The “humour” poems in our syllabus while providing humour, attempt to convey some greater truths. Discuss this statement with relevance to three poems in your syllabus:

 

The term “humour” is often associated with silliness, meaninglessness, lack of depth, etc. Therefore, when a poem receives the “appellation” humour – the reader often assumes them to be lightweight poetry without substance. Yet, humour is often a good way to camouflage quite serious messages. It helps to say things that might be considered offensive in a nicer way. 

Looking at the four poems in our syllabus, it is easy to see the reasons why they might be stashed under the title “humour”. For example, “Upside Down” is about a man who does things in an unconventional way. The poet mentions some of the bizarre things that had happened: ….. in “The Huntsman,” humour is not so powerful. Of course one might laugh at the way huntsman rushes to the place after his conversation with the skull and how the skull refuses to talk to the king landing the hunter in trouble. In “the Camel’s Hump,” Kipling humorously shows the repercussions of over indulgence. In “Two’s Company” the poet Raymond Wilfred illustrates comically how being overbold gets a man into trouble.

However, none of these poems can be swept aside as merely humorous. In “Upside Down” we get to see how unconventional people are misunderstood by other…In “The Huntsman” underneath the humour, there is a cautionary tale. One must think before one acts and speaks. In “The Camel’s Hump” Kipling humerously illustrates one of the most serious problems in modern life: laziness and obesity. Lastly, in “Two’s Company,” the poet encourages the reader to re-think the modern tendency to thing scientifically. Everything cannot be rationalized.

Finally, one might say humour runs as a common thread linking all four poems; however, all four poems have something beyond just humour to offer their readership.    

Twilight of a Crane: 1. By referring to the text, compare and contrast the characters of Tsu and Yohyo in Twilight of a Crane

 

·       Character arc – what does the character look like at beginning and at the end

·       what are the changes, what had made the changes,

·       how had the changes affected the characters and those around him.

·       What is the thematic relevance of the change the character undergoes

·       How do the interactions between the two characters highlight the themes of the play

In this answer, I will be dealing with two character arcs: the character arc of Tsu and that of Yohyo. In the course of the answer I will be dealing with how the two characters looked at the beginning and the end; what are the changes the two characters have undergone; what caused those changes in them; what are the thematic relevance of the changes and how the interactions between the characters highlight the themes of the play.

Let us look at the character arc of Tsu first. Initially, the audience come across Tsu as Yohyo’s wife. She is a stranger to the village. According to Unzu, after her arrival, Yohyo spends all his life just relaxing by the fire doing nothing. Sodo wonders how Yohyo managed to make such a pretty woman his wife. Towards the middle of the play we learn that Tsu was a crane that had metamorphed into a woman out of gratitude to Yohyo for saving her life. According to Yohyo she comes to his door one night and offers to be his wife. At this point, thematically speaking, Tsu represents natural forces and positive traits such as kindness, love and self-sacrifice.

As a wife, Tsu loved her husband very much, wanted to make him happy even at the expense her own life and health. She overlooks Yohyo’s laziness and the fact that he was a very bad provider, his fascination with hoarding money and his inability to value the gifts of senba ori. She single mindedly focuses on his only good quality: his kindness towards her at a time she was injured and his occasional displays of concern for comfort. For Tsu, one’s word was important; ultimately, she leaves Yohyo because he breaks his promise to her not to look at her while she was weaving. In contrast to her relationship with Yohyo which is primarily based on gratitude, Tsu’s relationship with the children is based on their shared desire to live a life close to nature and enjoy the moment. Tsu’s character stands for the theme of positive aspects of nature. Her interactions and the final outcome of the interactions stand for the interactions between nature and capitalism.

Tsu as a character of nature, likes to lead an uncomplicated life. She urges Yohyo to give up his desire to visit Kyoto and live happily with her in the rural area where they lived forever. Yohyo makes references to Tsu having seen Kyoto several times. What Tsu may have seen in Kyoto makes her reluctant to go there even to keep her husband by her side. Kyoto frightens her.  To her, Kyoto represented everything complicated and corrupt. She is frightened by Yohyo’s fascination with the capital city and believes once he gets there he would not return to her. What happens to Tsu in the end is a warning to the audience as to what could be the final outcome of a conflict between the benevolent aspects of nature and capitalism. After all the upheaval, even at the end of the play she remains true to her character; she does not change much in the course of the play. Tsu’s character arc is almost linear. Tsu is aware of the human potential for evil: she had seen corruption in Kyoto and she had been the victim of human cruelty – she had been shot at with an arrow. But, she is willing to believe that human beings are capable of finer feelings such as generosity, love, kindness and appreciation of beauty. Also, Tsu as a wife, represent values such as self-sacrifice and honour promoted by feudal Japan.

Secondly, let us look at the character of Yohyo. According to the script, Yohyo is one of the protagonists in the drama. He is young farmer from rural area. He is unsophisticated: both Unzu and Sodo consider Yohyo to be foolish and they easily manipulate him to do their bidding. Yohyo lacks a strong willpower. Therefore, anyone with a strong personality can change the way he thought and behaved. If we were to consider Tsu as a representation of nature and Unzu and Sodo as personifications of capitalism, Yohyo is the weak man caught between two powerful forces. 

Before meeting Tsu, Yohyo must have supported himself through his farming activities, but after meeting Tsu he does not seem to be doing any work: the house is a tumbled down hut. It has not been made ready to meet the brutal Japanese winters. The farm lays fallow and there are no references to granaries or stored food. Instead of supporting his wife, he becomes a lazy man who lay sleeping by the fireside who is supported by the efforts of his wife.  Tsu tries to convey her love and gratitude by weaving a Senba Ori for him. Yohyo is incapable of understanding the significance of the cloth; therefore, instead of treasuring it he sells it and hoards money in sacks. Tsu wants be happy with Yohyo, but Yohyo wants to earn a lot of money. Yohyo is depend on Tsu’s weaving. It is his shortsightedness that exposes their relationship to Unzu and Sodo who callously exploits Yohyo’s weaknesses to their advantage. In summary, when we look at the development arc of Yohyo’s character, the Yohyo we see until the very end is predominantly driven by his fascination with money and the desire to please his senses. Still, he is not a complete monochromatic character: there is both good and bad in him. He is a weak and lazy man who puts his desires above that of his wife. However, he is also capable of acts of kindness towards both Tsu and the children who come to play with them. .   

In conclusion, let us summarize how the two characters looked at the beginning and the end; what are the changes the two characters have undergone; what caused those changes in them; what are the thematic relevance of the changes and how the interactions between the characters highlight the themes of the play.

Out of the two main characters, we meet Tsu and Yohyo as mature people who are more or less set in their way. The character arc of the male is almost nonexistent. The male protagonist we see at the beginning is more or less the same person we would see at the end. Tsu’s character, on the other hand, …

1. Discuss Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird Came Down the Walk” as a minute observation of nature.

 

      Nature is a predominant theme in many of the work of the American poetess Emily Dickinson. Following this preoccupation, in “A Bird Came Down the Walk”, too, Dickinson offers a minute observation of the world around her to her readers. However, the poem is not limited to a mere observation of nature. Instead, the poem also deals with the all-important issue of man’s relationship with nature.

     In order to illustrate her points, Dickinson presents/ introduces a beautiful interaction between a human being and a small unknown bird. The poetic persona sees the bird coming down her walk looking for food. She observes how the bird catches food and then interacts with its environment. Next, the poetic persona offers some breadcrumbs to the bird. To her surprise, instead of accepting it, the bird takes off offended.

         Most of us would not note an everyday occurrence such as the one described by the poetess.  However, being a keen observer of both nature and human beings, Dickinson, shares with the reader her careful observations of the interactions between the bird and bird and its environment as well as the poetic persona and the bird making it a very special experience. One might say that a 19^th century white middle class woman had more time at hand to engage in activities such as “minute” observations of nature unlike most people today, especially women. The poetess sees a bird coming down her walk. It is either not a very special bird or the poetic persona does not know its name. the poetic persona says that this ordinary unknown bird “did not know” that she had seen it. The word “saw” underscores that this was an unplanned happening. Next, she observes the bird biting “an angle-worm in halves”. She makes known her revulsion or the surprise at the dining habits of the bird by placing the word “raw” after a comma. The poetic persona displays her fellowship with both the bird and the worm by calling them “he” and “the fellow”. Thereafter, she explains how the bird “drank a dew/ [f]rom a convenient grass”. Here, the poetic persona expresses her approval of the location of the grass in proximity to the now-full bird through the use of “convenient” as a pre-modifier for the grass. Now, satiated, the bird allows the beetle which he would surely have eaten had he not been full to “pass” by hopping “sidewise to the wall” – or so thinks the poetic persona.  Dickinson’s poetic persona notes next how the bird looks about “with rapid eyes/ [t]hat hurried all abroad”. She thinks that the bird’s eyes “looked like frightened beads”. The poetic persona makes note of the velvety texture of the head unlike ordinary people who come across such scenes.  The poetic persona then goes on to offer the visitor to her “walk” “a crumb. She does that cautiously. However, instead of accepting the offering the bird takes off. Here, to describe the way the bird took off, the poetic persona offers several images from nature and the human world. An sailing ship unrolling its sails getting ready to sail is used to show how the bird got ready to fly away. The effortless way the bird flapped its wings is compared to how “oars divide the ocean” – like the silver surface of the ocean would not carry the marks of the oars, the air would not carry the marks of the passage of the bird’s graceful flight. Through these two images from nature the poetic persona is illustrating the unfamiliar through the familiar. Here, the familiar is the man-made world and the unfamiliar is the natural world. Next, taking a bold step, the poetic person makes use of images from nature: the way the bird took off is compared to how butterflies leap “off banks of noon” and swim away “plashless” – a mixed metaphor. Through that this American poetess makes us question how much we might be missing out in life as a result of not looking at the world around us carefully enough.        

       In addition, the poetess offers her readers a unique and carefully observed picture of man’s relationship with nature as well. Due to human “progress” there is distance between 19^th century man and nature. No matter how observant she is, the poetic persona does not know the bird’s name. She does not have a clear idea of why the bird stepped sideways. She says that she thought the bird stepped aside to let the beetle pass. The bird’s feeding style surprises or shocks her. Finally, she offers a bird who was full and therefore had refused to eat a beetle some crumbs – this is a mark of her ignorance about how animals behave. Most animals don’t eat once they are full. At the same time, this bird seems to be a carnivore. The poetic persona does not note that. So it is quite clear that through the poetic persona’s ignorance, the poetess is trying to show the developing gulf between man and nature.

In conclusion, “The Bird Came Down the Walk” is indeed one of Dickinson’s minute observations of nature through which she is trying to illustrate a great tragedy she has noted: there is a developing distance between man and nature.