WHO WAS THE FIRST KNOWN POET IN THE WORLD?

Enheduanna, a princess and priestess, who lived in the 23rd Century BC, is considered to be the world's first known author. She lived 1,700 hundred years before Sappho, and 1,500 years before Homer. She was born in Mesopotamia, the birthplace of the first cities and cultures. Her father King Sargon the Great, was history's first empire builder who conquered the separate independent city-states of Mesopotamia under a unified banner.

Royal Duties

Sargon was viewed as a foreign invader by the people of the older Sumerian cities of the south because he spoke Akkadian and belonged to the north. To bridge the gap between the two cultures, the king appointed his only daughter, Enheduanna, as the high priestess.

The women of the royal family were well educated and traditionally served religious roles in the kingdom. They were taught to read and write in both Sumerian and Akkadian and trained to perform mathematical calculations.

Until Enheduanna, writing was only used in record-keeping rather than composing original literary works that could be attributed to an author. Her duties entailed managing the city's grain storage facilities, overseeing hundreds of temple workers and presiding over monthly sacred rituals.

Her written works aimed at bringing together the older Sumerian cultures and the newer Akkadian civilisation. She accomplished this by composing 42 religious hymns that combined mythologies from both traditions.

Enheduanna's poetry for Goddess Inanna (goddess of desire and war), is considered to be her most valuable contribution to the literary tradition of the time. Her odes to the deity mark the first time an author used the personal pronoun T. After her demise, she was honoured as a minor deity. Her poetry was widely circulated, studied and performed throughout the empire for over 500 years. Her works went on to inspire and influence the Hebrew Old Testament, the epics of Homer and many Christian hymns. Today, her legacy is preserved in excavated clay tables from that period.

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How did John Milton write Paradise Lost?

Having gone blind in 1652 John Milton, 17th century English poet, wrote "Paradise Lost through dictation with the help of an amanuensis (person employed to write what another dictates) and his friends because he had completely lost his vision. The first version of the epic published in 1667 consists of 10 books with over 10,000 lines of blank verse. It is centred around the biblical story of the fall of man, the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their dismissal from Eden.

Many scholars consider Paradise Lost to be one of the greatest poems in the English language. It tells the biblical story of the fall from grace of Adam and Eve (and, by extension, all humanity) in language that is a supreme achievement of rhythm and sound. The 12-book structure, the technique of beginning in medias res (in the middle of the story), the invocation of the muse, and the use of the epic question are all classically inspired. The subject matter, however, is distinctly Christian.

The main characters in the poem are God, Lucifer (Satan), Adam, and Eve. Much has been written about Milton’s powerful and sympathetic characterization of Satan. The Romantic poets William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley saw Satan as the real hero of the poem and applauded his rebellion against the tyranny of Heaven.

Many other works of art have been inspired by Paradise Lost, notably Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation (1798) and John Keats’s long poem Endymion. Milton wrote a companion piece, Paradise Regained, in 1671, which dramatizes the temptation of Christ.

Credit : Britannica 

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Who was Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle?

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle  (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste.

While pursuing his degree he made his writing debut with a short story named, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley. Later he wrote Captain of the Pole Star inspired by his adventurous journey on a ship as a surgeon. On his return Doyle relinquished his Catholic faith as he found himself immensely invested in Spiritualism. He practiced medicine as an oculist but as it did not work out for him, he found refuge in writing. It was his studies that facilitated him to emerge as a remarkable writer.

He finally got the much awaited break with the release of A Study in Scarlet, introducing the phenomenal detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle drew inspiration for this exceptional character from his professor Dr. Joseph Bell. Dr. Bell was a surgeon with an eccentric attribute of reading people by deducing telltale signs in their appearance. Doyle penned down over 50 stories based on the character of Sherlock. Late 19th and early 20th century marked as the height of his writing career as he continued to write Sherlock novels. In order to concentrate on his Spiritual writings he abandoned Sherlock Holmes series by killing off the character. However, later he was made to bring back the character by popular demand.

A prolific writer like Arthur Conan Doyle proved in himself in multifarious genres of writings. His genius was highlighted in his literary works which ranged from poetry, historical fiction, spiritual works, non-fictional writings to sci-fi and fantasy short stories.

Credit : Famous Authors

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Who was Jules Gabriel Verne?

Jules Verne, (born February 8, 1828, Nantes, France—died March 24, 1905, Amiens), prolific French author, novelist, poet and playwright whose writings laid much of the foundation of modern science fiction.

Verne’s father, intending that Jules follow in his footsteps as an attorney, sent him to Paris to study law. But the young Verne fell in love with literature, especially theatre. He wrote several plays, worked as secretary of the Théâtre Lyrique (1852–54), and published short stories and scientific essays in the periodical Musée des familles. In 1857 Verne married and for several years worked as a broker at the Paris Stock Market. During this period he continued to write, to do research at the Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library), and to dream of a new kind of novel—one that would combine scientific fact with adventure fiction. In September 1862 Verne met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who agreed to publish the first of Verne’s Voyages extraordinaires (“Extraordinary Journeys”)—Cinq semaines en ballon (1863; Five Weeks in a Balloon). Initially serialized in Hetzel’s Le Magasin d’éducation et de récréation, the novel became an international best seller, and Hetzel offered Verne a long-term contract to produce many more works of “scientific fiction.” Verne subsequently quit his job at the stock market to become a full-time writer and began what would prove to be a highly successful author-publisher collaboration that lasted for more than 40 years and resulted in more than 60 works in the popular series Voyages extraordinaires.

Verne’s works can be divided into three distinct phases. The first, from 1862 to 1886, might be termed his positivist period. After his dystopian second novel Paris au XXe siècle (1994; Paris in the 20th Century) was rejected by Hetzel in 1863, Verne learned his lesson, and for more than two decades he churned out many successful science-adventure novels, including Voyage au centre de la terre (1863, expanded 1867; Journey to the Centre of the Earth), De la terre à la lune (1865; From the Earth to the Moon), Autour de la lune (1870; Around the Moon), Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (1870; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), and Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (1873; Around the World in Eighty Days). During these years Verne settled with his family in Amiens and made a brief trip to the United States to visit New York City and Niagara Falls. During this period he also purchased several yachts and sailed to many European countries, collaborated on theatre adaptations of several of his novels, and gained both worldwide fame and a modest fortune.

The second phase, from 1886 until his death in 1905, might be considered Verne’s pessimist period. Throughout these years the ideological tone of his Voyages extraordinaires began to change. Increasingly, Verne turned away from pro-science tales of exploration and discovery in favour of exploring the dangers of technology wrought by hubris-filled scientists in novels such as Sans dessus dessous (1889; Topsy-Turvy or The Purchase of the North Pole), L’Île à hélice (1895; The Floating Island or The Self-Propelled Island or Propeller Island), Face au drapeau (1896; Facing the Flag or For the Flag), and Maître du monde (1904; Master of the World). This change of focus also paralleled certain adversities in the author’s personal life: growing problems with his rebellious son, Michel; financial difficulties that forced him to sell his yacht; the successive deaths of his mother and his mentor Hetzel; and an attack by a mentally disturbed nephew who shot him in the lower leg, rendering him partially crippled. When Verne died, he left a drawerful of nearly completed manuscripts in his desk.

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What is William Wordsworth known for?

What is William Wordsworth known for?

William Wordsworth was one of the founders of English Romanticism. He is remembered as a poet who always emphasised on the importance of Nature to a person's intellectual and spiritual development. He was a fierce advocate of using the vocabulary and speech patterns of common people in poetry. The son of John and Ann Cookson Wordsworth, William was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, located in the Lake District of England.

Wordsworth began writing poetry as a young boy in a grammar school. Before graduating from St. John's College, he went on a walking tour of Europe, which deepened his love for Nature and his sympathy for the common man. He is best known for Lyrical Ballads, which he co-wrote with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and The Prelude, a Romantic epic poem that chronicles the 'growth of a poet's mind.

It was with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 to great acclaim that the Romantic Movement in poetry was born.

Romanticism

This European intellectual movement gained traction across art, music and literature in the 18th Century.

Romanticism is best understood as a reaction to the birth of the modern world and its key features such as industrialisation, secularisation, and consumerism. It simply refers to the birth of a new set of ideas.

This era was thematically characterised by individualism and spirituality, an enhanced appreciation of the beauty of Nature and an exaltation of emotion over reason.

Literature from this time was preoccupied with the idea of conflict between oneself and society.

Wordsworth: A Nature poet

In the "Preface" to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads published in 1800, Wordsworth described poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," which became the manifesto of the English Romantic movement.

His poetry returns to the simplistic image of Nature as the base. Throughout his works, he laid emphasis on the noble impact of the natural world on mankind. From the highest mountain to the simplest flower according to him, the natural world inspired passionate emotions in those who observe them.

To him Nature was a source of joy and solace. The same is exemplified by the following lines from his poem Daffodils:

"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."

Celebrations in place

7th April 2020 marked the 250th birth anniversary of Wordsworth. This significant occasion is being commemorated nationwide and internationally with celebrations of the poet's life, work, and legacy.

The project, Wordsworth 250, got delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. His descendants have come up with a range of celebrations to mark the poet's birth anniversary in the Lake District.

With the aim to build a living archive of the poet's writing, the public was asked to send in recorded recitations of their favourite Wordsworth poems.

What initially started as a family memorial turned into a global celebration of the poet's legacy as a host of actors and celebrities joined forces and participated in the celebration.

A record of youth

An undergraduate at St John's College, Cambridge from 1787 to 1791, Wordsworth is arguably the College's most famous alumnus. An exhibition was held to honour his memory at his alma mater. It showcased items from the Library's Wordsworth Collection, which included portraits and artefacts as well as his signed manuscripts and printed books. Here one could view the poet's face (as cast from life by artist Benjamin Robert Haydon) and his breakfast tea cup which was a gift from his art patron Sir George Beaumont, alongside letters to his eminent contemporaries and first-edition copies of his greatest works.

Cumbria Festival Chorus

Cumbria Festival Chorus and Orchestracelebrated the occasion with a concert featuring two new choral commissions by local composers, both based on Wordsworth's poetry: "Child of the Clouds" by Roland Fudge, based on The River Duddon Sonnets, and "Influence of Natural Objects" by Jonathan Millican, based on the poem by the same name. The programme was complemented by the British composer Gerald Finzi's performance of the poet's Intimations of Immortality.

Is he still relevant?

Wordsworth's genius was his reaction to the changing time and the developing modernity. His work highlighted the loss of innocence that accompanied the Industrial and technological revolutions. His words lament the disrupted bond between Nature and mankind, emphasising the need to look inward. His accessible poetry challenged the traditional poetic diction by grounding itself in the rustic life of the countryside.

Literary critics praise his analysis of the cultural practices of the time and credit him with laying the foundation for media theory and the modern cultural discourse.

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“I wandered lonely as a cloud” begins which poet’s popular work?



"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is a lyric poem by William Wordsworth. It is Wordsworth's best-known work.



The poem was inspired by an event on 15 April 1802 in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a "long belt" of daffodils.



Wordsworth was aware of the appropriateness of the idea of daffodils which “flash upon that inward eye” because in his 1815 version he added a note commenting on the "flash" as an "ocular spectrum". Coleridge in Biographia Literaria of 1817, while acknowledging the concept of "visual spectrum" as being "well known", described Wordsworth's (and Mary's) lines, among others, as "mental bombast". Fred Blick has shown that the idea of flashing flowers was derived from the "Elizabeth Linnaeus Phenomenon", so called because of the discovery of flashing flowers by Elizabeth Linnaeus in 1762. Wordsworth described it as "rather an elementary feeling and simple impression (approaching to the nature of an ocular spectrum) upon the imaginative faculty, rather than an exertion of it..." The phenomenon was reported upon in 1789 and 1794 by Erasmus Darwin, whose work Wordsworth certainly read.



The entire household thus contributed to the poem. Nevertheless, Wordsworth's biographer Mary Moorman notes that Dorothy was excluded from the poem, even though she had seen the daffodils together with Wordsworth. The poem itself was placed in a section of Poems in Two Volumes entitled "Moods of my Mind" in which he grouped together his most deeply felt lyrics. Others included "To a Butterfly", a childhood recollection of chasing butterflies with Dorothy, and "The Sparrow's Nest", in which he says of Dorothy "She gave me eyes, she gave me ears".



 



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Whose narrative poem is “Goblin Market”?



Goblin Market, poem by Christina Rossetti, published in 1862 in the collection Goblin Market and Other Poems. Comprising 567 irregularly rhyming lines, the poem recounts the plight of Laura, who succumbs to the enticement of the goblins and eats the fruit they sell. 



Christina Georgina Rossetti was born on December 5, 1830, in London, England, the fourth child of an Italian immigrant family with strong literary and artistic leanings. Her father, Gabrielle Rossetti, was an Italian poet and political exile whose support for revolutionary nationalism drove him to seek refuge in England. One of Rossetti's brothers was the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His work is also discussed and studied today. Her other brother, William Michael Rossetti, was a writer and critic who later acted as her editor. Both brothers were members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood art movement. Rossetti's sister, Maria Francesca Rossetti, was an author who later in life became an Anglican nun. Indeed, Rossetti dedicated "Goblin Market" to Maria. Rossetti's mother, Frances Polidori (later Rossetti), was the daughter of another Italian exile and the sister of John Polidori, the physician of the famous poet Lord Byron.



Rossetti had struggled with ill health since her teens, when a doctor (probably inadequately) diagnosed her condition as "religious mania." In 1871, she became seriously ill with Graves' disease. The illness affected her heart and permanently altered her appearance, causing her eyes to protrude. In May, 1892, Rossetti was diagnosed with breast cancer. A mastectomy performed in her home proved ineffectual, and she died in London two years later on December 29, 1894. Her brother William continued to edit and publish her poetry after her death.



 



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Which 19th Century American poet’s most popular work is “The Raven”?



Edgar Allan Poe, American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor who is famous for his cultivation of mystery and the macabre. His tale “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) initiated the modern detective story, and the atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction. His “The Raven” (1845) numbers among the best-known poems in the national literature.



Poe and his works influenced literature around the world, as well as specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. He and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.



After his early attempts at poetry, Poe had turned his attention to prose, likely based on John Neal's critiques in The Yankee magazine. He placed a few stories with a Philadelphia publication and began work on his only drama Politian. The Baltimore Saturday Visiter awarded him a prize in October 1833 for his short story "MS. Found in a Bottle". The story brought him to the attention of John P. Kennedy, a Baltimorean of considerable means who helped Poe place some of his stories and introduced him to Thomas W. White, editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. Poe became assistant editor of the periodical in August 1835, but White discharged him within a few weeks for being drunk on the job. Poe returned to Baltimore where he obtained a license to marry his cousin Virginia on September 22, 1835, though it is unknown if they were married at that time. He was 26 and she was 13.



Poe was reinstated by White after promising good behavior, and he went back to Richmond with Virginia and her mother. He remained at the Messenger until January 1837. During this period, Poe claimed that its circulation increased from 700 to 3,500. He published several poems, book reviews, critiques, and stories in the paper. On May 16, 1836, he and Virginia held a Presbyterian wedding ceremony at their Richmond boarding house, with a witness falsely attesting Clemm's age as 21.



 



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What is the name of 14-line form of poems usually associated with British playwright and poet William Shakespeare?



A sonnet is a poem generally structured in the form of 14 lines, usually iambic pentameter, that expresses a thought or idea and utilizes an established rhyme scheme. As a poetic form, the sonnet was developed by an early thirteenth century Italian poet, Giacomo da Lentini. However, it was the Renaissance Italian poet Petrarch that perfected and made this poetic literary device famous. Sonnets were adapted by Elizabethan English poets, and William Shakespeare in particular.



Shakespeare’s sonnets are composed of 14 lines, and most are divided into three quatrains and a final, concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. This sonnet form and rhyme scheme is known as the ‘English’ sonnet. It first appeared in the poetry of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who translated Italian sonnets into English as well as composing his own. Many later Renaissance English writers used this sonnet form, and Shakespeare did so particularly inventively. His sonnets vary its configurations and effects repeatedly. Shakespearean sonnets use the alternate rhymes of each quatrain to create powerful oppositions between different lines and different sections, or to develop a sense of progression across the poem. The final couplet can either provide a decisive, epigrammatic conclusion to the narrative or argument of the rest of the sonnet, or subvert it. 



Some critics argue that the Fair Youth sequence follows a story-line told by Shakespeare. Evidence that corroborates this is that the sonnets show a constant change of attitude that would seem to follow a day-by-day private journal entry. Furthermore, there is an argument that the Fair Youth sequence was written to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Critics believe that Shakespeare would like him to marry and have an heir so that his beauty would live forever. The historical timeline of the procreation sonnets directly relates to William Cecil Lord Burghley and the pressure he put on Southampton to marry his granddaughter Lady Elizabeth Vere (daughter of Edward de Vere). To this day the relationship between Henry Wriothesly and Shakespeare is debated due to the fact that some believe it was romantic in nature, and not platonic. Regardless most critics agree that Shakespeare wrote this sonnet in order to convince him to produce an heir.



 



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Who is considered one of America’s greatest and most original poets and her noted poems include “Success is Counted Sweetest” and “I’m Nobody. Who are You?”



Emily Dickinson has received considerable attention during the 100 years since her death on May 15, 1886, and yet she remains almost as mysterious as Shakespeare. Some of her lines are so familiar that we quote them without knowing we are doing so: ''The Soul selects her own Society''; ''I'm Nobody! Who are you? / Are you - Nobody - Too?''; ''Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne'er succeed''; ''Parting is all we know of heaven, / And all we need of hell.'' They have entered our language with some of the anonymous authority of proverbs.



Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, but only for one year. Throughout her life, she seldom left her home and visitors were few. The people with whom she did come in contact, however, had an enormous impact on her poetry. She was particularly stirred by the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she first met on a trip to Philadelphia. He left for the West Coast shortly after a visit to her home in 1860, and some critics believe his departure gave rise to the heartsick flow of verse from Dickinson in the years that followed. While it is certain that he was an important figure in her life, it is not clear that their relationship was romantic—she called him “my closest earthly friend.” Other possibilities for the unrequited love that was the subject of many of Dickinson’s poems include Otis P. Lord, a Massachusetts Supreme Court judge, and Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican.



Dickinson's great poetic achievement was not fully realized until years after her death, even though Dickinson understood her own genius when she lived. Many scholars now identify Dickinson's style as the forerunner, by more than fifty years, of modern poetry. At the time in which Dickinson wrote, the conventions of poetry demanded strict form. Dickinson's broken meter, unusual rhythmic patterns, and assonance struck even respected critics of the time as sloppy and inept. In time, her style was echoed by many of our most revered poets, including Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. However, while she lived, the few publishers could not appreciate the innovation of Dickinson's form. Her unique technique discomfited them, and they could not see beyond it to appreciate her jewels of imagery and her unexpected and fresh metaphors.

Dickinson's niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Dickinson's sister Lavinia collected and published some of Dickinson's poetry after her death, but the world was still slow to recognize Dickinson. In 1945, the collection of poems titled Bolts of Melody was published. In 1955 Dickinson's letters and selected commentaries on her life and work were published, and in 1960, her complete poems, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, were published. At last the world began to recognize Dickinson's innovation and brilliance. Today, Dickinson is ensconced in the canon and almost universally considered one of the greatest poets in history.

In recent years, many scholars have rejected the popular view of Emily Dickinson as a heartsick recluse who spent her entire life pining for an unnamed lover, foregoing sex and companionship in order to concentrate more fully on her writing. Some scholars have argued that research on Emily Dickinson has focused too heavily on her personal life and on the importance of men to her poetry. There can be no doubt, however, that her poetry was a forerunner to modern poetry and that her poems contained some of the most unusual and daring innovations in the history of American poetry.

Dickinson was experimenting with the form and structure of the poem. Many of her innovations form the basis of modern poetry. She sent her poems as birthday greetings and as valentines, but her love poetry was private. She tied it in tight little bundles and hid it away. She did, however, seek out a mentor in Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a prominent literary critic in Boston. They began a correspondence that would last for the rest of her life. Though she doggedly sought out his advice, she never took the advice he gave, much to Higginson's annoyance.



 



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Which poet works include two epic poems – “Raghuvamsa” and “Kumarasambhava”?



Seven works of Kalidasa are known till date which include three epics, namely: Abhijnanasakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram and Vikramorvasiyam; two epic poems, namely: Raghuvamsa and Kumarasambhava; and two khandakavyas or minor poems, namely Meghadutam and Ritusamhara.



The Raghuvamsha treats of the family to which the great hero Rama belonged, commencing with its earliest antecedents and encapsulating the principal events told in the Raamaayana of Valmiki. But like the Kumarasambhava, the last nine cantos of which are clearly the addition of another poet, the Raghuvamsha ends rather abruptly, suggesting either that it was left unfinished by the poet or that its final portion was lost early.



Kalidasa has been lauded for his literary brilliance from the time of the inception of his works. His works have been a source of inspiration for various writers who have followed. Being written in Sanskrit, his works would have been limited to the upper varnas of society. He is contested to be a Brahmin whose works were centred around men and power. Brahminical hegemony, as a function of land grants made to them, worsened the status of lower varnas due to exploitation at the hands of landowners. The idea which the dominant section of the society wanted to propagate was at the centre of his works. His works tried to manifest the idea of the Gupta age being the “Golden Age”. This itself explains the reason for his works being very popular.



Therefore, this essay establishes that his works were the reflection of his society, written with a male Brahmin’s perspective, limited to a section of society which was in power due to changes in the economic infrastructure, popular because they depicted the mindset of the audience and sounded music to their ears, and remained popular during the course of time among other Sanskrit writers.



 



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Which Bengali poet’s work is “Gitanjali”?



Gitanjali is a collection of poems by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature, largely for the English translation, Song Offerings. It is part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.



Rabindranath Tagore was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India.



Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India’s spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.



 



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Who is popularly known as the “Nightingale of India”?



Sarojini Naidu was an Indian political activist and poet. A proponent of civil rights, women's emancipation, and anti-imperialistic ideas, she was an important figure in India's struggle for independence from colonial rule. Naidu's work as a poet earned her the sobriquet 'the Nightingale of India', or 'Bharat Kokila'.



This poet-freedom fighter born in 1879 was the first of several children to Dr. Aghore Nath Chattopadhyay, Principal of Nizam College, Hyderabad, and Barada Sundari Devi, a Bengali poet. As a student, Sarojini was bright and soon she excelled in many languages including Bengali, Urdu, Telugu and Persian besides English. The Nizam of Hyderabad on reading Sarojini’s Persian play, Maher Muneer, sent by her father was so impressed with the young woman he granted her a scholarship to study in King’s College and later she went on to Girton College in Cambridge.



She was introduced to Gopal Krishna Gokhale who in turn put her on to other prominent political figures of the time like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, C. P. Ramaswami Iyer and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Sarojini famously referred to Gandhiji once as “Mickey Mouse”. She played a leading role in the Civil Disobedience Movement and was imprisoned thrice.



She worked alongside Nehru for the welfare of the Indigo workers of Champaran in Bihar and fought vehemently with the British for rights. Sarojini Naidu travelled all over the country and held forth on dignity of labour, women’s emancipation and nationalism.



Sarojini was made President of the Indian National Congress in 1925. She founded the Women’s Indian Association with Dr Annie Besant. She travelled to Europe, the US and UK. After Independence, she became the first woman governor of an Indian state, the United Provinces now known as UP.



 



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How has Shakespeare inspired movies?


 



           Thousands of films have taken inspiration from Shakespeare. Akira Kurosawa, renowned Japanese filmmaker, directed Throne of Blood, which is an adaptation of Macbeth. His Ran, directed in 1985, is inspired by King Lear. My Own Private Idaho, by Gus Van Sant, is influenced by Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Laurence Olivier is probably the most famous filmmaker and actor who have successfully adapted Shakespeare’s play. His Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III are popular films.



           Shakespeare has wielded his influence in India too. Vishal Bharadwaj’s Omkara, Maqbool and Haider have been both popular and critical successes. Jayaraj’s Kannaki, Kaliyattam and Veeram are popular Shakespeare adaptations from Kerala.



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Have Shakespeare’s plays been adapted?


     



      Shakespeare has been a perennial inspiration for writer for centuries. Innumerable novels, stories and films have been born out of Shakespearean literature. Many films that you have watched may have unacknowledged, uncanny similarities with Shakespearean plots.



      Many of Shakespeare’s plays have been written as short stories and novels without changing their names. Many modern novels are inspired by him. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville is said to be inspired by Macbeth and King Lear.



      Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World has its roots in The Tempest. The same play is the inspiration for Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed. E. K Johnston’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear is inspired by the famous line from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.



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