THE DYNAMIC SPORT OF THE GLOBE - DAVY A CAREZZA - NOTES

THE MONSTER LIVES NOTES

I HAVE A DREAM

MYSTIC EXPERIENCES

The world is too much with us - William Wordsworth - Notes

The world is too much with us

William Wordsworth

Introduction:-

Angrily, the speaker accuses the modern age of having lost its connection to nature and to everything meaningful: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: / Little we see in Nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” He says that even when the sea “bares her bosom to the moon” and the winds howl, humanity is still out of tune, and looks on uncaringly at the spectacle of the storm. The speaker wishes that he were a pagan raised according to a different vision of the world, so that, “standing on this pleasant lea,” he might see images of ancient gods rising from the waves, a sight that would cheer him greatly. He imagines “Proteus rising from the sea,” and Triton “blowing his wreathed horn.”

Form

This poem is one of the many excellent sonnets Wordsworth wrote in the early 1800s. Sonnets are fourteen-line poetic inventions written in iambic pentameter. There are several varieties of sonnets; “The world is too much with us” takes the form of a Petrarchan sonnet, modeled after the work of Petrarch, an Italian poet of the early Renaissance. A Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two parts, an octave (the first eight lines of the poem) and a sestet (the final six lines). The rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet is somewhat variable; in this case, the octave follows a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, and the sestet follows a rhyme scheme of CDCDCD. In most Petrarchan sonnets, the octave proposes a question or an idea that the sestet answers, comments upon, or criticizes.

Commentary

“The world is too much with us” falls in line with a number of sonnets written by Wordsworth in the early 1800s that criticize or admonish what Wordsworth saw as the decadent material cynicism of the time. This relatively simple poem angrily states that human beings are too preoccupied with the material (“The world...getting and spending”) and have lost touch with the spiritual and with nature. In the sestet, the speaker dramatically proposes an impossible personal solution to his problem—he wishes he could have been raised as a pagan, so he could still see ancient gods in the actions of nature and thereby gain spiritual solace. His thunderous “Great God!” indicates the extremity of his wish—in Christian England, one did not often wish to be a pagan.
On the whole, this sonnet offers an angry summation of the familiar Wordsworthian theme of communion with nature, and states precisely how far the early nineteenth century was from living out the Wordsworthian ideal. The sonnet is important for its rhetorical force (it shows Wordsworth’s increasing confidence with language as an implement of dramatic power, sweeping the wind and the sea up like flowers in a bouquet), and for being representative of other poems in the Wordsworth canon—notably “London, 1802,” in which the speaker dreams of bringing back the dead poet John Milton to save his decadent era.

Theme

In the early 19th century, Wordsworth wrote several sonnets blasting what he perceived as "the decadent material cynicism of the time. "The World Is Too Much with Us" is one of those works. It reflects his view that humanity must get in touch with nature to progress spiritually. The rhyme scheme of this poem is a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-c-d, c-d. This Italian or Petrarchan sonnet uses the last six lines (sestet) to answer the first eight lines (octave). The first eight lines (octave) are the problem and the next six (sestet) is the solution.


Metaphor
The metaphor “we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon” is also an oxymoron. Sordid suggests the worst aspects of human nature such as immorality, selfishness and greed, while a boon is something that functions as a blessing or benefit.
The contradiction between the meanings of the words suggests that materialism is a destructive and corrupt blessing which the industrial revolution has produced. It emphasises the tension between the good exterior and the sordid truth behind materialism. On an exterior level, material goods bring pleasure and are a symbol of man’s progress; however, in truth, they feed the worst aspects of humanity: thus a "sordid boon."
Sonnet form
Wordsworth employs a strictly structured form, the Italian sonnet, which conforms to a set of strict conventions. As in many sonnets by the Romantic poets, he creates a tension between the emotional, natural, and fluid themes explored in the poem and the structured form of the sonnet. This tension reflects what was occurring during the Romantic Era, in which artists and poets were rebelling in the structured world of the neoclassical period.
Employing the familiar with the new and revolutionary-Wordsworth uses the familiar structure of the sonnet as well as referring to familiar ancient Gods (in the authors context they would have been familiar) to persuade the reader to engage in a positive way to the concepts addressed. The unfamiliar or unknown is always feared and suppressed thus by incorporating the familiar with the revolutionary the reader in the 19th century is more likely to engage positively with Wordsworth’s message.
Repetition and rhyming scheme
The repetitive rhyme scheme ABBAABBA, and the use of word pairs such as “getting and spending” and “late and soon” emphasises the monotonous nature of modern life and materialism. Getting and spending is a cluster of longer emphasised words with many consonants, also possibly emphasising this view.
In essence, materialism is just that getting and spending: it is devoid of emotion or a true fulfilling purpose. In many ways the stereotypes of man and woman mirror the difference between the neoclassical and romantic period between civilised and nature. Men in this context are associated with rationality, strength, order and power, whereas women are associated with emotion and the imagination.
Music and harmony
The line, "For this, for everything we are out of tune" implies that man is out of tune with nature, unable to live in harmony with the world around him. By describing the harmonious relationship of man and nature as a tune, Wordsworth evokes a sensuous experience of nature.
Collective pronouns
Wordsworth uses the words "we" and "us." This includes the reader, once again positioning the reader to engage with the poem.
Imagery
In the simile "and are up gathered now like sleeping flowers," sleeping flowers suggest that man is numb and unaware of the beauty and power of the natural world. At the same time, however, there is also a certain optimism: the image of sleeping flowers implies that humans are only dormant, and that there is some hope we will wake up and realise the power of nature.
Punctuation
The poem's many commas and semicolons create pauses that instill reflection in the reader. In each pause the reader is given space to contemplate and engage with the message.

The New Alexandrians - Notes

The New Alexandrians

‘The New Alexandrians ‘, a chapter taken from the book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything written by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams depict the dissemination of knowledge through YouTube, Wikipedia and other internet facilities.

The authors bring the history of ancient Alexandrian library which stored half million volumes of books in one building, they also talk about the unfortunate end of it and how it paved the way for the emergence of new technologies to restore the lost books in digital forms.

Authors claim that arrival of mass media changed the perceptions of people and it helped them to revive and reconstruct their knowledge. Authors describe that the New Alexandrians associates mass collaboration through the internet to disseminate human faculties and information. The last four hundred years of scientific enquiry enabled humans to think in advance and also accelerated the growth of them in various fields.

Dan Tapscott and Anthony Williams believe that mass collaboration in business and other fields enable the companies to develop well. The human Genome project, and other websites, offering insight to business on using open source strategies to expand research and marketing success.

The authors claim that sharing stories and information can build strong amity between multinational companies, more over it can make a sea change in the growth of every organization. They propose cooperation than conflict through new inventions and innovations. Exchange, collaboration and dissemination of information and sharing of technologies among talented individuals and corporations can lead to a genuine explosion of knowledge.

The Enlightenment of the seventeenth century led scientists, philosophers, mechanics and intellectuals entering into dynamic debates and exchange of ideas. Establishment of modern technologies accelerated the efforts tospread knowledge and information kindled by the enlightened thinkers. According to the Authors theestablishment of shared foundation of knowledge according to the New Alexandrians is the way to ensure innovation and success in the corporate world.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers - Langston Hughe - Notes

 “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

Langston Hughes:

Summary:

The speaker claims that he has known rivers as “ancient as the world,” older than the blood that flows in our veins. His soul has grown deep, just like the rivers. He writes about bathing in the Euphrates at the beginning of civilization, and later, he built a hut along the Congo and listened to the river as he fell asleep. He looked at the Nile and watched the pyramids rise nearby; he heard the muddy Mississippi sing when Abraham Lincoln traveled to New Orleans. He repeats that he has known “ancient, dusky rivers,” and his soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Analysis:

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is Langston Hughes’s first mature poem. He wrote it in 1920 at the age of seventeen, while traveling by train to visit his father in Mexico. The young Hughes was inspired to pen this verse when his train crossed over the Mississippi River. It was published in 1921 in the journal the Crisis, which had a predominantly African American readership. Although Hughes did not technically write "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" in or about Harlem, he addresses themes that would later become closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes dedicated this poem to W.E.B. DuBois a few years after its initial publication. It was also read out loud at Hughes's own funeral service in 1967.
When Langston Hughes was writing "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," he was most influenced by the work of Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman. He particularly cited Whitman's “Song of Myself” as an inspiration for the longer lines in “Negro.” The poem is free verse but has the rhythm of a gospel preacher. Hughes utilizes anaphora, which is the repetition of words or phrases at the start of each line, like “I built,” “I looked,” and “I heard.”
In this poem, the speaker links himself to his ancestors, firmly placing them in important historical, religious, and cultural sites all over the world. The speaker begins by claiming a connection to the world's ancient rivers that predated human beings, and that has made his soul grow "deep like the rivers." This insightful and articulate description indicates the speaker's immense intellect, and allows him to make a definitive connection between people of his race and the rest of human civilization. In the early 20th Century, white Americans often viewed their darker-skinned counterparts as less than human, and here, Hughes offers concrete proof of historical equality.
The speaker mentions four great rivers, starting with the Euphrates, which historians and archaeologists often label as the birthplace of human civilization. Then, he mentions the strong and mighty Congo, along which many great African kingdoms have flourished. The speaker then cites the long, winding Nile and the great Egyptian pyramids. He witnessed the creation of these structures, which are amongst man's greatest feats of architecture. Finally, he writes about the muddy and golden Mississippi, which he links American slavery and Abraham Lincoln. Although the speaker shares many of Langston Hughes's beliefs, he is a universal figure rather than an autobiographical depiction of Hughes himself. The speaker serves as a voice for all African Americans, as he traces their lineage to the cradles of civilization.

Onwuchekwa Jemie extols the merits of the poem:

It is a sonorous evocation of transcendent essences so ancient as to appear timeless, predating human existence, longer than human memory. The rivers are part of God's body, and participate in his immortality. They are the earthly analogues of eternity: deep, continuous, mysterious. They are named in the order of their association with black history. The black man has drunk of their life-giving essences, and thereby borrowed their immortality.

Death is one of the main themes in the poem, although it is subtle. Critic Arnold Rampersad writes:

With its allusions to deep dusky rivers, the setting sun, sleep, and the soul, [the poem] is suffused with the image of death and, simultaneously, the idea of deathlessness. As in Whitman's philosophy, only the knowledge of death can bring the primal spark of poetry and life. Here Langston Hughes became ‘the outsetting bard,’ in Whitman's phrase, the poet who sings of life because at last he has known death.