Divya's Personal Blog

Julius Caesar - I Julius Caesar, an able General and a conqueror, returns Rome amidst immense popularity after a victory in Spain. He defeated the sons of his old enemy, Pompey the Great. The people celebrate his return and he is offered the crown by close friend and military commander Mark Antony which he refuses. Jealous with Caesar’s growing power and afraid that he may one day become an authoritarian king, Cassius instigates a conspiracy to murder Caesar. He involves Marcus Brutus who is the very close friend of Caesar and a trusted Roman Senator in the plot. Cassius convinces Brutus that Caesar is too ambitious and should be killed before being allowed to rule the Roman Empire. Brutus is convinced by Cassius that it is for the good of Rome that Caesar should be killed. Caesar is worried as his wife Calphurnia tells him the horrible dream she had about his death and that the strange occurrences the night before are a prelude of his death. Caesar dismisses the doub...

Three young men are walking together to a wedding, when one of them is detained by a grizzled old sailor. The young Wedding-Guest angrily demands that the Mariner let go of him, and the Mariner obeys. But the young man is transfixed by the ancient Mariner’s “glittering eye” and can do nothing but sit on a stone and listen to his strange tale. The Mariner says that he sailed on a ship out of his native harbor—”below the kirk, below the hill, / Below the lighthouse top”—and into a sunny and cheerful sea. Hearing bassoon music drifting from the direction of the wedding, the Wedding-Guest imagines that the bride has entered the hall, but he is still helpless to tear himself from the Mariner’s story. The Mariner recalls that the voyage quickly darkened, as a giant storm rose up in the sea and chased the ship southward. Quickly, the ship came to a frigid land “of mist and snow,” where “ice, mast-high, came floating by”; the ship was hemmed inside this maze of ice. But then the sailors...

The speaker recalls having met a traveler “from an antique land” i.e; Ancient Land (Rome) who told him a story about the ruins of a statue in the desert of his native country. Two vast legs of stone stand without a body, and near them a massive, crumbling stone head lies “half sunk” in the sand. The traveler told the speaker that the frown and “sneer of cold command” on the statue’s face indicate that the sculptor understood well the emotions (or "passions") of the statue’s subject. The memory of those emotions survives "stamped" on the lifeless statue, even though both the sculptor and his subject are both now dead. On the pedestal of the statue appear the words, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” But around the decaying ruin of the statue, nothing remains, only the “lone and level sands,” which stretch out around it. UNDERSTANDING POET This sonnet from  1817  is probably Shelley’s most famous and most anthol...

The poet conveys that his loved one will get immortalized through the words of his poems, 'Not marbles nor the gilded monuments.' He tells his beloved that his powerful poem would out live the marble and the gold plated monuments constructed by the king and other Royal people. He believes his beloved will shine brighter in his verse than the stones of monuments on which time will leave its indelible marks. These monuments will wear out, blacken and appear unclean as time progresses. He explains how his love will stand the test of time even when every other manmade structure crumbles down He then says that few tiles over below overturns statues which were erected for the resemblance of great rulers and would devastate buildings which were a living example of fine masonry. Furthermore, the poet says that nothing will be able to wipe out his beloved memory who will forever continue to live. He also says that despite death, jealousy and blind hatred from others his loved on...

The frog and the nightingale is poetic fable with a satire on the human behavior. The poem starts with the frog that sat under a Sumac tree and croaked all night in a loud and unpleasant voice right from dusk to dawn. All the creatures hated his voice. Their complaints, insults and brickbats couldn't stop him from croaking stubbornly. Nothing could shatter his determination.Then, one night a nightingale came flying and sat on the branch of Sumac tree. She started singing in her melodious voice. They all got completely engrossed in the nightingales' song and kept on looking at the sumac tree where the nightingale was sitting. Ducks and herons swam towards the Sumac tree to hear the nightingale serenade.  Some lonely creature even wept hearing her song.The entire event left the frog very jealous and he decided to get rid of this new rival, the nightingale. The next night, when the modest bird prepared to sing, the plotting frog interrupted. He posed as a music crit...

'Virtually True' is a science fiction. The story is based on interactive psycho-driven games. One day Michael, the narrator of the story, read an article in the newspaper about "Miracle Recovery". It states, "A boy whose condition was critical but stable had been recovered from coma."Michael remembered that the boy who he had read in the news paper was none other than SEBASTIAN SHULTZ whom he met about weeks ago in the computer Games.  Michael's father who was a fan of computers bought him a new computer from the computer fair in which latest technology Games were preloaded. When he played the games, he entered Sebastian's memory. In the first game named WILD WEST, Michael met a Second Sheriff whom he had to save, but the Second Sheriff got shot by the villains. Later On, he got a printout saying I 'm Sebastian Shultz try playing Dragon Quest.  In Dragon Quest he should save the Princess Aurora and he had the help of the second knight...

Patol Babu lived in Kanchrapara and worked in the railway factory. However, due to the war he lost his nine years old job. Then he tried many jobs he started variety shop but he failed then worked in a Bengali film but faced some problem with the director. So he left that film then his cousin offered him to join scrap iron business. Once when Nishikanto Babu came to Patol Babu, he told him that his brother-in-law Naresh Dutt who works in film business needed a short, bald-headed man of the age fifty for his film. And Nishikanto Babu suggested the name of Patol Babu. He accepted the offer of Naresh Dutt, as a role of a pedestrian. Next morning he reached at the FARADAY HOUSE, his heart was trembling with happiness. But the problem was that he was not still given the lines of the dialogue. He asked about his lines of the dialogue to the Naresh Dutt. And Naresh Dutt told Sosanko and Jyoti to give the lines to the Patol Babu. Jyoti tore off a page and wrote something and give it t...

A Shady Plot is a short ghost story by Elsie Brown. The story deals with the appearance of supernatural and spiritual things. The writer, John Hallock was urged by Jerkins to write a new ghost story for his magazine. Usually John was full of ideas but that day he could not make a start. He started talking to himself. Then, suddenly he heard the ghost Helen's voice. He was surprised. She spoke on behalf of all the people who had turned to ghosts and warned the writer to stop from calling them often. She said they were all going to call for a strike. This strike was to not to appear or provide ideas to people for writing ghost stories. Thus, Helen warned the author not to involve himself in Ouija Board's activity or any other which would mean calling the spirits. At noon, while he was still trying to work on a story, his wife Lavinia brought a Ouija Board home and announced her party with the women from her Book Club. The writer tried to convince Lavinia, his ...

"The Letter" is a touching story of Ali who is all alone and waits for his only daughter's letter for five long years. He receives that letter only at his grave. Ali was a brilliant hunter who derived pleasure from the terror of the dying birds. But his daughter hated his merciless hunting desire. After his daughter’s marriage, he was left alone. His daughter, Miriam left home with her husband, a soldier in a regiment in Punjab. Having understood the meaning of love and separation, he could no longer enjoy the screams of dying birds. Therefore, he stopped hunting. Since then, he had been regularly visiting post office in the early morning expecting a letter from his daughter Miriam. However, it did come and he returned home disappointed. The post office staffs often made fun of him. The clerk even called out his name; jokingly even there was no letter for him. Suddenly, for several days, Ali did not come to the post office. Everyone was curious to know ...

Mrs Packletide was an English woman who was overcome with a powerful urge to shoot a tiger. Fundamentally she was not courageous or overcome but rather she was stricken with envy when her companion, Loona Bimberton, had as of late been conveyed in a plane by an Algerian pilot. Mrs Packletide needed to surpass her and yearned to demonstrate that she was no less. Her definitive craving was to acquire a tiger-skin and show it on the mass of her home. On the off chance that she succeeded in murdering a tiger, her photo would show up in the press and she would have a gathering in Curzon Street in Loona Bimberton’s respect, yet the discussion would be of her chasing campaign. She additionally wanted to show a tiger-hook clasp on Loona’s next birthday. Every one of her intentions were to a great extent overwhelmed by her abhorrence of Loona.Circumstances ended up being good. An old and feeble tiger was going by a neighboring town looking for nourishment. Mrs Packletide offered to pay one t...

The story is set up in the city of  Verona, which is also home to the famous Shakespearian love story Romeo Juliet. The story starts with firsthand narration.The narrator along with his friend was driving through lower hills of the Alps when they were stopped on the outskirts of Verona by two shabby looking boys. They were selling wild strawberries.  Though the driver warned the author not to buy it the author took one look at those boys and cannot resist buying the whole lot of strawberry.They introduced themselves as  Jacopo (12 years old ) Nicola (13 years old).  The very next morning the author sees the brothers polishing shoes in the public square.  The author gets to know that they do various tasks to earn money like selling newspapers, polishing shoes, selling strawberries and and working as tourist guides . The author was impressed and knew that though they were still kids they had mature personalities. One mid night the author comes across a...

Many artists lived in the Greenwich Village area of New York. Two young women named Sue and Johnsy shared a studio apartment at the top of a three-story building. Johnsy's real name was Joanna. In November, a cold, unseen stranger came to visit the city. This disease,  pneumonia , killed many people. Johnsy lay on her bed, hardly moving. She looked through the small window. She could see the side of the brick house next to her building. One morning, a doctor examined Johnsy and took her temperature. Then he spoke with Sue in another room. "She has one chance in -- let us say ten," he said. "And that chance is for her to want to live. Your friend has made up her mind that she is not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?" "She -- she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples in Italy some day," said Sue. "Paint?" said the doctor. "Bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking twice -- a man for example?" ...

  Major Themes and Issues in the Play  Idealistic Leadership   What makes the Sultan‘s character more fascinating is his paradoxical and complex nature. He is portrayed as ―a dreamer and a man of action, benevolent and cruel, devout and callous.‖ U.R. Anantha Murty remarks: ―Both Tughlaq and his enemies initially appear to be idealists; yet in the pursuit of the ideal, they perpetrate its opposite. The whole play is structured on these opposites: the ideal and the real: the divine aspiration and the deft intrigue.‖ These opposites constitute the main charm of the structure of Tughlaq. Tughlaq promises his Subjects to maintain ―justice, equality, progress and peace -- not just peace but a more purposeful life‖ ―without any consideration of might and weakness, religion or creed.‖ But to a great surprise he could not win the hearts of his public. He wants to give his ―beloved people‖ peace, freedom, justice and progress. He says that his people would witness how ...