God’s Grandeur

By Gerard Manly Hopkins  

Summary.

G.M. Hopkins, the religious poet describes magnificent status and majestic deeds of God in the 

poem titled God’s grandeur. It is true that God is the only source of life and pleasures on this 

earth and he is therefore, omnipresent (present everywhere) and omnipotent (the most poweful). 

The good deeds on earth are also the result of God’s blessings. God is such a power that though 

human beings continuously destroy nature, it is never spent.

The world is full of the greatness due to God. Due to His greatness, the world shines like ‘a 

shook foil’. It gathers to greatness, as it is full of resources and becomes ever more and wide 

spreading. Despite this fact, human beings act oppositely. They don’t follow the commands 

of God; they don’t try to look for his splendor and status, rather, they function to demolish the 

world. 

All generations have destroyed the earth and so is the case with the present generation too . 

They act as if they are not rational creatures. As a result of their deeds, the earth has become 

dry; it has the smell of human beings instead of its natural smell. Indeed the earth has reached 

to the verge of destruction due to human beings irrational actions and destructive contributions, 

nevertheless, the world is never completely destroyed because of the freshness that is inside 

things granted by God. Nature keeps on regenerating. The sun sets in the evening only to 

reappear in the morning. These all happenings are the results of the god’s protection. He protects 

the earth just like a bird broods over the eggs.

The poet is of the opinion that human beings acts are always directed towards destruction: 

knowingly or unknowingly but since God is omnipresent and omnipotent, nature is ever 

refreshed for human beings to live and be blessed.

Interpretation and appreciation of the text 

The text God’s grandeur is a work of sonnet devoted to God and it is merely concerned with 

exemplifying the God’s greatness or vigor and his magnificence over all the things and existence 

of all on this earth.  The poem in a way celebrates the glory of God. 

The poet accepts the  existence of God in the world. He says that God is everywhere. The glory 

and greatness or magnificence of the god is manifested in everything and everywhere. The poet 

says that the world is charged  that means  it gets energy to function and awaken itself with the 

grandeur  which stands for blessing and mercy of God. It flames out like shining from gold tinsel 

(shook foil) and oozes like oil from the crushed seeds. God is thus, omnipresent and  yet, human 

beings ignore and deny the presence of god’s greatness. Many generations have passed through 

this world. Hopkins says, “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod…” and this is a repetition 

of the same statement and means emphatically that all have come and gone in course of time.   

The poet presents that man has contributed  miserably for the nature to suffer destructions. In 

the race of making money, man toils and suffers miseries and unhappiness.That all is the result 

of artificial life and their unlimited desires which are leading them towards endless destination.  

Instead of searching for the values decorated  by  God, man tries to find values in the material 

prosperity and physical beauty and so, he is sad all the times. He tries to find peace in the 

material progress and  so is ever unhappy.  But the fact is that real peace is in God’s plan  and 

possession .Being blind with artificial living, they cannot understand the greatness of God and 

they do not pay attention to the command of God. Everything is affected by human activities and 

so is nature too. 

Still nature is never spent for what man tries to spend nature. The God blesses everybody with  

generous  nature and his greatness, which is evident from enumerable gifts of God. Though 

humans are destroying nature, it is never spent. The dearest freshness lies in the deep down of  

Nature.

In this way, the poet is aesthetically inspired by the grandeur of nature  in which he finds 

reflection of God.  Nature is always fresh and new in the depth only . For sometimes, the nature 

may be bare, but that bareness is soon recovered with the greatness of God. The darkness 

prevails but the next morning a new brightness arises from the east. Irrespective of men’s 

behaviors, the God blesses man with life enhancing gifts of the dawn and dusk, the sun, the 

moon, the fertile land and bountiful nature. God blesses us with warmth and love of his breast 

and wings. The God is always kind for the world and all the creatures. Hence,  God is great and 

he has charged the world with his grandeur. 

In short, the poem is entirely devoted to appreciation of God and it saliently offers the same taste 

through this poem. 

conclusion

The poem is too valuable for every generation in a sense  as it successfully presents a vision and 

insight about the reality of this world and leads to spiritual understanding over the materialistic 

understanding of today’s humans who are blindly after the attainment of material values for 

nothing. The message in short is that God is spiritual power and so it is different and unique from 

all powers in the world which can’t match with the greatness and magnificence of God as they 

are his products only.

Grandmother

Poet: Ray Young Bear

Objectives

to be able to describe features which allow us to present a picture of appearance;
to be able to assimilate love in the form of tribute and respect and honourable intimacy; and
to be able to value the role of ancient generation upon building of new generation
Interpretation and Analysis of the poem in detail

Background

The Poet belongs to Mosqueki Tribe in America known as Red Indian. The poem is composed
by Ray to celebrate the natural, pure, loving and inspiring quality of grandmother of his tribe.
The Grand mother is of all members of his tribe in the sense that the features and belongings
as well as virtues said to be of grandmother represent common typical qualities of Mosqueki
grandmother.  In real sense, it presents a grand picture of high respect and self identity of the
poet’s grandmother, a whole source of life and living values.

Interpretation

The possessions as red scarf and plastic shopping bag are the usual objects the Mosqueki
grandmothers are associated with in their daily simple living. The other attributes as her hands
showering natural touch and soft feelings with natural fragrance of roots and shoots of plants
display intensive affinity and inheritance of natural purity as the distinct values pouring the
Mosqueki tribe mothers and grandmothers with their own type identity embedded with natural
virtues. Most important impression the speaker relates about his grandmother is of her distinct
voice that still echoes from the grave and runs right into his heart and mind awakening him for
that future when he can freely covet for pleasant living with the feeling of self dignity without
disparaging the natural attributes of his grandmother that make her a super soul and grand figure
teaching him and inspiring him to be faithful to humanity and one’s lineage. These are the
sources of life and inspiration for the speaker that he derives from his grandmother as the only
one and unique above all.

Analysis and appreciation of the poem

The poem is written in simple verse pattern and each stanza is designed to describe each distinct
feature and possession of grandmother such as her get up, her body shape and size, her hands and
manners of feeling for inter personal sharing of feelings and her voice in the last stanza.

The first stanza presents an image of her grandmother’s appearance. She looks distinct and self
identified to the speaker because, she is ever wearing a red scarf and often has a plastic shopping
bag when on outing. Her body is identical to the speaker’s body in colour and shape as he
himself is the descendent of the grandmother her own tribe and generation.  The purple scarf and
the plastic shopping bag both remind of simple living the grand mother is the role model of. This
is visual image and it appeals to the visual sense i.e. eyes and inner eyes of mind.

The second stanza presents an image of feeling and smell. This describes grandmother as having
the quality of natural feelings like warmth and dampness. These are so life like for the speaker
and his generation because warmth and dampness make it possible for life to sustain as cold and
hard are antonyms of warmth and damp. This stands for the natural attribute of grandmother ;
purity and source of life with good feelings and feelings of altruism (love, respect and welfare).

The third image in the same stanza is of smell or fragrance. The grandmother’s hands and body
release natural smell of roots and shoots. This shows that she is the replica of pure nature that
grows out of pure soil with dampness. Her closeness with nature’s fragrance is evident when
the speaker feels her hands on his head. The fragrance appeals to the sense of smell like nose
and reminds him of the power of root in helping the generations of trees to grow. Besides, root
smelling is the attribute adding to the quality of closeness and attraction. This image also makes
the grandmother distinct in the speaker’s perception.

  In the third and fourth stanza, he articulates how distinct and powerful grandmother’s voice
is which enables him to listen even from the distance of her grave, an indication to nostalgic
reference because the speaker feels that though his grandmother is no longer with him in her
physical existence, her memory fills him with magnificent inspiration and in this connection
her voice is the most powerful tool for him to awaken his sense and spirit for future living. The
distinctness and purity of his grandmother is what is regarded to be the super most value for the
poet in real sense. Her voice is compared with the quality of a sparkle of sleeping fire that is
stirred at night which amazingly lightens the surrounding due to its strength and overshadowing
darkness. He compares his generation to be overshadowed by the darkness of modernity but his
grandmother is the only source of purifying the speaker’s today’s generation.

Message to the Readers

In this way, the poem grandmother is a full picture of a pure, loving and inspiring grandmother
of the tribe called to be Mosqueki, the aboriginal tribe of USA.  This is also a concrete example
of nostalgic literature that celebrates the past values in a manner present has lost them and so,
they are to be regained. This kind of love is to be treated as being one sphere of love associated
with respect and expression of submissiveness for pure expression of honour and tribute for
elderly generations whose path finding is the only source of life and survival for the coming
generation. Hence the message is that new generation must ever strive to appreciate the
contribution of the old generation as our guiding teachers helping us to see future living.

Summary & Critical Analysis Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies.

William Shakespeare

The poem  Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies occurs in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest,

Act I, Scene 2. The spirit Ariel sings this song to Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, who mistakenly
thinks his father is drowned. Ariel is telling Ferdinand that his father lies full thirty feet below
the surface of the sea. His bones have been changed into piece of coral. His eyes have been
transformed into pearls. Every part of his body that was supposed to decay has been changed
into something rich and strange, but something belonging to the sea or connected with it. The sea
nymphs who live in the sea are ringing his death bell every hour.

Death is quite meaningful in this poem. No part of the death body has decayed. They have been
changed into something valuable.
Coral are made of the bones, and eyes are changed into pearls. In this poem “Ding-dong” is the
example of onomatopoeia. It imitates the sound of the bell and makes the readers feel that he is
listening to the bell. There lies an alliteration; repetition of an initial first sound in two or more
words of a line in this poem.

 In the first line of the poem “full fathom five thy father lies” the sound ‘f’ has been repeated
four times. It reminds us of the flow of the sea. Similarly, “suffer a sea change”, “Hark! now I
hear them” are other examples of alliteration. Assonance; the repetition of the vowel sounds in
stressed syllables; “five….lies”, “nymphs….ring” are the examples of assonance in this poem.
All these rhetorical devices have enhanced the musical quality of the song. In line eight “Dingdong” imitates the sound of the bell. It is usually the sound of the bell which is run slowly for the
death of Ferdinand’s father. The nasal song ‘ng’ produces lingering, vibrant effects and the harsh
sound ‘d’ reminds us of ‘death’.

Theme.

The message is that nothing in this world , the world confined within the eco- system and  from
its effect circle, can disappear rather, everything meets with change may that be in the form of
dead or decay or rich or strange good or bad positive or negative. Change is inevitable, a rule
of this eco system apart from repetition of the entities in various forms. Repetition of situation,
form or spirit, life or death, just as; ups and downs make sense in repetition of everything in this
world of material and non material. This reality of life is reflected in the poem in the repetition of
sounds, both, consonant and vowels, repetition of the words and so on. In this way, the poem is
an example of a unique quality literature.

Note: Please read the textual analysis and the essay given under for further reference and
support which I have down loaded from the internet for you to practise:

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

5. Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

“Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies” is beautiful song taken from William Shakespeare’s play The

Tempest, Act I Scene II. The Spirit Ariel sings the song to Ferdinand, a prince of Naples, who mistakenly

thinks that his father is drowned into the sea.

Ariel is a spirit who is a very comic and miraculous character. He flies up invisibly and plays music and

song. In the given poem, he gives sympathy to Ferdinand, the prince of Naples, who is very sad on the

death of his father. The Spirit Ariel tries to make the death meaningful with his melodious description.

The Spirit Ariel says that Ferdinand’s father has been drowned into the sea. His body has been lying 30

feet below at the bottom of the sea. His bones have been changed into corals and eyes into pearls due

to sea – change process. Nothings of his parts of the body have been destroyed. But his whole body has

changed the sea into something valuable and strange. The sea nymphs are hourly ringing the death bell

producing song ‘Ding-dong’. At last, the Spirit Ariel asks Ferdinand to listen the sound of the bell.

Thus, William Shakespeare through the song of Spirit Ariel talks about immortality of life. He means

to say than life does not die but changes to other forms. So, the death of Ferdinand’s father is

meaningful. Death is nothing but just a medium of changing life from one form to another. Life after

death is permanent whereas life itself is ephemeral.

ESSAY ON “LIFE AND ART”

It seems to be difficult to define ‘life’ and ‘art’. Life is mysterious and art is the imitation (copy) of
life. So life and art are interrelated parts. Life creates art and art provides delight to life. Without any
interest in art is a dead life, so art and life are inseparable.
Art is related to creation and life is related to experience of happiness, sadness, laughter, tears, joy,
certainties and uncertainties. But art brings success in life.
Life is transitory. It changes in different phrases in course of time. A small baby of yesterday becomes
a young man today and old tomorrow. Eventually, he disappears from the world resting on the lap of
death. Life comes across different sweet and sour events. Life is mixture of tears and smiles. Pain and
pleasure are the friends of life. In other words, life is full of emotions, feelings, ideas and sentiments.
Art is the creation of life. It is permanent and immortal. Art makes life beautiful and meaningful. Art
makes artist immortal. An artist lives in memory of people all the time after his death. Many literary
artists show the relation between art and life. Some say that art is for the sake of life where as some
say that art is only for art’s sake. However, life is itself the source of art and art is the source of joy.
Art is life and life is art. Without art life seems to be meaningless and unattractive. The different forms
of art like music, writing, singing, drawing, acting, dancing etc. make our life fruitful.v

Hurried Trip to Avoid a Bad Star

M. Lilla and C. Bishop Barry

Background.

American geographers M. Lilla and C. Bishop Barry in their essay Hurried trip to avoid a
Bad Star present a report on  Karnali zone of western Nepal  which they studied through their
personal involvement as surveyors on foot for 15 months. The essay is excerpted from the
same i.e. survey of Karanli zone and life over its mountains and hills. The report nomenclatures
Karnali as the The road less World of Western Nepal and was published in 1971. The authors
in this essay present the life account of Karnali zone people, their daily life, their economic
culture, level of their awareness about environmental preservation and Karnali zone’s economic
dependency with the plain region of southern Nepal.

Text Summary.

With a view to observe life from economic, geographic, cultural and quality perspectives, the
writers move to plains in southern Nepal with the peasants (farmers) who are going towards
Nepalgunj for their daily provisions. They are  carrying medicinal herbs, hand knitted sweaters
and blankets etc. to sell in Nepalgunj while climbing steep hill near Hari Lekh a Chhetri woman
of about 36 requests them to send her husband back home who left the house 15 years ago
in search of job in the Terai( plain region ). Her request reveals the concept of Karnali zone
people about their parameters of understanding of the world. In a Sal forest slope the writers
notice the chopping down of the trees in several directions which indicate the possibility of
rapid deforestation in the region. On enquiry, the people explain their compulsion to chop down
the trees to feed their animals which expose their lack of education and ignorance about the
importance of preservation of environment. The writers notice a group of 8 or 9 men in a forest
processing Silajit in order to sell in Nepalgunj. These people make a hurried trip from their home
valley to avoid evil influence of bad star in their superstitious thinking. On arrival in Nepalgunj,
the writers watch the hill people buying their daily provisions; one of them spends all his
money buying distillery equipments with a hope to earn money by selling alcohol. The writers
conclude their journey at Jumla. They express their concern on lack of awareness in the people
of Karnali about protection of nature and about the need of educating people regarding this vital
aspect. They express that Karnali zone people are living in very difficult place with a very low
agricultural production. The writers suggest that people should be involved in trade with the
Terai region in order to make their life easier with satisfactory earning and for this transportation
facilities along with cross flow of goods and ideas would be crucial.

Key Points to be learned.

A thorough look on this text offers an insight that:
People of Karnali zone are obliged to use their muscle power of hands, legs and shoulders to
carry their home made commodities to exchange with the daily need- materials
They are living with harsh geographic realities and thus, are deprived of productive cultivation
which has led to scarcity of food and living resources.
Poverty has bitten them too sharp and their life is too difficult due to climatic and economic
barriers.
The life is still too superstitious and far back from modernization as it is a road less world
situating itself aloof.
They are utterly dependent on low lands of Nepal, Nepalganj for their economic activities such
as trade of their home products and local goods and herbs.
The hardship is evident from their conditions as their obligation to buy the things at high price
and sell their craft and goods at low price which they can do only after porting the items on their
shoulder for months to and fro.
The ignorance level is too fierce and thus, they have been on fore front in causing deforestation
as well as plundering of natural resources
Lack of access to modernizing tools, devices and knowledge are barrier for them and so, they are
confined to adjust with the poor economic and harsh geographic conditions for ages.
The factors supposed to be responsible for their low standard and formidable life are namely
government’s unconcerned behavior for infrastructure development, no transportation access,
absence of market and commercial enterprises, pastoral life and lack modern means of
development and lack of knowledge to convert the local resources  into manufactured goods and
economic dependence.



Q.no. 1 .Give a short account of life of Karnali zone people.

Two American geographers have depicted (painted) and described the state and lifestyle of
Karnali zone. The life of Karnali zone people is extremely hard because Karnali zone is a
remote, not well connected with other parts of the country by road and economically backward.
Due to the lack of education they are very superstitious and believe that a bad star may have
evil influence on them and try to avoid it. They are lacking the awareness about the need of
preservation of nature. Due to lack of this aspect they indiscriminately chopped down the trees
there by speeding of the deforestation putting their own life’s in great risk because the entire
slopes became bare and prone (possible) of landslide and soil erosion.
Although the people of this region are living in harmony with nature in very difficult location
with very bad weather, they are not ready to leave their place. The writers found that a hill
place is very optimistic and cheerful despite hardship in life with low agricultural production.
The writers felt the need of the hill people to farm with other activities to live with satisfactory
earning. Many of them are involved in business. They carry their local products including Silajit
to sell in Nepalgunj whenever they go down to the Terai. When they return home they bring
necessary goods like aluminum and iron wares, cotton clothes, jewelry items and spices to sell in
their locality to earn a living.

Travelling Through the Dark

“Travelling Through the Dark” is a short poem composed by William Stafford. The poem
is about making decision between two realities of life:  1. Intellectual efficiency and
responsibility 2.  Emotional and Sentimental reaction.

 Both the faculties are said to be equally real and thus, the poem presents dilemma we face in life
while making decision.
Responsibility is dry and unglamorous virtue whereas emotion is warmer than responsibility,
also another virtue valued to be some whereas ignored by some others. The poet has tried to
present the idea that decision made on the basis of responsibility and efficiency is always the
best and practical whereas emotional or sentimental decision is impractical which shows human
weakness.

The poem also deals about the  matter of  relationship between the nature and human beings and
their activities. Because of our own activities, we are over exploiting the nature and travelling
towards the dark future  through dark roads.

Textual Paraphrase

The poem has been written in the first person narrative. While the poet is travelling alone
through the dark he sees a dead deer on the edge of Wilson river road. He stops his car and
moves back to see the deer. He later knows that it is a doe and has an unborn fawn in its belly.
Now he shows sympathy to the doe. This is one system of life. In one system he has sympathy
to the dead doe and in the next system: he feels his responsibility that he has to clear the road
throwing the dead doe in the gorges. When the speaker touches the dead doe, he finds that the
doe is pregnant and her fawn is waiting inside her womb. The fawn is alive. Though it is alive, it
will never be born. He feels his mistake and feels pity on the fawn and becomes sad. He realizes
the fate of the fawn inside the dead doe. He now finds a contrast between the doe and his car. His
car looks life – life where as the doe is cold and stiff. The poet is in dilemma. He thinks different
possible course of actions. The physical action ceases at this point and is replaced by the mental
action. He starts thinking about the suitable way out. He finds himself in conflict between the
practical and the sentimental decision. At last, the speaker pushes the doe into the gorges and
solves the problem. The great tension of the dead doe and the living but never to be born fawn is
now solved. On the other hand there are efficiency and responsibility and on the other hand there
are emotions warmer than efficiency and responsibility and deeper than good judgment. In this
way the poem gives full justice to both sides of the tension.    

Interpretation

The poem as implied from the title lands its meaning on the nature  of human judgment making
process and shows clearly that human judges to live for own self and is selfish in totality. Only
in the good situations, does the human being think about others or feels bad others and likes
to support, share and extend humanitarian attitude but when the time to decide comes, i.e.
inconvenient situation demanding final struggle for survival, all emotional and feeling oriented
thoughts die without indications and he/ she behaves rudely upon the others to manage to live.
This has been true in the context of natural world, wildlife and environment too. The self
living interest has sped up the travelling through the dark activities which are no other than our
ambitious development plans and actions which are not carried out with clarity but without
certain future. In this way, humans are merely thinking of justifying for their survival because
we have learnt to do so keeping the notion that humans must survive no matter at the cost of
others or our natural heritage.

Conclusion

In sum, it is deductible that the justice maintained in the poem is human being’s circumstance
that has been a self invited phenomenon. And so, travelling through the dark is his own created
task which is sure to encounter unpleasant incidents like killing a mother whose baby is waiting
but never to be born. In this way, all of us whoever are engaged in the development activities are
called travelers of the dark.

Lamentation of the Old Pensioner

W B Yeats

 Objectives

To be familiar with the old age characters as contrasting from the young life

To be able to distinguish the feelings from reality

To be able to distinguish life from art

Background theme.

The poem lamentation of the old pensioner is a poem about reminiscence or recollection on the
young times of an old person, or old pensioner to be understood as being a  retired person from
life.  The poem was written by William Butler Yeats, a well known playwright and poet of his
time particularly known for his symbolism.

The poem is an expression of indignation and feeling of renunciation upon the role of time
in every human’s life. The feeling as such thus presents a very gloomy picture of old age
personality because the speaker shows that every one of us is sure to be reduced to nothing
counting days for the death to arrive any moment and lonely life having no one to love and
respect. Merely, comparing the young time roles and energy with the old age loss of everything
is what makes one severely suffer with the feeling of tragedy in hand.

Paraphrasing the poem

The old man remembers, he is merely living his days just in the manner a person shelters
from the rain under a broken tree. That means his survival is not strong and protected. But he
remembers he used to be on the front line for everything whether that used to be a matter of love
or politics.
Now that he is old he finds that the boys, whom he feels as being the conspirators, are making
weapons that kill the old people. The boys look like rascal (wicked individuals)   to him and he
says they raise their weapon to incite him and to terrorize him. All these are his experiences of
the time he has been changed into old. The time is the factor that has really changed him.
In the third stanza, the speaker complains that no woman is ready to look at him because he
resembles with a broken tree. However, he can’t resist the memory of the beautiful women who
used to love him and whom he loved, because he has been a frontier and adventurer young man
in every sector of his life. But now nothing of the past is left with him and all his loss and feeling
of nothing is the result of time which is often experienced in the form villain for all.
Thus, finally he expresses fierce anger upon time and spits upon the face of time whose absence
otherwise would never change him from young and energetic person to old age broken tree.

Interpretation

The poem can be interpreted to be an example of art which allows one to understand life as being
controlled by physical reality. The point that life is controlled by physical reality would mean
that everything in the form of matter and substance has to pass through changes from god to bad
or bad to good due to change that happens in the property of material existence.  Human’s life is
also a combination of physical or biological property and non-substantial entity known as soul.
It is vividly inferable in the poem that human beings have to change from young to old age and it
is unavoidable too, because time is the only universal force that forces our existence to follow
change from attractive and energetic life to unattractive and unenergetic life, from healthy and
prosperous life to unhealthy and poor life, lovely and sociable life to deserted and lonely life and
so.  The process applies to each living being due to nature and natural law of evolution and
decline and death. Owing to this material reality and reality about force of time upon our
existence, it is true that each aging person develops the feeling of loss and tragedy till the end. In
the poem, the old person expresses grief upon his old circumstances that are marked to be
unbearable because he happens to recall that his young life had been too adventurous and
promising. But now, he finds a fierce contrast between his present state of life and his past when
his position in every sector, may that be love, or politics or any other profession, used to be on
top of everyone in his company. The old age makes him see that the youth of his time are not
cooperative, they are not respectful to old people, instead, they appear to be plotting against his
existence and creating terror for him. He criticizes the youth for their behavior toward the old
people. Finally he feels shocked when he finds that he is like a broken tree in his physical
appearance and has lost everything including his beloved women or partners. The speaker
accuses time for being the only enemy of his fellow creatures and his enemy as he believes that
nothing else except time has dragged him to the state of loneliness and loss.
Hence, the message is that time is the controlling factor and in front of its law no human or
living being can live in despotic manner because life is controlled by physical elements and time
controls all physical entities without fail.

Critical Appreciation
The poem is affine piece of art that interprets life and the world in a subtle manner to show how life
is moduled and guided and so, how feelings are evoked in the living creatures just as in the poem who
happens to interpret artistically how comparable his life is with the broken tree and loss of quality.
The poem is small in size; however, it presents a philosophical understanding of life. Besides, its quality
is traceable in its being symbolic and use of metaphors to show how life is no better than broken tree
which means life less tree depending on the environmental process to be decayed soon.
The human existence is not superior to the substantial existence as it gets changed, and controlled by
the time factor as a changing force upon. This kind of true understanding is expressed in the poem in a
very artistic manner embodying imagistic quality to be received in pictorial form by the readers.
The poem has used symbolic strategy as well and it serves the purpose of comparing the lived
experiences with the properties yielded in nature.
The most remarkable technique though is of struggle shown between time as driving force and life as
dependent entity under time. This is shown in the relation of protagonist and antagonist, known victor
and victim. The time controlling life conditioning humans to it is portrayed as being victor whereas,
human being starting with pleasurable and promising life and declining in old age conditions just as
setting day is pictured in the form of victim. It is in this positional demarcation that the conflict drives
poem to end in tragic tone in which the poet defies the time but not in physical war, only in his spirit and
so expresses his anger by spitting upon the face of time just as is done on the face of an enemy.
The time and ages as well as physical existence are all compared by means of use of personification and
also use of expressions that appeal harsh to the heart.
Conclusion

The poem in conclusion is to be seen as being an embodiment of old age experiences expressed in
subjective manner the old man’s of personal sentiments. The conclusion is; time matters a lot for ever
living being because it can’t be stopped nor can its impact upon the life span of us all. Thus, we are left
with rage, repugnance and hatred upon our own position and existence which is not ours in any respect,

    Thanks for reading.

Long Term Problems: Too Many People Too few Trees

Background information

The essay titled here is concerned with environmental issues as revealed from its title stated above. The issues in this field are several but here the key concern is illustrated to be twin problems i.e. problem of over population and deforestation. Fact based data related to environment and life on earth and future of earth are presented in the essay in three distinct but interconnected textual divisions. The first division of the essay consists of quoted remarks from the world scientists, and the second conference of The Royal society of London and the U. S. National Academy of Sciences who are reported to have signed treaty out of conference on future of humanity and earth in connection with the world environment. This reference preceding the other two divisions about population and life of trees is presented in the beginning of the essay with a purpose to validate the author’s logical statements about future of humanity, data about earth and its environment.   

The second section elaborates situation of population, causes behind population growth and consequences of population growth. Similarly, the third section illuminates identically the status of world forest, causes of deforestation and consequences of deforestation.  

   Summary

 It is agreed by all the noble prize winner scientists and the scientists from Roayal society London and US national academy that the future of earth is on risk due to collision course between human and nature and if not halted it is sure to put the whole life of present and future on earth at risk. Still they believe that the course can be reversed and better life can be assured if we halt our activities on time for the sake of all.

The evidences of population are too many and noticeable very clearly to prove that the earth is already over populated. All the countries except a few like China and Canada have failed to  control population  and therefore, their main issue is population density and population size. The causes of the population explosive trends as such are so many. But to name a few, over medical facilities, industrialization and lack effective use of family planning means and so on. Population is too huge everywhere is justifiable from the fact that no wilderness is left unoccupied and all the natural places have been converted into human settlement. The facts remain that the governments are forced to invent control measures. If population had not expanded in the ratio as reported, no such measure would get thought about. New epidemics and contaminations are being the causes of untimely death of thousands and more people are reported to be dying of hunger and facing human predicaments of unexpected kinds. 

Similarly another traceable issue is of state of trees over the earth. The places are fast converting into urban and desertification of new places is the fact of today. The world population of trees is reduced to one third and earth is full of houses and buildings without a tree standing over.

The causes of deforestation are many but among them the most critical one is over population leading to urbanization. This is further connected with use of technology and pressure of overpopulation as trees have to be replaced for arable land, food and other resources. But ultimately dependence is to be on the forests of the world. Bigger population leads to over commercialization, work and industrialization. This all is possible to happen only through deforestation.  People’s life style, affluent life of people from developed countries and ambition to be rich and live with rich facilities all contribute to damaging effects on the state of world forests.

The consequences of these are that earth has begun to show the symptoms of ozone layer depletion, downsizing the number of life on earth, decline of world species of birds and animals and life varieties and loss in the ability of biosphere and loss of human immune as a whole. Nature of this planet has become weak in its quality and efficiency due to soil erosion and natural calamities of any kind.

Conclusion of the summary

 In short, the essay deliberates that the consequences are devastating and shocking and so, the course of our life has to be reviewed and course of over population and over deforestation must be controlled on time for no more damage to happen or happening damage to be stopped without delay.  

Textual Analysis

The text ‘two long term problems…’ falls into four sections if the last part is treated as being a distinct section and by means of its logical design, it presents the arguments systematically so as to come to the conclusion that offers solutions to the problems addressed throughout.

The background of the essay is an allusion to scientists’ understanding about the earth, life on earth and environment which they believe are now disturbed due to human activities and thus the relation has been too hostile between humans and nature. Still they seem to be optimistic in the sense that if the human activities and cultures which have driven the situation toward worse are stopped or reversed jointly at the macro level, it is expected that human life along with world environment is sure to come on track.

The essay after reference to information from scientists, presents arguments and logical connections regarding the issue ‘over population’. The section argues that over population is a major issue because whole world is mentioned to have been over packed with people. The causes such as urbanization and availability of facilities and means to survival due to economic and medical access to the living world are taken accountable for over growth of population. The consequences being too unimaginable and devastating, it is suggested that if population grows any more, earth will not be able to sustain and the time is like to come that people face accidental deaths due to scarcity of resources and starvation and epidemics of various kinds.

In this section as well the author has offered some insights on how to downsize population. The idea is that we can downsize population if we begin to follow concerned governments of China and Germany apart from implementation of our knowledge into action.  

The third section argues the real status of trees to be very risky and shaky because the size of the world forest is said to have gown far below its level as compared to a few decades and thus, it is justified that deforestation is too rapid a phenomenon.

The reasons behind this fast deforestation are so many. The author connects this reality with the overpopulation which is the key factor of deforestation according to him. Besides, in the same way as previous section, this section of the essay also illustrates how the deteriorated state of trees is now going to affect humans. Several examples of decline of life and quality of life and predictable natural calamities such as soil erosion, ozone layer depletion and air pollution, problems of global warming and many more are spelled in the section as being the outcomes of deforestation. The arguments are factual and every paragraph is designed in a connected pattern so that the essay finds strength out of its logically systematic texture.

Finally, the essay is concluded in solutions and the key solution worth stating  here  is that we can control population and deforestation and make earth environment better for us to life, only if we start acting and implementing our knowledge into practice from today itself. Thus,  from all perspectives; such as content, design and communicative efficiency and all, this can be taken as being the best model essay.

    

Thank you.