captain, a father to all people of the nation slept still and cold with his arm beneath his head. It is like an unbelievable bad dream that the leader is dead at the moment of victory. Yet the captain does not answer still. His lips are extremely pale and not moving. Whitman says that his father does not feel his arm, and has neither pulse nor movement. The ship has finally reached the shore. It has dropped its anchor safe and sound. The long tiring voyage is closed and done. The triumph for the achievement is worth the effort. Whitman encourages the people on the shores to continue rejoicing and ring those bells as loud as possible. For him he will walk the heavy steps with deep sadness to the deck where his captain lies absolutely cold and dead.

Where the mind is without fear.

This poem in this selection has been taken from his English Gitanjali. Tagore had a very deep religious caste of mind and profound humanism. He was both a patriot and an internationalist. In the poem, Where The Mind Is Without Fear, Tagore sketches a moving picture of the nation he would like India to be. Where everyone within the fold of the brotherhood is free to hold up ones head high and ones voice to be heard without having any tension of fear of oppression or forced compulsion. Where the knowledge is not restricted by narrow ideas and loyalties. The British rule had robbed India of its pride and dignity by reducing it to a subject nation.

The India of Tagores dream is a country where his people hold their heads high with their pride in knowledge and strength born of that knowledge. Where all countrymen must come out the aged-old world of people who have lost the vision of one humanity by the narrow loyalties of caste creed and religion. Prejudice and superstitious which narrow the mind and divide people would be a thing of the past. Where the words of truth come out from the depths of the heart and are spoken out courageously in the open for the world to hear. People would work for perfections in the clear light of reason leaving aside all superstitious ritual. Where everyone is free to toil and work hard for anything they desire either for their own or for the good of the nation. Everyone is encouraged to strive tirelessly till they attain full satisfaction in reaching their goals and perfection. Where blind superstitious habits of thought and action have not put out the light of reason. Where peoples mind should not dwell in the mistakes of the past nor be possessed by it. On the other hand they should be led by the power of reasoning to be focused on the future by applying scientific thought and action. Tagores only prayer to the Supreme Ultimate is leading the nation to such an ideal state of heaven. It is only by the universality of outlook and an abiding passion for the realization of great human ideals that India will achieve her true freedom. This way alone she will realize her destiny ODE TO AUTUMM..BY John Keats. Ode To Autumn is known as the subtlest and most beautiful of all Keats odes. It seems generally agreed that Ode To Autumn is a rich and vivid description of nature. The first stanza describes the natural process and the remaining two stanzas are sensuous observations of the consequences of that process: first sights of the harvest in its final stages; then, post-harvest sounds, heralding the coming of Winter. These three stanzas represent the seasonal sequence of events: pre-harvest ripeness, late-harvest repletion and post-harvest natural music. The Autumn of the first stanza is a process and a beneficent agricultural conspiracy, plotting secretly with the sun to bring ripeness to all. The stanza is `aurete. The fullness of nature's own grace, her free and overwhelming gift of herself, unfallen, is the burden of this ripe stanza, evoked primarily through the bees and their honey. There is only a slight, but vital premonitory shading: the later flowers deceive the bees. As the second stanza opens, we see Autumn already "amid" her score. The promised overabundance of the first stanza has been fulfilled; the harvest plot has been successful, the blessing so overflowing that nature's grace abounds. Autumn is now no longer an active process, but a female overcome by the fragrance and soft exhaustion of her own labour. She is passive, an embodiment of the earthly paradise, the place of repose, after the sexual and productive activity hinted at by her having been "close bosom-friend of the maturing sun." However, she is also the peasant girl drunk with the odours and efforts of gathering, winnowing, reaping and gleaning.

In the last stanza, Keats praises the red-breasted robin and Winter's other singers and finds in the pre-departure twitterings of the gathering swallows an emblem of natural completion. Winter descends here as a man might hope to die: with natural sweetness. Whereas Ode To A Nightingale leaves us with contraries, Ode To Autumn lets warm love in and resolves contraries because there is no further need for progression.

All the worlds a stage.

It's not actually a poem, but a speech said by the character Jacques in Shakespeare's play As You Like It. The voice we hear is not Shakespeare's but that of a chronically depressed and unemployed nobleman, hanging around the court-in-exile of a deposed Duke. He is responding to the Duke saying that there are some people who are even worse off than he is by replying that everybody is actually playing the same role in life--we cannot aspire to an individual happiness greater than the misery which is the lot of all men. (He's a bit of a mysogynist, so he doesn't talk about women at all, but if he did, he'd say the same thing.) 'All the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely players' : Here, Jacques compares a mans' life with that of a play set up in theater. He says that each mans' finite life is nothing but an act, and as the man progresses in his life, the scenes and acts each shift accordingly. 'They have their exits and entrances' : He says that the entrance of a man's life is his birth, and his exit his death. Then, he goes on to describe the seven stages of a mans life: First comes the infant, who is completely helpless and has no clue of the world around him. He is completely dependent on the people who dote on him - his mother and his nurse. Then, he grows into a child, who is reluctant to go to school and trudges slowly. 'Morning face' reprents the dawn of life as well as the tiny child's innocence. Then he becomes a lover, who is sad about having to leave his mistress and pours out his feelings in the form of ballads. Then he becomes a soldier, who guards his reputation. With his life and will defend it with anything. He is hot-tempered and ruthless, just like a leopard or ferocious wild cat. The 'bubble reputation' the poet speaks of says that reputation is a lot like a bubble - it will burst at the slightest touch to it and it is impossible to get it back after that. Then he becomes a wise judge, full of witty quotes and whose life experiences allow him to advice people. He compares people's misfortunes with his own and tells them how to solve them.By this time he has become rather fat, something seen as a sign of prosperity. Then, he becomes a weak, feeble old man who wears glasses and has shrunk to a thin, pitiful state and has a shrill, high-pitched voice. The last stage is that of a old man, who is almost like an infant again - oblivious of his surroundings and who has lost everything in his life - material-wise as well as emotion wise.