CONSCIENCE BY THOREAU

                       

HENRY  DAVIDSON  THOREAU:

CONSCIENCE 

CONSCIENCE is instinct bred in the house,
Feeling and Thinking propagate the sin
By an unnatural breeding in and in.
I say, Turn it out doors,
Into the moors.	5
I love a life whose plot is simple,
And does not thicken with every pimple,
A soul so sound no sickly conscience binds it,
That makes the universe no worse than ’t finds it.
I love an earnest soul,	10
Whose mighty joy and sorrow
Are not drowned in a bowl,
And brought to life to-morrow;
That lives one tragedy,
And not seventy;	15
A conscience worth keeping,
Laughing not weeping;
A conscience wise and steady,
And for ever ready;
Not changing with events,	20
Dealing in compliments;
A conscience exercised about
Large things, where one may doubt.
I love a soul not all of wood,
Predestinated to be good,	25
But true to the backbone
Unto itself alone,
And false to none;
Born to its own affairs,
Its own joys and own cares;	30
By whom the work which God begun
Is finished, and not undone;
Taken up where he left off,
Whether to worship or to scoff;
If not good, why then evil,	35
If not good god, good devil.
Goodness!—you hypocrite, come out of that,
Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
I have no patience towards
Such conscientious cowards.	40
Give me simple laboring folk,
Who love their work,
Whose virtue is a song
To cheer God along.

He sees himself as a part of both natural and social communities. He surveys the world through many  lance ..poet, philosopher, historian, environmentalist, civil engineer, educator, social critic, activist and so on..He live with simplicity and honesty. He means what he says. He lived what he wrote. His contribution to understanding yourself before changing the world is the key to life. Thoreau provides an example of what it is to find one's own way. He restores the lost connection between people of today's culture and their natural environment. He inspires us to strive to be ethical members of social and natural communities.

The questions which he raises are:

Ø  1.When will we stop harming others ?

           When will we stop harming nature?

Ø  2.What does is mean to live not merely exist?

Ø  3.What is the absolute value of the wild nature?

Ø  4.Why does imagination matter?

Ø  5.What choices can we make,that make a difference in how we live our lives?

Ø  6.What are the duties of the individual to himself ,to society and nature?

Ø  7.How do we know what we want, and how much is enough?

Analysis conscience

Thoreau's poetry conscience presents his philosophy on the world's most debated subject :           Is there any absolute truth? Conscience is "inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives "impelling one toward right action, throughout the poem the speaker struggles towards what he perceive ad God's mandate for simplicity .However his whole internal compass of right action his conscience is at odds with this divine mandate and incorrigibly leads him astray.

 "I love a life a whose plot is simple "

      

                       The poem that follows is riddled by very un-simple lines presenting his quest for  simplicity ad vain and hopeless . Thoreau  mocks the prevailing wisdom that

,"Tis a joy to be simple". It seems that Thoreau slyly suggest that the simple is the enemy of good. The line that follows Thoreau , sixth line presents  between us the problem  which one has to face in their life  throws curves at you. It is ambiguous. It is not a straight road and therefore it ,

 "...thicken(s) with every pimple"   

Moreover the seventh line does just what the speaker hates .He spite himself his humanity remains unruly complex forever spoiling the ideal.

Adam's fall is  pertinent to the subject of the poem by referring to the Biblical story indirectly the poem changes the challenges  the concept of morality .Man is bounded by circumstances and therefore it is wrong or unfair to expect constancy from him with the allusion to this story .Thoreau  proves that human  condition has  been  same over centuries.

He favors morality which is not wooden what he tries to say is that a piece of wood is a constant thing and can be given any shape or size. On the other hand conscience is abstract and differs person to person. So the rules laid down by the scriptures or God do not apply to all the situation. Man has got brain and this brain guide through the differences.

" If not good God,

then good devil"

.      Here is a poet who sings individualism .Thoreau advocates liberty. He believes that every human being  is unique and has the ability on his own. He reminds us of humanism which shifted man's focus from God or holy books to human being in Thoreau's poetry life become a celebration He says it consist of opposites and man is capable of living harmlessly adjusting to these elements of life.                                  

Here is my topic regarding to confusion

                          confusion

I have chosen a  topic which is named as confusion.In our life we often get confused but no worries because it is natural.
         Once I decided to write upon a subject n I got confused between two subjects :

1. Platonic love

 2. Ultimate truth of life -"Death ".
           So as per caught in to a confusion I prefer to write on confusion.
   Moving ahead, sometimes a question comes in to our mind  that why do we get confused ?
       There are many reasons to get confused  and perhaps when we have two better choices we get confused.
To prove my point I would like to give an example:
I wanted to buy only 1 dress n for that I went to market but what happened here is I got two dresses of my choice n I was so confused that I purchased both the dresses. Here I did the same as I did with  the subject 'escaping'.so I have learned a trick of escaping.    
              Now further. ...in a way we always hope for a better and we always go for a better things and for a better options in our lives. From the childhood we never ever compromised on a smaller things also,And our parents provided us best toys to play, good food to eat and when we grown up we did the same every thing of our own choice. Especially if we talk about girls they can't even compromise in their small hairpins also . So im very confused that...

1.How can our parents trust a person who is just known from 2or 3 hrs or from 1or 2 weeks..?

2.How can they say to their girl or a boy to get married to a person who is next to known. ...?

3.And why do we do such a huge compromise on our life's biggest decision. ?

                  Condition of women in present time

  There are some issues which constantly pop’s up in my mind.

          We often talk about freedom .Freedom of Nation, freedom of an individual, freedom of every men and women. Oops sorry....

 Are women free?

Does women really exists in society?

      
  Someone would say Yes & someone would say No. Here ,I would like to discuss about both the answers ...

                
   yes, is perhaps right but I’m not generating issues regarding to an individual. So, maybe there is somehow, somewhere, someone who is not free or who is not be able to be free and may be they are marginalized character of society.

            
         But one more thing this is 21st century and somehow they are free too...and they are allowed to be educate and they get a chance to prove their selves. They study in every field as per their interest but there are miles to go and sometimes they face so many problems while achieving success.

          
        This is a modern time we all need to attach ourselves with social sites. To learn something also we need a help of an Internet. But as per some people it is harmful.

         
      say for eg :girls are not allowed to use cellphone or internet connection in cellphones in hostels. So this is an eg.Of hurdle in women's success. Compare to boys ....they have freedom to use cellphones and internet connection.

No one will question about it.

                      
     No one even think about it. And if someone ask a question 'why'? There are chances to get following type of answers,

Girls may become characterless.                                                          She will disobey her parents.

She'll have affair with a guy.

She’ll perhaps download some adult kind of a thing.

She’ll provoke by this kind of thing and willingly she'll loose her virginity.

She'll become a sinner and these kind of a girl will be opium kind of a thing for society. 

          And much more answers one will get. And not only in hostels but if we talk about home you'll get same answers. Ok. it’s fine. But it’s shameful to hear this from an educated person.

Only girls are representatives of our Indian culture  ?

                  
         And while using cellphones boy do not become a bad guy? He will not lose his character? He'll not be a sinner. ? I’m not encouraging anyone towards adultery. I’m just saying openness is needed in this 21st century, in our country and in every individual's mind.

               we all know about risk of technology and literature students might have studied 'Risk society'. it has advantages and disadvantages too, but to get afraid of disadvantages is perhaps not the right way, for these kinds of one especially teenagers needs guidance and knowledge  and this can reduce disadvantages of technology.

Moving ahead,

                           we often give eg. From past, how women used to be and she had contributed in every fields. She was politician, pilot, sports person and what not...but today where she is? No doubt that they have performed very well. And if we talk about today’s life some people will criticize women of 21st century and they will also say that now a days women are adapting western mindsets and their culture. And they believe society is now poisoned with these kind of adaption and it will harm their pureness and piousness. And our culture will die soon by imitating westerns.

They do direct satire on women. So can we ask them what about men.?

Are they not adapting western culture and are they wearing dhoti, kurtas and khadi clothes?

Are they not influenced by western life style?

Only women should be a well-mannered and only she should be well cultured?

         we with a proud talk about our culture norms, virtues, values, traditions and how can I forget honesty. And we can add many more words. But these words are not exist in our civilized country's dictionary. In actual sense we are not talking about this India and in real we are unreal. we all are hypocrites and virtues and honesty is now only bookies words.it is good to accept it and we need a change and we have changed too but we forgot to be natural and we forgot humanity and now we became artificial.

we need to accept reality and we have to stop behaving like literate illiterate.

Why only women should blamed for all these? Women and men both are part of society. And men are also representatives of culture and of our nation.

Now one must think that a men should be well-mannered or not?

Respect:

        we should respect every human beings. 

Are we doing it really?

 Worshipping Goddesses does it proves that we all are respecting each and every women?

 Yes, may be some of us are doing it so, but what about others, and if we talk about our religion and if we refer to past actions then.?

Mahabharata, Ramayana  we can take women characters from these now say,

what happened to sita ?

what about droupadi and  kunta? Kunta had to leave her child because of fear. Fear of society. Fear of being insulated and fear of disrespect which she'll get from the society.

Karma & deeds:

 Talking about karma and deeds we believe that,

'Saat janma nu punya etle ghare ek dikri no janma'

 And if we are religious, moral and educated, Then why  we do  fetus killing of a child ? And if we do this then can't we call it bad deeds or a sin? And while killing a child can't we say that we have done bad deeds for next seven janma.?

   
        Here I intentionally used word child instead of using a word girl child. If we believe in God then we must think that doctors are not God.  While doing sex determination there are chances to misunderstanding or he may have mistaken and may be child is boy and he felt as a girl. It is said that 'manas matra bhul ne patra'

not intentionally but it can happen like this too or if doctor intentionally do then who knows,   we are not doctors. And sex determination is crime and if doctors are doing it for the sake of money and people are doing it because they don't need a girl child. 

              Then can anyone say that at that time our culture, values and morality had went on a walk or what? Unfortunately mother herself has been a part of this crime. She does this willingly or by force we don't know but if she forced to do then she is also killed with her child. And if she do it happily then she is a criminal.

If we have faith in God then why don't we think that god had sent or he planned to send girl child in womb of mother and he wants her to be a part of your family.

 And killing is not a sin?

        If we believe in concept of heaven & hell then he or she can't not go to hell?  And one thing is clear that if you don’t want a girl child then stop worshipping Goddesses because while doing this kind of sin you are not disrespecting only girl but goddesses too.

People use sentence like:

'Har aangan ki shobha nari'   and really she has just been a showpiece and people love to showcase her. She is a showpiece of house's corner. Let her free and let her feel actual freedom.

Moving further. ..

               
           We all have already become rapist of our mother land so there is no need to rape a woman. And when this type of activity takes place why do we judge only girl?

           If we say that she is wearing short clothes  but why don't we  look at ourselves first? She has only shorten up her clothes while we  have shorten up our mind. She is not provoking but that person has ill-intentioned. May b there are some girls like that but we can't ignore others. If we think of 3,4 or 5 years old girls what is her fault?

          
         Is she provoking men's senses? And home is world's secured place and family is world's best haven and family members are guard   unfortunately physical harassment took place in home and guards becomes devils. And secure and safe place becomes hell .If one is not able to control his instinct then that is not fault of a girl and he has no right to spoil girl's life. Each and every one should think about it not only men but women should also think about it. And we have to accept that some girls are also on wrong track. We never know and I’m not here to take anyone's side but some judgments are not worth. And in rape cases victim should not judge alone and society should not disrespect her.  Help her and give her atmosphere to restart her life with a positive energy.

Don't cage her.

Don't rape her again by staring at her.

'She is victim not a culprit. '

Marriages: Indian marriages are wonderful and it has interesting tradition.

Here people likes to do arrange marriages ....sorry correction like or dislike it is different thing but let’s keep here that they do traditional arrange marriages. Boy's family chooses girl for his son to marry. she dress up herself very beautifully and she comes to meet boy's family. Here her role is to look beautiful like a showpiece and her family also want her to look beautiful and perfect ....like a thing how can they forget that she is human and she is not a thing or a statue to keep  anywhere or to sell and why don't they think   that it  is her life too. There are some exceptional cases of love marriages but right now let’s come to the point girl will not object in what her family decides and she says yes, in some pressure, in fear or happily we can't give appropriate answer of it. After getting married she goes to her husband's house and she lives there but if she is  in trouble and  not happy with marriage life and she goes to her parent’s home and after telling everything she might have get answers like: we are social animals and we live in society ,if you'll stay with us how can we face society what will they say ?

'dikri to sasrej shobhe'

can we ask some questions to those parents. ...?

where is you love & care  for your daughter?

 Society is important  and  matters a lot then your angle?

 And if that couples decides to separate or to get divorce, at that time not only society but family members will also criticize   women. And if she thinks of new chapter of her life or she thinks or do remarriage then also she will be the one who will consider as characterless or a sinner.

And if a women marries twice or thrice then society will have issues and lot's of problems but

what if a man do the same..?

she is an individual and she has right to begin new life.

Government has conducted many laws in favour of women everyone needs to be aware of it.

Don't tolerate inhuman behavior and rural areas needs awareness.

 If we are human then let's be human.

In this 21st century many things have changed and we allowed to think and write our own point of views. which is good. But only writing is not enough it should read and reading is not enough try to have your own views and your own thinking and thinking is not enough apply it in to your life to make it better.

'Free without freedom is useless' women are already empowered they don't need just label of empowerment. If you really want to do something then support them rather than being thorns of their way.

Don't cage her or don't tie them with a rope or with a chain. we  are proud to be women.

there are the things which women expects from family & society both. She is part of society,

she is no longer 'paron ki jutie'.

THE FAIR FOX OF BOSTON

 VALUE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:

          Poet use a figurative language, and this use of poetic figures poses a number of difficult and interesting problems. A proper understanding of poetry can be possible only when the demand  for accuracy and precision is combined with a recognition of the liberties  which are proper and value of figurative language.

let’s   see:

 How are the figurative language used in the poem?  what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?

THE FAIR  FOX OF BOSTON

Fair Fox, full of grief
sailed away from the Boston shore
she wept,oh my!
For hours and hours, oh my!
Weeping!Oh her grief,
It is a leaking faucet
It is like a pouring shower, and her ship begins to sink down.
She is sinking!
But, the wind carries her tears away,
The breeze is cool and relaxing
The Fair Fox is happy
The boat is now afloat,
and her grief gown gone
Oh my!

How are the figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?

Figurative language is almost used throughout the poem. The five basic techniques of figurative language which are used in the poem are Hyperbole, Personification,Metaphor, Simile and Symbolism

What is hyperbole. It is simply an exaggerated statement In the poem, the hyperbole are "oh my!', "hours and hours" and "Weeping!Oh her grief" The writer used this to create an overly grievousemphasis on the fox's grief and the sadness to fully express her grief to the reader. It relates the emotion of the poem to the reader.

What is personification? It is a technique that gives an inanimate object human traits and characteristics. In the poem, personification was not used on the fox, rather it was only used once. It was "wind carries" The wind gained human traits by being able to "carry" the fox's tears.

What is metaphor and simile.This two techniques are very similar. They both have the same purpose but use different words. They compare seemingly unrelated subjects with or without the use of the word like, as or than. That is the difference of metaphor and simile. In the poem,"it is a leaking faucet" is a metaphor as there are the words "it is".

 The simile in the poem is on the next line "It is like a pouring shower" It is a simile because the word like is present. They both relate to her grief. The writer used these techniques to create a clearer image in the reader's mind.

What is Symbolism? It is used as a representative figure to carry additional meaning. In the poem, the "boat" is the symbol.It represents the fox's grief Why? The boat and her grief act accordingly together. When the fox is crying, the boat started to sink. When she is happy the boat stays afloat to the end.The writer used to give more meaning to an object which usually hidden from the reader.

I like this poem because it is simple but a very good example of the five techniques of figurative language. It not only effectively used the five techniques but used it at the right moment. The poem flows very smoothly though it does not rhythm much. The focus of the poem which is the fox, grief is very clear.