Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Raven

by 
Edgar Allan Poe


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-
This it is, and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"- here I opened wide the door;-
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,
fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"-
Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore-
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;-
'Tis the wind and nothing more."

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and
flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed
he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no
craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning- little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door-
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered- not a feather then he fluttered-
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "other friends have flown
before-
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of 'Never- nevermore'."

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and
door;
Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee- by these angels he
hath sent thee
Respite- respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!- prophet still, if bird or
devil!-
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-
On this home by horror haunted- tell me truly, I implore-
Is there- is there balm in Gilead?- tell me- tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil- prophet still, if bird or
devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us- by that God we both adore-
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend," I shrieked,
upstarting-
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my
door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the
floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted- nevermore! 


Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), was an American poet and writer known for his disturbing tales of gruesomeness and gore. He was also the first writer to ever write an English detective story with The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The Raven is his most popular poetic work, describing human beings' tendency to continue with the futile action in foolish hopes of something better.

Click here to read an in-depth explanation of The Raven

In case you didn't have time to read the whole poem, here it is, recited by the Hollywood actor Christopher Walken






Source of Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12vjZ3zq_PYcH5R0lgyAXELq6sJhA95ZVRhxTun2gpD8nCgP-9M95WCXPjlGyqehIMPbB85bHzCz4b8hYGnyT0q4Lsi6VuW_409f-aAgQSD8x9HHNTJXJn79NxaTe6Wdde8i3kjaTevE/s400/The_Raven_by_senyphine.jpg

Monday, March 14, 2011

Ozzymandias

by
Percy Bysshe Shelley
 
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away". 



The Ramesseum ruins near Luxor, Egypt

 
(The word Ozzymandias is the Greek transliteration of the name of the Egyptian Pharoah Ramses II)

Shelley (1792-1822) is one of the most popular poets of the English language. Belonging to the Age of the Romantics, he is most noted for his visionary works, long dramatic poems, political messages and of course short, sweet and sad lamentations. Ozymandias is one of, if not the, most famous poems of his, and talks about the eventual demise of even the most powerful individuals and empires.


Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Shehzori

Short Tastes - Your personal guide to the world of short stories





Shakil & Nilofer Abbasi in Shehzori


Saturday, March 5, 2011

A Silly Poem

by
Spike Milligan


Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
I'll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B? 















Source of Image: http://www.william-shakespeare-quotes.info/images/shakespeare-cartoon.gif

Friday, March 4, 2011

From Saviours to Tyrants

This is no time to criticize a revolution. After all, they're in vogue; attempting to bring order into the lives of suppressed people. 

But what makes for a successful revolution? Is it the change that is being worked for? Is it the strength of those in revolt? Or is it the question of whether the revolt is being brought about from the top or the bottom? Or perhaps none of these factors really determine whether the revolt will be successful. Perhaps it is what happens afterwards that makes all the difference. A revolution may only be successful if it ends up transferring power from the hands of one to those of the populace. 

So what happens if this transfer of power doesn't occur? Probably what happened during the Bolshevik revolution, where the state of the people did not improve, or after the French Revolution, when an Emperor replaced the King. One tyrant may be replaced with another. That's that, end of story; no happy ending, no use of a revolution.

Don't agree with me? Then try reading George Orwell's Animal Farm (Published: 1945) for perspective. 


The book tells the story about the animals on a certain farm who are tired of the cruel treatment handed out to them by their masters - the humans, so they decide to revolt. The uprising is led by the pigs, who are the smartest creatures on the farm (representing the society's elite, ironic huh?). Other animals (making up the middle class) include horses, cows, goats, hens and a donkey; all workaholics thinking of little else all day than their duties. The sheep are the masses, mindless followers of whatever is taught to them; and the dogs are the military, strong and ruthless. 

The animals' revolt is based on very noble ideas- the equality of all animals, no killing, lots of food for all, no exploitation, etc. However, the success of the revolution gives way to power struggles, rivalry, propaganda and the breaking of the very laws, by the leaders, that they had helped pen. The middle class feels that something wrong is going on but is too busy in its work to do anything about it. The masses (sheep) barely know what's happening and continue to do what they're told. The pigs replace the humans and things go back to square one.


What a revolution then needs is a responsible leader; someone who wouldn't be driven by his lust for power, but by his duty to the people and society. Without this, it would only be a matter of time before the pigs turn into humans.


Source of Image: http://www.annexed.net/freedom/AnimalFarmCommandments.jpg

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Romance in the Air... or rather On Paper

So many people (aka girls) have asked me to tell them the name of any good book to read, and on getting the names of several, have then asked me which of those was a romance. I can not figure out why so many girls read only romantic books. There's so much out there to read. True the not-so-romantic books don't give you that feeling of butterflies in your stomach (on the contrary they might want to make you hurl in disgust... Yeah I'm looking at you Orwell!), but they sure do give you food for hours of thought. So all you romantic buffs out there, give other genres a try. Who knows what you might like!

Having said that, this blog post is actually written to facilitate the romance-seekers who are in search of new love sagas to cry over. No library of love is complete without all six Jane Austens. Georgette Heyers would do for you if you're in a mood for humour. And if you're looking for something deeper ,than grab Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell or of course Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. All are worth reading at least twice!

If you've gone through all of the above and still want more of the same, then I would recommend getting something off the Guardian's 1000 novels everyone must read list. This list was issued in 2009 and includes novels from any decade and language. The 1000 novels have been divided into 7 categories: Comedy, Crime, Family & Self, Love, Science Fiction & Fantasy, State of the Nation, and War & Travel. Here is the list of books that make up the Love category.

  • Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alain-Fournier
  • Dom Casmurro Joaquim by Maria Machado de Assis
  • Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
  • Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  • Emma by Jane Austen
  • Persuasion by Jane Austen
  • Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
  • Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
  • The Garden of the Finzi-Cortinis by Giorgio Bassani
  • Love for Lydia by HE Bates
  • More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow
  • Lorna Doone by RD Blackmore
  • The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
  • The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  • Vilette by Charlotte Bronte
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  • Look At Me by Anita Brookner
  • Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
  • Possession by AS Byatt
  • Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
  • Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
  • A Month in the Country by JL Carr
  • My Antonia by Willa Cather
  • A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
  • Claudine a l'ecole by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
  • Cheri by Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette
  • Victory: An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad
  • The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette
  • The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier
  • Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
  • The Lover by Marguerite Duras
  • Adam Bede by George Eliot
  • Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
  • The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  • The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
  • The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
  • Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
  • Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
  • The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
  • A Room with a View by EM Forster
  • The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
  • The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
  • Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
  • Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide
  • Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
  • The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
  • Living by Henry Green
  • The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
  • The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
  • Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
  • Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
  • Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
  • The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
  • The Go-Between by LP Hartley
  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
  • A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer
  • Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
  • The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
  • Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest by WH Hudson
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
  • The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
  • The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
  • The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
  • Beauty and Saddness by Yasunari Kawabata
  • The Far Pavillions by Mary Margaret Kaye
  • Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
  • Moon over Africa by Pamela Kent
  • The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
  • Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos de Laclos
  • Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
  • The Rainbow by DH Lawrence
  • Women in Love by DH Lawrence
  • The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann
  • The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
  • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  • Zami by Audre Lorde
  • Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
  • Samarkand by Amin Maalouf
  • Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
  • The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini
  • A Heart So White by Javier Marias
  • Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
  • So Long, See you Tomorrow by William Maxwell
  • The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
  • Atonement by Ian McEwan
  • The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
  • The Egoist by George Meredith
  • Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
  • Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller
  • Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  • The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
  • Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
  • Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
  • Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
  • Lolita, or the Confessions of a White Widowed Male by Vladimir Nabokov
  • The Painter of Signs by RK Narayan
  • Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
  • All Souls Day by Cees Nooteboom
  • The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
  • Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
  • Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost
  • Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
  • Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson
  • Pamela by Samuel Richardson
  • Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
  • Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  • Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
  • Ali and Nino by Kurban Said 
  • Light Years by James Salter
  • A Sport and a Passtime by James Salter
  • The Reader by Benhardq Schlink
  • The Reluctant Orphan by Aara Seale
  • Love Story by Eric Segal
  • Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • At Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
  • I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
  • The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
  • Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
  • Waterland by Graham Swift
  • Diary of a Mad Old Man by Junichiro Tanizaki
  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  • Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
  • First Love by Ivan Turgenev
  • Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
  • The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
  • The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
  • The Graduate by Charles Webb
  • The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
  • The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
  • East Lynne by Ellen Wood
  • Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates 

Many books here are quite old and so, out of copyright. Google the one you're interested in to check. That way you can get a free online version.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Allen Ginsberg - Challenging the Norms

Today the English language celebrates many famous poets and among those stands the name of the 20th century poet Allen Ginsberg. His claim to fame is the controversial and norm-changing poem "Howl." Using extremely crass yet day to day vocabulary Ginsberg tried to illustrate the true meaning of the phrase "freedom of expression."

This poem, and other works by Ginsberg, became so controversial that it all led to a famous trial where the publisher of Howl was charged with spreading non-literary works. The trial was eventually won by the publisher when the judge declared that the poem definitely had literary merit and just becasue someone uses a different set of words to express their feelings does not necessarily mean it is wrong.

You may end up disagreeing with Ginsberg's lifestyle or choice of words but you will accept one thing: He was a brave fellow, ready to take matters into his own hands. His poem Howl is a commentary on life and how an ordinary person goes about it.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, 
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, 
angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection 
to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,

Maybe out there, somewhere among our readers there is someone like Ginsberg who realizes that he has what it takes to not only say what is right, but to challenge others who conform to the society's norms and are afraid to step out.

Here is an interesting poem by Allen Ginsberg:


Homework

Homage to Kenneth Koch

If I were doing my Laundry I'd wash my dirty Iran
I'd throw in my United States, and pour on the Ivory Soap,
scrub up Africa, put all the birds and elephants back in
the jungle,
I'd wash the Amazon river and clean the oily Carib & Gulf of Mexico,
Rub that smog off the North Pole, wipe up all the pipelines in Alaska,
Rub a dub dub for Rocky Flats and Los Alamos, Flush that sparkly
Cesium out of Love Canal
Rinse down the Acid Rain over the Parthenon & Sphinx, Drain the Sludge
out of the Mediterranean basin & make it azure again,
Put some blueing back into the sky over the Rhine, bleach the little
Clouds so snow return white as snow,
Cleanse the Hudson Thames & Neckar, Drain the Suds out of Lake Erie
Then I'd throw big Asia in one giant Load & wash out the blood &
Agent Orange,
Dump the whole mess of Russia and China in the wringer, squeeze out
the tattletail Gray of U.S. Central American police state,
& put the planet in the drier & let it sit 20 minutes or an
Aeon till it came out clean 



Adil Majid 

Source of Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1-iIp1UB7f1SoBmBjlDGmh6M-9q61gEal64h6eBe7cVdlZbyoe4pESxpS5QEKD-V5IKftGQoHRcetr0RBzwgIp9QTh20O3eKL7570GDXqekQWoT_D_qbg9HpIqKNzaUOUQ2PuNZYPpE/s1600/AllenGinsberg.jpg

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Ghazal (Jo Guzri Mujh Pe...)

by
Mirza Rafi Sauda



 This Ghazal has been sung beautifully by many great artists. Click on their names to watch their respective performances on YouTube: Malika Pukhraj, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Tina Sani.