Exile-Alan Duff Central Idea and Summary

Exile 

- Alan Duff  

About Poet:
Alan Duff  (born 26 October 1950, Rotorua, New Zealand) is a novelist and newspaper columnist,
most well known as the author of “Once Were Warriors”

About Poem:
The title of the poem suggests the speaker is away from his home and, although comfortable there, he does feel the need to go back to his home.
The speaker in the poem is a tiger kept in captivity in the zoo. He states how it is like to be in a cage. He smells different animals around. He has no appetite as he is provided with easy meat. Since he is in the cage, he is mocked by other animals. It is not easy for him to break free from the cage. Therefore, he plans to return to his own home, the jungle, at dusk.  
The poem might be trying to tell us that a man in bondage always plans to free himself despite the comfort he is given there.

Words:
striped: adj=  marked with patterns
barred: adj = prevented or blocked
gazelle: n. = small antelope
mock: v. = imitate with contempt
sniffing: v. = inhale through nose
plotting: v. = making a secret plan

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Where the Rainbow Ends-Richard Rive Central Idea and Summary

Where the Rainbow Ends!   

- Richard Rive  

About Poet:
 Richard Rive was born on 1 March 1931 in Caledon Street in Cape Town, South Africa. His father was an African. Rive went to St Mark's Primary School and Trafalgar High School. Later he  obtained a BA degree from the University of Cape Town, followed by an MA degree from Columbia University in the United States, and a Doctorate from Oxford University. He was the Head of the English Department at Hewat College for years. In 1965, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. Rive was a firm believer in anti-racism and decided to stay in his country in order that he could influence its development there. Rive was shot to death at his home in Cape Town in 1989.

About Poet:
This is a beautiful poem about friendship and racial harmony. The poet makes the point that no matter how different people are it is possible to be friends. He does not say that this will be an easy process as people are different. He says it is possible to have harmony if people try hard. Also, the title of the poem is significant as folklore has it that there is a pot of gold to be found where the rainbow ends. Rainbow signifies different colours in a band and the poet is trying to say that different coloured people can find happiness together.
This poem is all about importance of equality and brotherhood. Since, the time has passed we can see the world has made a huge differences on the basis of caste, creed, colour, etc. The poet wants to search a place where such differentiation is not made. It encourages all the mankind not to be racist and abet people to be non-racist abandoning the racism from the whole world!

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Patriotism-Sir Walter Scott Central Idea and Summary

Patriotism 

- Sir Walter Scott   

About Poet:
Sir Walter Scott (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time. He was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature.  



About Poem:
In the poem patriotism, the poet says somewhere in the country lives a man with his soul and conscience so dead, who has never in his life, not even once said to his own country that this is his own native land. If we come across such a person, we should mark him well.
An unpatriotic person is not liked by anyone. He is a wretch and miserable person. No matter how rich or powerful he is, he is concentrated all in self. He never becomes the subject of minstrel songs. Though he may be proud of his name and earn high titles of fame and position, his wealth is boundless as anyone may wish to claim, yet in spite of those high titles, unlimited power and pelf ; money wealth often implying ill-gotten gains-affluence, fortune, funds, riches; this wretched soul concentrated all in himself. Ultimately, he shall forfeit (deprived of) his fair renown living, and die twice; body and soul; before he goes down to the vile dust from where he originally sprung up, with no tears to weep for him, no one to honour him and no one to sing praises of him.  
 
Words: 
breathes: v. = survives/ taking in air
heart.... burn'd: ph. = worried
wandering: v. walking slowly
foreign strand: np=alien land
Minstrel: n. = singer or musician in the Middle Ages
rapture: n. = extreme happiness
swell: v. = fill with pride
pelf: n. = wealth
wretch: adj. = a person who does bad deed
forfeit: v. = give up or lose
renown: n. = state of being well-known

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Knowledge by Eleanor Farjeon Central Idea and Summary

Knowledge 

- Eleanor Farjeon  

About Poet:
Eleanor Farjeon (13 February 1881- 5 June 1965) was born in London, England. She was a small timid child, who had poor eyesight and suffered from ill-health throughout her childhood. She was a
gifted writer. She wrote countless plays, poems and stories for children, many of which achieved international recognition. She died in Hampstead, London.  



About Poem: 
In the poem knowledge, the poet compares the human mind with a meadow and with a farmer. A farmer likes to sow seeds and plant things and look after it with care. A good farmer doesn‟t like to see bare land.  
The poet wants to convey the message that we should not keep our minds empty. Like a good farmer, we should plant the seeds of knowledge in our minds, which will grow and develop like the seeds and plants in a farmer‟s meadow. The seeds of knowledge can be about nature or science, history, math, music and literature. If we keep our minds busy through reading we are sure to gain wisdom and knowledge, like a farmer harvesting his crops in the summer.

Words:
meadow: n. = grassland
unplanted: adj. = not planted
sow: v. = place seeds in the field/farm land
tend: v. = look after carefully
know-nothing=ignorant person/uneducated person
spring: n. = a season of growth

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Where the Mind is without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore Central Idea

Where the Mind is without Fear  

- Rabindranath Tagore  

About Poet:
Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861- 7 August 1941) was a Bengali poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia’s first Nobel Laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.



About Poem:
'Where the mind is without fear' is a short lyric poem taken from “Gitanjali”, a collection of 103 English poems. It is a prayer to God, the Father. In this poem, Tagore prays to God for true freedom that lies in a full and honorable living. He prays to God that his countrymen should be fearless, truthful, rational, God-fearing, noble and generous. Knowledge should be free and there should be no divisions of caste, creed and nationality. He prays to God to help people achieve perfection in different fields, to help his countrymen to follow the path of logical thinking and not to indulge their mind in outdated customs and traditions. According to Tagore, the outdated customs and traditions close the ways to progress and perfection. Hence, he wants his countrymen leave behind all the outdated customs and traditions and should fill their minds with logical thinking and lead themselves on the path of progress.

Words:
fragments: n. = small parts broken off from large one
striving: n. =attempts/efforts
stretch: v. = extend one's arms
perfection: n. = the state of being excellent/faultless
dreary: adj. = boring, something that makes you sad
desert sand: np. dry sand
dead habit: np. old practices

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Weathers by Thomas Hardy - Central Idea

Weathers

- Thomas Hardy 

About Poet:

Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. He was born in Dorsetshire, England. He trained as an architect and worked in London and Dorset for ten years. He was a trained architect. He began his writing career as a novelist in1870, and was soon successful enough to leave the field of architecture for writing. He wrote a lot about weathers, in his poetry and in his novels. 

About Poem:

The poem „Weathers‟ is a beautiful lyrical poem. He talks about the spring and the winter seasons in the UK.  

In the first stanza he talks about the beauty and liveliness of the spring season. He says that in this season the rain flows quickly over chestnut tree and nightingale sings well. People come out to enjoy the weather and the birds‟ song. The girls are seen in their fine clothes and the people plan to visit different places. 

In the second stanza he talks about the dullness and laziness of the winter season and the cold, damp and wet weather. He says that the cuckoo (bird) dislikes this weather and the beech (trees) turn dry and brown and move around in the wind. It rains a lot and rain or water drops hang from the wooden horizontal „bars‟ of field gates. The birds (rooks) retire to their homes. He says he dislikes this season because the winter season is very cold and wet. 

We may say that symbolically the poem represents the bright and dark aspects of human life.   

Words: 

showers: n. = time of rain or snow 

betumble: v. = fall downward 

chestnut: n. = a large tree that produces nuts covered with spikes 

spike: n= sharp and pointed objects 

nestlings: n = young birds 

bills: v. = poke with beak 

sprig-muslin: n= fine transparent decorated cotton clothes

shun: v = avoid 

beeches: n. a tall forest tree with shiny leaves and small nuts 

dun: adj= grayish

thresh: v. = separate grains 

throb: v. = beat hard 

throe: v. =  sound caused by deadly pain

Developed by  National Centre for Educational Development (NCED) 2069   

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