A Work by Salamat Ali Khan ( Lecturer in English, Rpsc-2015)

Poem On His Night of the Dance of the Daffodils My Last Go and Catch Ode on a Ode to West
Blindness Scorpion Eunuchs Duchess a Falling Star Grecian Urn Wind
Poet John Milton Nissim Ezekiel Kamala Das William Robert John John Keats P.B. Shelley
Wordsworth Browing Donne
Life Span 1608-1674 1924-2004 1934-2009 1770-1850 1812-1889 1572-1631 1795-1821 1792-1822
Writing 1652 1960s 1963 1804 1842 Between 1819 1819
date 1590s & early
1600s)
Publish 1673 1965 1965 1807, 1815 1842 1633 1820 1820
date (Posthumousl
y
Genre Petrarchan Narrative / Lyric Lyric Dramatic Lyric Ode Ode
Sonnet Verse monologue
Total lines 14 48 20 24 56 27 50 70
(4 stanzas of 6 (one long (3 stanzas of (5 sections of (5 sections
lines) stanza in form 9 lines) 10 lines each) of 14 lines
of 28 rhyming each)
couplets )
Collection -------- The Exact Summer in Poems in Two Dramatic Songs & Lamia, Isabella, Prometheus
Name Calcutta Volumes Lyrics, Sonnets The Eve of St. Unbound
(1965) (1807) , Dramatic (1633) Agnes, and
Collected Romance Other Poems
Poems (1815) (1820)
Tone Anxious to Reflective, Melancholic, Joyful, serene Dramatic Cynical, Contemplative, Passionate,
accepting ironic critical Chilling Satirical, melancholic reverent,
Playful
Theme Faith, divine Superstition Barrenness, Nature’s Power, control, Impossibility Immortality of Nature’s
purpose, vs. rationality, societal beauty, jealousy, art of true love, art, beaty, power,
acceptance community oppression, memory, and possession human truth transformati
of response, emotional imperfection Kinship of art on, poetic
limitations maternal uplift with infinity inspiration
sacrifice

Meter Iambic Free verse Free verse Iambic Iambic Trochaic Iambic Terza Rima
Pentameter Tetrameter Pentameter Tetrameter (1 Pentameter
to 6 line & 9th
line ) +
Iambic
monometer
(7th & 8th line)
• Night of the Scorpion by Nissim Ezekiel
1. I remember the night my mother
2. Was stung by a scorpion.
3. Ten hours of steady rain had driven him
4. To crawl beneath a sack of rice.
5. Parting with his poison – flash
6. of diabolic tail in the dark room
7. he risked the rain again
8. The peasants came like swarms of flies
9. and buzzed the name of God a hundred times
10. to paralyse the Evil One
11. Throwing giant scorpion shadows
12. On the mud-baked walls
13. They searched for him ;
14. he was not found
15. They clicked their tongues
16. With every movement that the scorpion made
17. His poison moved in Mother’s blood, they said
18. May he sit still, they said
19. May the sins of your previous birth
20. Be burned away tonight, they said
21. May your suffering decrease
22. The misfortunes of your next birth, they said
23. May the sum of all evil
24. Balanced in this unreal world
25. Against the sum of good
26. Become diminished by your pain
27. May the poison purify your flesh
28. Of desire , and your spirit of ambition,
29. They said, and they sat around
30. On the floor with my mother in the centre
31. The peace of understanding on each face.
32. More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours
33. More insects, and the endless rain
34. My mother twisted through and through,
35. Groaning on a mat
36. My father, skeptic, rationalist ,
37. Trying every curse and blessing,
38. Powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.
39. He even poured a little paraffin
40. Upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.
 41. I watched the flame feeding on my mother
42. I watched the holy man perform his rites to
43. Tame the poison with an incantation
44. After twenty hours
45. It lost its sting
46. My mother only said
47. Thank God the scorpion picked on me
48. And spared my children.

• Daffodils by William Wordsworth

1. I wandered lonely as a cloud
2. That floats on high o’er vales and hills
3. When all at once I saw a crowd
4. A host, of golden daffodils;
5. Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
6. Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

7. Continuous as the stars that shine

8. And twinkle on the milky way,
9. They stretched in never ending line
10. Along the margin of a bay
11. Ten thousand saw I at a glance
12. Tossing their heads in sprightly dance

13. The waves beside them danced; but they

14. Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
15. A poet could not but be gay
16. In such a jocund company
17. I gazed – and gazed – but little thought
18. What wealth the show to me had brought

19. For oft, when on my couch I lie

20. In vacant or in pensive mood,
21. They flash upon that inward eye
22. Which is the bliss of solitude ;
23. And then my heart with pleasure fills
24. And dances with the daffodils.
• Dance of the Eunuchs by Kamala Das
1. It was hot, so hot before the eunuchs came
2. To dance , wide skirts going round and round , cymbals
3. Richly clashing , and anklets jingling jingling
4. Jingling .. Beneath the fiery gulmohar , with
5. Long braids flying, dark eyes flashing, they danced and
6. They dance, oh, they danced till they bled… There were green
7. Tattoos on their cheeks, jasmines in their hair, some
8. Were dark, and some were almost fair. Their voices
9. Were harsh, their songs melancholy, they sang of
10. Lovers dying and or children left unborn…
11. Some beat their drums ; others beat their sorry breasts
12. And wailed, and writhed in vacant ecstasy. They
13. Were thin in limbs and dry ; like half- burnt logs from
14. Funeral pyres , a drought and a rottenness
15. Were in each of them. Even the crows were so
16. Silent on trees , and the children wide-eyed , still ;
17. All were watching these poor creatures’ convulsions
18. The sky crackled then, thunder came, and lightning
19. And rain, a meager rain that smelt of dust in
20. Attics and the urine of lizards and mice…

• Go and Catch a Falling Star by John Donne

1. Goe and catche a falling starre
2. Get with child a mandrake roote
3. Tell me where all past yeares are
4. Or who cleft the Divel's foot
5. Teach me to hear mermaides' singing
6. Or to keep off envies' stinging
7. And finde
8. What winde
9. serves to advance an honest minde

10. If thou be'est borne to strange sights

11. Things invisible to see
12. Ride ten thousand days and nights
13. Till age snow hairs on thee
14. Thou when returns will tell me
15. All strange wonders that befell thee
16. And sweare
17. No where
18. Lives a woman true and fair
 19. If thou finds one let mee know
20. Such a pilgrimage were sweet
21. Yet do not, I would not go
22. Thou at next door, we might meet
23. Though she were true, when you met her
24. And last till you write your letter
25. Yet she
26. Will be
27. False ere I come to two or three

• On His Blindness by John Milton

1. When I consider how my light is spent
2. Ere half my days in this dark world and wide
3. And that one talent which is death to hide
4. Lodged with me useless , though my soul more bent
5. To serve therewith and present
6. My true account, lest He returning chide
7. “Doth God exact day –labour , light denied ?”
8. I fondly ask, but Patience, to prevent

9. That murmur soon replies , “God doth not need

10. Either man’s work or His own gifts
11. Who best bears his mild yoke , they serve Him best
12. His state is kingly ; thousands at His bidding speed
13. And post o’er land and ocean without rest
14. They also serve who only stand and wait

• My Last Duchess by Robert Browing

1. That's my last Duchess painted on the wall
2. Looking as if she were alive. I call
3. That piece a wonder, now , Fra Pandolf's hands
4. Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
5. Will't please you sit and look at her ? I said
6. Far Pandolf by design, for never read
7. Strangers like you that pictured countenance
8. The depth and passion of its earnest glance.
9. But to myself they turned ( since none put by
10. The curtain - I have drawn for you, but I )
11. And seemed as thy would ask me , if they durst
12. How such a glance came there, so not the first
13. Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir 'twas not
14. her husbaned's presence only Called that spot
15. Of joy into the Duchess'cheek, perhaps
………………………………………………. Perhaps
16. Fra Pandolf chanced to say 'Her mantle laps
17. Over my lady's wrist too much' or 'Paint
18. Must never hope to reproduce the faint
19. Half-flush that dies along her throat, such stuff
20. Was courtesy , she thought , and cause enough
21. For calling up that spot of joy, She had. She had
22. A heart - How shall I say ? - too soon made glad
23. Too easily impressed ; She liked whate'er
24. She looked on, and her looks went everywhere
25. Sir ! 'twas all one ; my favor at her breast
26. The dropping of the daylight in the west
27. The bough of cherries some officious fool
28. Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
29. She rode with round the terrace - all and each
30. Would draw from her alike the approving speech
31. ......... She thanked men - good ! but thanked
32. Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
33. My gift of a nine hundred years old name
34. With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
35. This sort of trifling ? …… (Even had you skill
36. In speech which I have not ) to make your will
37. Quite clear to such an one , and say ‘just this
38. Or that in you disgust me, here you miss
39. Or there exceed the mark” and if she let
40. Herself be lessoned so, not plainly set
41. Her wits to yours, foresooth, and made excuse
42. Even then would be some stooping, and I choose
43. Never to stoop…................. Oh sir! She smiled; no doubt
44. Whenever I passed her; but who passed without
45. Much the same smile? ...............This grew ; I gave commands ;
46. Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
47. As if alive. Will’t please you rise ? we’ll meet
48. The company below.Then I repeat
49. The Count your masters known munificence
50. Is ample warrant that no just pretence
51. Of mine for dowry will be disallowed ,
52. Though his fair daughter's self , as I avowed
53. At starting, is my object --------------Nay, we'll go
54. Together down sir. Notice Neptune, though
55. Taming a sea horse, thought a rarity
 56. Which Claus of Innusbruk cast in bronze for me

• Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

1. Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness
2. Thou foster child of silence and slow time
3. Sylvan historian , who canst thus express
4. A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme.
5. What leaf fring’d legend haunts about thy shape
6. 0f deities or mortals , or of both
7. In Tempe or the dales of Arcady ?
8. What men or gods are these? What maidens loth ?
9. What mad pursuit ? What struggle to escape ?
10. What pipes and timbrels ? What wild ecstasy ?
11. Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
12. Are sweeter, therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
13. Not to the sensual ear but more endear'd
14. Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
15. Fair youth , beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
16. Thy song , nor ever can those trees be bare
17. Bold lover never, never canst thou kiss
18. Thou winning near the goal, yet do not grieve,
19. She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss
20. Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
21. Ah happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
22. Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu
23. And happy melodist , unwearied
24. Forever piping songs forever new
25. More happy love ! More happy, happy love
26. For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd
27. For ever panting , and forever young ;
28. All breathing human passion far above
29. That leaves a heart high -sorrowful and cloy'd
30. A burning forehead, and a parching tongue
31. Who arethese coming to the sacrifice?
32. To what green altar, o mysterious priest looked
33. Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies
34. And all her silken flanks with garlands drest
35. What little town by river or sea shore
36. Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel
37. Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn ?
38. And little town, thy streets for evermore
 39. Will silent be ; and not a soul to tell
40. Why thou art desolate, can ever return

41. O Attic shape ! fair attitude , with brede

42. Of marble men and maidens overwrought
43. With forest branches and the trodden weed.
44. Thou silent form, dost tease us out of thought
45. As doth eternity; Cold pastoral !
46. When old age shall this generation waste
47. Thou shalt remain in midst of other woe
48. Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst-
49. "Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty" that is all
50. Ye know on the earth, and all ye need to know.

• Ode to West Wind by P.B. Shelley

1. O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being
2. Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
3. Are driven, like ghost from an enchanter fleeing
4. Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red
5. Pestilence – stricken multitudes : O thou,
6. Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
7. The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low
8. Each like a corpse within its grave, until
9. Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
10. Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill
11. ( Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
12. With living hues and odours plain and hill :
13. Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere
14. Destroyer and preserver; hear , oh hear !

15. Thou on whose stream , mid the steep sky’s commotion

16. Loose clouds like earth’s decaying leaves are shed
17. Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean
18. Angles of rain and lighting : there are spread
19. On the blue surface of thine airy surge
20. Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
21. Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
22. Of the horizon to the zenith’s height
23. The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
24. Of the dying year, to which this closing night
25. Will be the dome of a vast sepulcher
26. Vaulted with all thy congregated might
27. Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
28. Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst : oh hear !

29. Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

30. The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
31. Lull’d by the coil of his crystalline streams,
32. Beside a pumice isle in Baiae’s bay
33. And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
34. Quivering within the wave’s intenser day,
35. All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
36. So sweet, the sense faints picturing them ! Thou
37. For whose path the Atlantic’s level powers
38. Cleve themselves into chasms, while far below
39. The sea – blooms and the oozy woods which wear
40. The sapless foliage of the ocean , know
41. Thy voice , and suddenly grow gray with fear
42. And tremble and despoil themselves : oh hear !

43. If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear ;

44. If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee
45. A wave to pant beneath thy power , and share
46. The impulse of thy strength only less free
47. Than thou, O uncontrollable ! if even
48. I were as in my boyhood and could be
49. The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven ,
50. As then , when to outstrip thy skiey speed
51. Scarce seem’d a vision; I would ne’er have striven
52. As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
53. Oh , lift me as a wave , a leaf, a cloud !
54. I fall upon the thorns of life ! I bleed
55. A heavy weight of hours has chan’d and bow’d
56. One too like thee ; tameless , and swift, and proud

57. Make me thy lyre , even as the forest is :

58. What if my leaves are falling like its own !
59. The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
60. Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone
61. Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
62. My spirit ! Be thou me , impetuous one !
63. Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
64. Like wither’d leaves to quicken a new birth!
65. And , by the incantation of this verse,
66. Scatter , as from an unextinguish’d hearth
67. Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
68. Be through my lips to unawaken’d earth
69. The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
70. If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind ?