English Cosmos by Dr Mukesh Pareek

Shaw (1856-1950), Gandhi (1869-1948) and Vegetarianism   Dr. P. S. Sri     “Animals are my friends . . . and I don’t eat my friends.”  “While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?”      ---  G . Bernard Shaw                                                                                                              ...

Thomas Gray: THOMAS GRAY, the son of Mr. Philip Gray, a scrivener of London, was born in Cornhill, November 26, 1716. His grammatical education he received at Eton under the care of Mr. Antrobus, his mother's brother, then assistant to Dr. George, and when he left school, in 1734, entered a pensioner at Peterhouse in Cambridge. The transition from the school to the college is, to most young scholars, the time from which they date their years of manhood, liberty, and happiness; but Gray seems to have been very little delighted with academical gratifications: he liked at Cambridge neither the mode of life nor the fashion of study, and lived sullenly on to the time when his attendance on lectures was no longer required. As he intended to profess the Common Law he took no degree. When he had been at Cambridge about five years, Mr. Horace Walpole, whose friendship he had gained at Eton, invited him to travel with him as his companion. They wandered through France into Italy, and Gray...

FOUNDERS AND FATHERS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1.Geoffrey Chaucer = The Father of English Literature 2.Geoffrey Chaucer = The Father of English Poetry 3.Geoffrey Chaucer = The Father of English Language 4.Geoffrey Chaucer = The Morning Star of the Renaissance 5.Geoffrey Chaucer = The First National Poet 6.Venerable Bede = The Father of English Learning. 7.Venerable Bede = The Father of English History 8.King Alfred the Great = The Father of English Prose 9.Aeschylus = The Father of Tragedy 10.Nicholas Udall = The First English Comedy Writer 11.Edmund Spenser = The Poet’s poet (by Charles Lamb) 12.Edmund Spenser = The Child of Renaissance 13.Edmund Spenser = The Bridge between Renaissance and Reformation 14.Gutenberg = The Father of Printing 15.William Caxton = Father of English Press 16.Francis Bacon = The Father of English Essay 17.John Wycliffe = The Morning Star of the Reformation 18.Christopher Marlowe = The Father of English Tragedy 19.William Shakespeare = Bard of Avon 20.William Sha...

The  fireside poets  – also known as the  schoolroom  or  household poets were a group of 19th-century  American poets  associated with  New England . These poets were very popular among readers and critics both in the United States and overseas. Their domestic themes and messages of  morality  presented in conventional poetic forms deeply shaped their era until their decline in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century. Overview The group is typically thought to include  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ,  William Cullen Bryant ,  John Greenleaf Whittier ,  James Russell Lowell , and  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. ,who were the first American poets whose popularity rivaled that of  British poets , both at home and abroad.  Ralph Waldo Emerson  is occasionally included in the group as well. The name "fireside poets" is derived from that popularity; their writing was a source of entertainment for famili...

THE WEST AND THE EAST I. The West 'The Theatre of the Absurd' is a term coined by the critic Martin Esslin for the work of a number of playwrights, mostly written in the 1950s and 1960s. The term is derived from an essay by the French philosopher Albert Camus. In his 'Myth of Sisyphus', written in 1942, he first defined the human situation as basically meaningless and absurd. The 'absurd' plays by Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter and others all share the view that man is inhabiting a universe with which he is out of key. Its meaning is indecipherable and his place within it is without purpose. He is bewildered, troubled and obscurely threatened. The origins of the Theatre of the Absurd are rooted in the avant-garde experiments in art of the 1920s and 1930s. At the same time, it was undoubtedly strongly influenced by the traumatic experience of the horrors of the Second World War, which showed the total impermanence of any ...

1. What was the profession of Tennyson's father who was plagued by excessive drinking and a violent, moody temper?  banker  rector  journalist  architect B 2. What happened to Edward, one of Alfred Tennyson's brothers?  died in a railway accident  died while operating a railway  died in a private mental asylum  became a famous journalist C 3. What name did the American poet Walt Whitman call Tennyson?  the Melancholy Saxon  the Dulcet Songster  the Boss  the Trumpeter of Empire C 4. In which year did Queen Victoria make Tennyson the Poet Laureate of Britain?  1850  1890  1830  1888 A 5. Where did Tennyson attend university?  Exeter College, Oxford University  Trinity College, Cambridge University  St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University  King's College, Cambridge University B 6. Who was Tennyson's intimate college friend who inspired the confessional autobiographi...

There was no pulsation.” a.  The Tell-Tale Heart  by Edgar Allan Poe b.  The Monkey’s Paw  by W. W. Jacobs c.  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow  by Washington Irving “A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.” a.  A Pair of Silk Stockings  by Kate Chopin b.  The Gift of the Magi  by O. Henry c.  The Poor Relation’s Story  by Charles Dickens “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” a. "A Golden Wedding" by  L. M. Montgomery b.  The Lottery  by Shirley Jackson c.  Soon  by Alice Munro “She stood for a long time in the doorway in a red fury that grew bloodier for every second that she regarded the creature that was her torment.” a.  The Red Bow  by George Saunders b.  The Doll ...

1.Some of the earliest short stories can be found in the Bible. But the short story, as a form, took a major shift in the 14th century, thanks in part to this writer. Visit my website  www.englishcosmos.org Contact me for Online /offline classes for NET /SET/JRF/Pre Oh. D  Boccaccio  Washington Irving  Cervantes  Mark Twain www.mukeshpareek.com 2. When did the English short story begin to take the form of prose rather than verse?  15th century  17th century  14th century  20th century www.mukeshpareek.com 3. This short story writer had a theory about the form. He believed a true short story required a "single effect" and insisted that "[i]n the whole composition there should be no word written of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design."  Chaucer  Edgar Allan Poe  Washington Irving  Mark Twain www.mukeshpareek.com 4. This short story writer, however, considered the st...

. Questions 1 - 2 are based on the following passage: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! This poem was written in which of the following eras?   a. Modern b. Victorian c. Romantic d. Postmodern e. Elizabethan 2. The theme of this stanza can best be described as _______________.   a. Art has its limits. b. Young love is sometimes not returned. c. Music energizes the heart. d. Life is enhanced by the imagination. 3. Questions 3 - 5 are based on the following passage: A man can hold land if he can just eat and pay taxes; he can do that. Yes, he can do that until his c...