A small lyric poem of fourteen lines is a sonnet. There are two types of Sonnets: the Italian (Petrarchan) and the English (Shakespearean).In the Italian form, There are two intrinsic divisions: the first part consists of 8 lines and the second part is of 6 lines, in all making 14 lines.Shakespearian SonnetsBut the same does not happen in Shakesperian sonnets. William Shakespeare, the ‘Bard of Avon’, is noted to have mastered at least 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses. His popularity can be estimated by the following “He was naturally learned; he needed ... Read More

Personification is the attributing of human characteristics, thoughts, or emotions to something that is non-human. It is a rhetoric device that is used to convey something more than a literary meaning of a sentence.Example: The heavens wept at the incident.Now, in this sentence, heavens cannot weep but the idea of emotions and weeping is produced through “wept”. Heaven is non-living and it is weeping just like humans do. Hence, the sentence features personification.Example: The thunder clapped angrily from a distance.Definitely, the thunder cannot clap. It is a non-living thing but the writer wants to convey the intensity of clapping by ... Read More

Literary Devices are the peculiar structures used by writers in their works in order to convey their messages in a simple manner to the readers.The various literary devices used in English Literature areAlliteration, Analogy, Allegory, Anaphora, Metaphor, Simile, Aphorism, Oxymoron, Onomatopoeia, Eulogy, Elegy, and others.Alliteration: It is the device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.Example- He had a haunting hat.Analogy: It is the comparison of an idea or a thing with another. Metaphors and similes are used to draw analogies. A metaphor is an implied comparison while a ... Read More

In rhetorics, a rhetorical device is called a stylistic device too. It is a technique a speaker uses to convey to the listener in order to persuade him. It is also used by authors or writer in order to persuade them in considering a topic from a different perspective. It may involve using sentences designed to provoke emotions.English Literature and Rhetorics uses many Rhetorical devices. They are namely: Irony, metaphor, ethos, pathos, logos, various sonic devices like Onomatopoeia.IronyIt refers to the use of words where the meaning is opposite to their usual meaning or what is expected to happen.It is ... Read More

The reason why some people may find this question abrupt would be their shallow understanding of the term “Hero “ and even of the term “Poet”.Who is a Hero?We often regard hero as somebody out of the world, probably with superhuman abilities like wings or extremely high speed and so on. But in actual terms, Hero, as described by Thomas Carlyle in his essay Hero as a Poet, is not someone who is extraordinary, rather he is someone who is less questionable and less ambitious. A hero is indeed someone, whom we can relate to and someone whose life becomes ... Read More

Jonathan Swift, the famous satirist of English Literature, wrote 'The Battle of the Books' in 1697. It is a classic prose piece depicting the battle between Moderns and Ancients books using the allegorical example of A Spider and A Bee. The prose is a parody of heroic poetry along the lines of Samuel Butler's parody of battle in Hudibras.Description of Battle of Books by SwiftThe battle began when the Moderns, occupying the lower of the two tops of the hill Parnassus, grew furious over the Ancients on the higher one. The Moderns offered to exchange places so that they could ... Read More

All assonance, consonance and even the literary device of alliteration are related to one another. They are used to denote the idea of repetition. Let us look at the definitions of assonance and consonance for a better understanding.ConsonanceConsonance is defined as the repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase. It has an emphasis on the final consonant letters or sound. This repetition often takes place in quick successions, such as in “dapple dawn drawn " in Gerald Manley Hopkins famous curtailed sonnet named as "Pied Beauty". But if consonance is related to repetition in terms of consonants, ... Read More

The Prelude is a long poem by William Wordsworth compiled into fourteen books. All these books trace his spiritual growth with the subtitle of the poem itself as its the theme, which is the growth of the poet's mind.Justification of the TitleThe title stands justified as Wordsworth describes how Nature began its mysterious work in his conscious and subconscious mind. He is convinced that there are hidden forces in Nature impacting him inadvertently right from the time he was a young boy and he thus, recounts a few incidents and comments upon their significance in shaping up his mind. The ... Read More

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a popular name among all Romantic poets who were influenced by the French Revolution. He was a leader of the British Romantic movement and was born on October 21, 1772, in Devonshire, England.Literary Qualities of Samuel Taylor Coleridge1. Treatment of the supernatural: He treats the supernatural in such a manner that it becomes convincing and at the same time, in some sense, a criticism of life.2. Suspension of Disbelief: The way in which Coleridge has achieved the willing suspension of disbelief has been even explained beautifully in the book The Romantic Imagination by Bowra.3. Realism: He ... Read More

Satire is a genre of English Literature which is very much confused with irony. It has the target is on the audience in a very indirect manner.Examples of Satire from English Literature:George Orwell's Animal FarmMark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry FinnAbsolem and Achitophel by John DrydenThe Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose BierceRestoration Age as the Age of SatireRestoration age was the age of satire with John Dryden, Jonathan Swift as the major political satirists. They pointed out the follies of the then Monarch and that too through their writings. One must not forget “Absalom and Achitophel “ as the gallery of portraits ... Read More