She walks in Beauty

She Walks in Beauty is an eighteen line poem written in 1814 and published in 1815. This poem is not a love poem, but a celebration of a woman's beauty. The speaker never says he is in love with the lady, but he thinks she is really beautifu

In this poem, the speaker is enlisting different qualities of his beloved, viz. aspect, eye, face, grace, cheek, brow, smiles, mind, thoughts and love. This technique of enlisting is known as blazon. By using blazon, he is giving a verse-compliment to his beloved. Likewise, giving a verse compliment to a lady is a cavalier tradition which the poet has borrowed from romanticism. Using the tradition, both from cavalier poetry and neo-classical poetry, he defines beauty. For Lord Byron, beauty is both inner beauty and outer beauty. Mind at peace, pure thoughts and innocent love emphasize the mental, psychological or inner beauty. Likewise, aspects like eye, face, grace, cheek and smiles represent the outer or physical beauty. For Byron, both inner and outer qualities constitute the beauty. Thus, he defines beauty in totality.The poem continues the tradition of neo-classical tradition of form in poetry. Closed form and use of iamb are its examples. In the first sestet of the poem, the speaker compares his beloved with the night of cloudless climate and starry skies. This simile brightens the combination of the best aspect of the day and light. Bright and dark color have been harmoniously combined in her eyes and aspect to make her pleasant in appearance. Highlighting her mellowed appearance, he inversely compares her with the day, which lacks that beauty. The second stanza carries on contrasting between light and dark, day and night, to describe her beauty. The third stanza concludes that she's not just beautiful, she's "good" and "innocent," too.

The speaker has forgotten everything in the beauty of this lady. The speaker admires the effortless harmony of a woman's beauty, and tells us that it's all about the perfect balance of light and dark in her whole face and figure. He never says he's in love with her, but the reader can guess that he's attracted to her — after all, he can't stop talking about her hair, her eyes, her cheeks. By the end of the poem, it seems like the speaker is protesting a little too much. By insisting repeatedly that the lady is pure and that her "love is innocent," it is hard not to suspect that he perhaps wishes that weren't the case.

As we observe the description of the lady we realize the inclusive definition of beauty in the poem. For Byron, beauty is both physical and spiritual. Eye, face, cheek, brow, and smiles represent the physical beauty whereas mind, heart and thought to represent the spiritual beauty.

The poem is divided into three stanzas of six lines each, with an ABABAB rhyme scheme, in iambic tetrameter with the Pyrrhic form that bring variation. The contrast between night and day, and dark and light, is the image that sets up the whole poem. If we observe the form of this poem, neo-classical tradition has been continued. It shows that the neoclassical tradition has not completely lost during romanticism. It has somehow been continued, especially by Lord Byron.

Among the cavalier poets, there was the tradition of giving a verse compliment to a lady. The cavalier poets used to forget everything seeing the beauty of their beloved. The same tradition of giving a verse compliment to a lady is continued by Lord Byron. The subject matter of this poem is borrowed from cavalier poetry and format from the neoclassical poetry.  It is said that the poem is inspired by actual events in Byron’s life when he met a beautiful woman at a ball. She was his cousin by marriage. But some other critics claim that the beautiful lady might be his half-sister Augusta. Some consider this poem as the tribute to the beauty of the art.

The technique of enjambment has been used in this poem. In this technique, the first statement is presented without any punctuation marks and is followed by another line to clarify the aforementioned statement. The reinforcement of the imagery of light and dark in the poem justifies the good and bad aspects of any work of art, but still it is beautiful. Art is represented as the combination of both qualities of life. Art has contrasting parts, yet the whole art is beautiful and meaningful. In terms of the lady, she is inwardly beautiful and outwardly too, she is charming, but she may have some follies which are shadowed by her soft nature and innocent face. Byron accepts the concept of beauty as a whole that consists of both bright and dark aspects of life.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz. 

Marlow takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company, a Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo. As he travels to Africa and then up the Congo, Marlow encounters widespread inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations. The native inhabitants of the have been forced into the Company’s service, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at the hands of the Company’s agents.

Marlow arrives at the Central Station, run by the general manager, an unwholesome, conspiratorial character. He finds that his steamship has been sunk and spends several months waiting for parts to repair it. His interest in Kurtz grows during this period. The manager and his favorite, the brickmaker, seem to fear Kurtz as a threat to their position. Kurtz is rumored to be ill, making the delays in repairing the ship all the more costly. Marlow eventually gets the parts he needs to repair his ship, and he and the manager set out with a few agents (whom Marlow calls pilgrims because of their strange habit of carrying long, wooden staves wherever they go) and a crew of cannibals on a long, difficult voyage up the river.

They reaches at the area surrounded by a dense fog. When the fog clears, the ship is attacked by an unseen band of natives, who fire arrows from the safety of the forest. The African helmsman is killed before Marlow frightens the natives away with the ship’s steam whistle. Not long after, Marlow and his companions arrive at Kurtz’s Inner Station, expecting to find him dead, but a half-crazed Russian trader, who meets them as they come ashore, assures them that everything is fine and informs them that he is the one who left the wood. The Russian claims that Kurtz has enlarged his mind and cannot be subjected to the same moral judgments as normal people. Apparently, Kurtz has established himself as a god with the natives and has gone on brutal raids in the surrounding territory in search of ivory. The pilgrims bring Kurtz out of the station-house on a stretcher, and a large group of native warriors pours out of the forest and surrounds them. Kurtz speaks to them, and the natives disappear into the woods.

The manager brings Kurtz, who is quite ill, aboard the steamer. A beautiful native woman, apparently Kurtz’s mistress, appears on the shore and stares out at the ship. The Russian reveals to Marlow, after swearing him to secrecy, that Kurtz had ordered the attack on the steamer to make them believe he was dead in order that they might turn back and leave him to his plans. The Russian then leaves by canoe, fearing the displeasure of the manager. Kurtz disappears in the night, and Marlow goes out in search of him, finding him crawling on all fours toward the native camp. Marlow stops him and convinces him to return to the ship. They set off down the river the next morning, but Kurtz’s health is failing fast.

Marlow listens to Kurtz talk while he pilots the ship, and Kurtz entrusts Marlow with a packet of personal documents, including an eloquent pamphlet on civilizing the savages which ends with a scrawled message that says, “Exterminate all the brutes!” The steamer breaks down, and they have to stop for repairs. Kurtz dies, uttering his last words—“The horror! The horror!”—in the presence of the confused Marlow. Marlow falls ill soon after and barely survives. Eventually he returns to Europe and goes to see Kurtz’s fiancee. She is still in mourning, even though it has been over a year since Kurtz’s death, and she praises him as a paragon of virtue and achievement. She asks what his last words were, but Marlow cannot bring himself to shatter her illusions with the truth. Instead, he tells her that Kurtz’s last word was her name.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Moby Dick, novel by Herman Melville published in London in October 1851 as The Whale and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or The Whale. It is dedicated to Nathanial Hawthorne. Moby Dick is generally regarded as Melville's magnum opes and one of the greatest American novels.

Moby Dick famously begins with the narratoriak invocation "Call me Ishmael". The Narrator like his biblical counterparts is an outcast. Ishmael, who turns to the sea for meaning, relays to the audience the final voyage to the Pequod, a whaling vessel. Amid a story of tribulation, beauty and madness, the reader is introduced to a number of characters, many of whom have names with religious resonance. The ship's captain is Ahab, who Ishmael and his friend Queequeg soon learn is losing his mind. Starbuck, Ahab's first mate, recognizes this problem too, and is the only one throughout the novel to voice his disapproval of Ahab's increasingly obsessive Mody Dick. The Pequodsets sail, and the behavior. This nature of Ahab's obsession is first revealed to Ishmael and Queequeg after the Pequod's owner, Peleg and Bildad, explain to them that Ahab is still recovering from an encounter with a large whale that resulted in the loss of his leg. That whale's name is Moby Dick. The Pequodsets sail, and the crew is soon informed that this journey will bw unlike their other whaling mission: this time, despite the reluctance of Starbuck, Ahab intends to hunt and kill the beastly Moby Dick no matter the cost.

Ahab and the crew continue their eventful journey and encounter a number of obstacles along the way. Queequeg falls ill, which prompts a coffin to be built in anticipation of the worst. After he recovers, the coffin becomes a replacement lifeboat that eventually saves Ishmael's life. Ahab receives a prophecy from a crew member. Ahab and the crew continue their eventful journey and encounter a number of obstacles along the way. Queequeg falls ill, which prompts a coffin to be built in anticipation of the worst. After he recovers, the coffin becomes a replacement lifeboat that eventually saves Ishmael's life. Ahab receives a prophecy from a crew member informing him of his future death, which he ignores. Moby Dick is spotted and, over the course of three days, engages violently with Ahab and the Pequod until the whale destroys the ship, killing everyone except Ishmael. Ishmael survives by floating on Queequeg's coffin until he is picked up by another ship, the rachel. The novel consists of 135 chapters, in which narrative and essayistic portions intermingle, as well as an epilogue and front matter.

The Oscars as
always are a mixed bag, often better for the couture
than for the films that grab the gold. The
Green Book was not a dreadful film and it may well pass the ten-year test,
making the cable movie channel rounds a decade from now. But the Driving Mr Shirley plotline,
cringe-worthy ending around the Christmas tree, and Viggo Mortenson’s noble (failed)
attempt to make Italians look

Ab roz uske aanai ka intezaar kerta hon...

Ab roz uske aanai ka intezaar kerta hon,
Main waswason ke ijaad ka karobaar kerta hon,

Ahd-e-wafa na rahe, hojaye tarq-e-taluq bhi,
Dur jane se uske mager main inkaar kerta hon,

Guzri raat ke gham ko badalon main urra ker,
Aanai wale shub ki zindagi dushwaar kerta hon,

Kisi aur ke yaad rakhne ka kya bharosa,
Main apne bhool-jane per aeitebaar kerta hon,

Roz-e-hashr bhi main davedaar-e-kufr honga,
Ke ab bhi tumhari parsai per israar kerta hon,

Kehte hain ghazal-saz mujhe mehfil-e-adab main,
Zikr jab tumahri adawaton ka barbar kerta hon,


Everyday I long for their arrival,
I am a trader of the whispers of betrayal,

I accept the end of all we had together,
This distance - but - I refuse to accept,

I turn my night's pain into clouds of smoke,
Destroying the dawn of tomorrow's morning,

No reason to believe in their remembering,
I choose instead to believe in my forgetting,

On judgement day, I will choose to deny God,
As I deny your many betrayals in front of me,

They call me a poet in the company of the learned,
When I recite to them the cruelties of your love,

- Hassan Bin Fahim

Jim Cummins Quick Facts

Jim Cummins is a renowned SLA educator and one of the world’s most important theorists on bilingual education and second language acquisition. Cummins is also a prolific writer who authored and co-authored a number of notable books that reflect his theoretical perspective.

Profile

Name: Jim Cummins
Full Name: James Patrick Cummins
AKA: J. Cummins, James Cummins
Date of Birth: July 3, 1949
Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland
Zodiac Sign: Cancer
Nationality: Irish/Canadian
Ethnicity: Irish
Siblings: 2 brothers
Education: University of Alberta; The National University of Ireland
Cummins is known for: his concept of Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), and Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP).
Cummins was influenced by: Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Lily Wong Fillmore, Stephen Krashen, Merril Swain, Alma Flor Ada, and Denis Sayers.

Quotes

“When students' language, culture and experience are ignored or excluded in classroom interactions, students are immediately starting from a disadvantage. Everything they have learned about life and the world up to this point is being dismissed as irrelevant to school learning; there are few points of connection to curriculum materials or instruction and so students are expected to learn in an experiential vacuum. Students' silence and nonparticipation under these conditions have frequently been interpreted as lack of academic ability or effort, and teachers’ interactions with students have reflected a pattern of low expectations which become self-fulfilling.”

-Jim Cummins, Negotiating Identities: Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society

Major Works

2007: Literacy, technology, and diversity: Teaching for success in changing times.
2005: Heritage languages.
2003: Lenguaje, poder y pedagogia. Ninos y ninas bilingues entre dos fuegos.
2001: Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society.
2000: Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire.
1999: Taftotites ypo Diapragmatefsi.
1996: Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society.
1995/1997:  Brave new schools: Challenging cultural illiteracy through global learning networks.
1991: Language learning and bilingualism.
1990: Heritage languages: The development and denial of Canada's linguistic resources.
1989: Assessment and placement of minority students.
1989: Empowering minority students.
1986: Bilingualism in education: Aspects of theory, research and policy.
1984: Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy.
1983: Heritage language education: A literature review.
1981: Effects of French language experience at Kindergarten level on academic progress in French immersion programs.
1981: Bilingualism and minority language children.

Major Theories

• Zone of Proximal Development (1994)
• BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) (1981)
• CALPS (Cognitive Academic Linguistics Proficiency Skills) (1981)
• CUP (The Common Underlying Proficiency Model) (1981)
• SUP (The Separate Underlying Proficiency Model) (1981)
• Iceberg Theory (1981)
• Due Icebergs Theory (1981)
• Threshold Hypothesis (1981)
• Length of Time Hypothesis (1981)
• Blaming the Victim (1989)

Did you know?

• Jim Cummins was born in Dublin to a middle class family with a respectable banking officer father.
• Jim Cummins emigrated to Canada due to turbulent socio-political condition in the then colonized Ireland.
• Jim Cummins earned his B.A. (honours) in Psychology with first class from the National University of Ireland In 1970.
• Cummins attained his diploma in Applied Psychology from The National University of Ireland in 1971.
• He earned his doctorate degree in Educational Psychology in 1974 from the University of Alberta.
• During 1976 to 1978 period, he became involved with the Canadian “Parents for French” movement.
• Cummins was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City In 1997.
• He is currently a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.
• His research centers on the nature of language proficiency and second language acquisition.
• The corpus of his publications is voluminous which includes books, journals, monographs, tests and curriculum programs, book chapters, book forwards, and book reviews. 

Media Gallery

Dramatic monologue

Dramatic monologue is a lyric poem wherein a single character speaks, often in a specific situation, either directly to the reader or to a listener. Such poem is dramatic since it features theatrical qualities. However, a dramatic monologue is different from a drama in many ways. Firstly, in a drama, characters develop through outward action and conflict, whereas in a dramatic monologue, the development occurs through the clash of motives within the speaker. Secondly, unlike a drama the character’s speech is delivered in monologue rather than dialogue since a single speaker speaks alone while the listener remains silent. However, a monologue should not be confused with a soliloquy. The former is different from the latter in the sense that in a monologue the speaker reveals his thoughts and feelings to the reader, or to any other character; whereas in a soliloquy, the speaker expresses his thoughts to himself.
The salient features of a dramatic monologue are as under:

• The poem begins abruptly to catch the reader’s attention.
• A single speaker talks to a silent listener.
• The speaker is not the poet himself rather a persona created by the poet.
• Psychological analysis and clues to suggest the reader about the mode and temperament of the silent listener.
• The presence of the listener is ascertained only through the poet’s words.

Although this form is very old, the English poet Robert Browning contributed much to improve it. In fact, most of the outstanding instances of dramatic monologues are penned by Browning. Some of his best dramatic monologues include: My Last Duchess, The Bishop Orders His Tomb, Andrea del Sarto, Men and Women, Christmas Eve and Easter Day, Fra Lippo Lippi, Porphyria's Lover, and Dramatis Personae. Other examples include: Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Tennyson’s Ulysses, Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, and Sylvia Plath's Daddy.