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Showing posts from May, 2024

A Wedding in Brownsville By Isaac Bashevis Singer

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A Wedding in Brownsville By Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903-1991) was a Polish-American writer and Nobel Prize-winning author known for his Yiddish-language stories that explore Jewish life, folklore, and themes of spirituality, identity, and morality. His works often delve into the complexities of human nature, blending realism with mysticism. In his story, “A Wedding in Brownsville,” Singer tells the tale of a man named Dr. Margolin, who returns to Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood for a wedding after many years. As he reconnects with familiar faces, he is haunted by memories of his past, including lost love and the horrors of the Holocaust. The story explores themes of memory, guilt, and the enduring impact of trauma on personal identity and relationships. Q: Who were the Senciminers? Ans. Sencimineers were Jewish villagers from the town of Sencimin, where Dr. Margolin once lived. They are now dispersed due to the devastation of WW II, and some of them attend th...
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The Divine Image by William Blake

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The Divine Image By William Blake   To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love, All pray in their distress: And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness.   For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love, Is God, our father dear: And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love, Is Man, his child and care.   For Mercy has a human heart, Pity, a human face: And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress.   Then every man of every clime, That prays in his distress, Prays to the human form divine, Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.   And all must love the human form, In heathen, Turk, or Jew. Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell, There God is dwelling too.   The poem is part of William Blake’s collection of poems “Songs of Innocence” first published in 1789. It portrays an ideal world and presents four traditional Christian virtues; Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love. They exist in human heart and connects it with God. The poet proclaims...
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The Little Boy Found by William Blake

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  The little boy Found By William Blake   The little boy lost in the lonely fen, Led by the wandering light, Began to cry, but God, ever nigh, Appeared like his father, in white. He kissed the child, and by the hand led, And to his mother brought, Who in sorrow pale, through the lonely dale, The little boy weeping sought.   The poem is published in “Songs of Innocence” in 1789. It is a comparison piece to “The little Boy lost” and together they explore themes of divine guidance, protection, and the innocent trust of children in higher powers. The title indicates a resolution to the situation presented in “The Little Boy Lost”. The poem picks up from this sense of loss and resolves it with divine intervention.   First Stanza   The poem starts by reiterating the boy’s lost state. A “fen” is a marshy boggy area, symbolizing confusion and danger. The “wandering light” might represent misleading hopes or false guides. The boy’s natural react...
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The Little Boy Lost by William Blake

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  The Little Boy Lost By William Blake   'Father, father, where are you going? O do not walk so fast! Speak, father, speak to your little boy, Or else I shall be lost.' The night was dark, no father was there, The child was wet with dew; The mire was deep, and the child did weep, And away the vapour flew. The poem was first published in 1789 in “Songs of Innocence”.   It consists of only eight lines and looks at a terrifying situation a child is going through. The poem explores the themes of innocence, abandonment, and divine protection. First Stanza The poem opens with a young boy addressing his father, expressing concern about being left behind. The repetition of “father” emphasizes the boy’s sense of urgency and fear. The plea “do not walk so fast” suggests that the father is moving ahead without considering the boy’s ability to keep up, indicating a physical and emotional distance between them. The boy continues his plea, asking for verbal reassura...
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The Little Black Boy by William Blake

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  The Little Black boy By William Blake   My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but oh my soul is white! White as an angel is the English child, But I am black, as if bereaved of light. My mother taught me underneath a tree, And, sitting down before the heat of day, She took me on her lap and kissed me, And, pointed to the east, began to say: 'Look on the rising sun: there God does live, And gives His light, and gives His heat away, And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday. 'And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love And these black bodies and this sunburnt face Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove. 'For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear, The cloud will vanish, we shall hear His voice, Saying, 'Come out from the grove, my love and care And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice',' Thus did my mother say, and k...
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The Lamb by William Blake

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  The Lamb By William Blake   Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life, and bid thee feed, By the stream and o'er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing, woolly, bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice? Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, I'll tell thee, Little Lamb, I'll tell thee. He is called by thy name, For He calls Himself a Lamb. He is meek, and He is mild; He became a little child. I a child, and thou a lamb, We are called by His name. Little Lamb, God bless thee! Little Lamb, God bless thee! The poem was published in William Blake’s collection of poems “Songs of Innocence” in 1789. It is one of Blake’s best-known works and is often paired with “The Tyger” from his “Songs of Experience” to present contrasting views of the world. It is in the form of dialogue between the child and the lamb and an amalgam of Christian Script and...
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Introduction (Songs of Innocence) poem by William Blake (text and explanation)

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  Introduction By William Blake   Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of peasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he, laughing, said to me:   Pipe a song about a lamb!’ So I piped with merry cheer. ‘Piper, pipe that song again;’ So I piped: he wept to hear.   ‘Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy songs of happy cheer!’ So I sang the same again, While he wept with joy to hear.   ‘Piper, sit thee down and write In a book, that all may read.’ So he vanished from my sight; And I plucked a hollow reed,   And i made a rural pen, And i stain’d the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear.   The poem opens William Blake’s hugely influential and monumental collection “Songs of Innocence” (1789), a book of poems embodying one of what Blake called “the two contrary states of the human soul” (as contrasted with experience, which he would explore in 1794 omnibus volume “...
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