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Assalamualaikum and good morning from Gaza. This
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is English poetry at the Islamic University of
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Gaza. Today we move to do something perhaps a
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little bit different from neoclassicism. But don't
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be mistaken, this is not that much different from
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metaphysical poetry or the poetry of John Donne.
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Unfortunately, when we read many English
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literature books, English poetry books, they will
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tell you that The real modernist movement started
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with the romantic poets, with the likes of William
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Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. This is true to
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some extent, but sadly this erases the likes of
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John Donne, who themselves were practicing this
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probably 100 years before the romantics. We've
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seen how John Donne categorically refused the
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rules of decorum, how he put meaning over rule,
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how he didn't like the collective idealistic
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poetry of the Elizabethan age. But with the
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Romantics, we speak about totally, also in a way,
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totally different poets and their sensibility and
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their approach to individualism and the universe
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nature. If I want to draw a timeline, a random
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timeline, of neoclassicism, I usually claim that
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this is where perhaps John Donne was writing
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poetry. He was writing poetry during the heyday,
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the peak of neoclassicism. when people, the giants
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like Samuel Johnson and later on, the great names
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50 years later, 100 years later, like Ben Johnson,
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Samuel Johnson and John Dryden and Alexander Pope
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later on, were dominating the scene. For John
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Donne, it was swimming not against one current,
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but swimming against currents of giants, people
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who were already loved, who were writing some of
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the greatest literature, poetry in English. So it
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wasn't easy for him. And that's why this is the
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reason why he took to a great extent was
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negatively framed, like we explained before.
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largely kicked out of the English canon, was not
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taken seriously by money. If I want to talk about
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romanticism, probably this is where they were
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writing, when neoclassicism was already in
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decline, and people have already had enough of the
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same poetry being written in the same way,
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following the same rules, you know, rules of
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decorum, the subject matter, and the form, and the
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language, et cetera. I'm not saying that the
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romantics, I'm not suggesting that the romantics
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had it easy, they didn't, because most of the
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romantics you will be surprised to know that they
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were not famous during their lifetimes. Again,
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there is this connection between them and
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unlimited physicals. The four great romantics,
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probably except for Chile, almost all of them were
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not famous, were not taken sometimes seriously by
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their time. We'll see this as we go. Today, we
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begin with the one and only William Blake. William
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Blake wrote some of the most beautiful poetry in
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English. Many people like to classify him as a
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different poet, a poet of his own, in his own
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world. But others like to consider him as a pre
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-romantic, somebody who started, who pioneered
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this, who ushered this, and who influenced
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Wordsworth and Coleridge. So whether he is a
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romantic or a pre-romantic, it's not a big issue
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for us, but we'll find so many similarities
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between him and Wordsworth and some other romantic
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poets, like even Schiele and Keats. Now, I don't
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want to speak much about him. I don't want to give
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you the background and the context. Let's see his
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poetry and then try to draw some conclusions or
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come up with the features that we might find in
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his poetry. This is a small short poem by William
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Blake. Again, you already studied this perhaps or
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read it before. Small, short, beautiful, cute,
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crunchy poem. It's just eight lines, not only
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eight lines. Is it the shortest poem so far this
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course? Perhaps yes, but also look at the lines.
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Even short lines, probably if you count the
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syllables, you'll come across like five syllables,
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which is half the syllables we had in the sonnet
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and other poems. So this says, The sick rose, O
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rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm that flies
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in the night in the howling storm has found out
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thy bed of crimson joy. and his dark secret love
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does thy life destroy. Somebody read, please.
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The aurora of the Arctic, the visible worm that
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flies its line in the howling storm. Howling
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storm. The howling storm has found out thy bed of
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crimson joy, and his dark secret love does thy
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life destroy. Thank you very much.
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Can you focus on the tone? How would you? Is this
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a celebratory poem? Is it sad, dark, happy,
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optimistic, pessimistic? Can you capture this in
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the way you read?
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Okay. So how would you, would you read it? Would
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you read it with this tone in mind?
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Okay. Thank you
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very much. Very good.
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Okay,
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thank you very much, very good readings. Now, if
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this is a short story, a narrative, what type of
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narrator do we have here? First person, are you
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sure?
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That's not what a first person narrator is. First
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person narrator is It's the I. So there's no I
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like shall I compare thee come live with me and
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most poetry we studied already is a first person
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narrator whether it is a personal experience like
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John Donne or a collective personal experience
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like the likes of Shakespeare for example. So
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there is yes you and your but basically this is a
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poem that talks about something in the third
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person pronoun.
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making it a third-person pronoun narrative. So the
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character is talking to somebody, true, there's
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some kind of dialogue with the other being silent,
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but also the persona, the speaker here, who is not
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a character in this text, unlike like in
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Shakespeare, shall I compare thee, the speaker is
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a character of the poem. Here, the speaker is not,
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is basically an outsider of the poem. And the
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second question I want to ask is, who are the
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characters here? Who are the characters? Okay,
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please, okay. Okay, you're saying arrows, like
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this,
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Like what? Arrows?
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Or rows? Or the rows? Or the rows? Would it make a
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difference?
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In the title it says, I'm not sure if this is the
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exact title, it says the thick rows, particular
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thick rows, but the first line says all rows with
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a capital R.
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So if you're saying rose, somebody said rose, this
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is a name, somebody's name, right?
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The rose with a capital here could, a rose, also a
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rose is possible, could be, you say for example,
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grammatically speaking, you say a Mr. Smith is
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waiting for you. So somebody whose name is Mr.
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Smith and you don't know this man before. The Mr.
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Smith, like he's a man and the one and only in a
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way. So this is the main character and the worm,
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are you sure? And so okay, we have the worm. The
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speaker. The speaker is usually in a narrative, if
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it is a third person narrator, we don't count the
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narrator as one of the characters most often. So,
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the worm and the rose. That's very good. What
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about the timing? The setting? Before we come to
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talk more about this, what about the setting? The
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setting, sorry. It's taking place at
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night, in the night.
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What's happening during this night? A howling
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storm. So probably this is winter, right? Because
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there is a storm that is not only a storm, but a
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howling storm. Look at the choice of word here. In
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a way, this is onomatopoeic. Howling. The sound
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that's like a sound a storm could make in a poem,
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if not in real life. So a howling storm, it's
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dark, stormy, and the storm is very strong. Wind
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could be heard through the howling storm.
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Okay, what else is there in the poem?
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What else do you notice? Like other than this, the
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place, the time, the setting?
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It is in the present time. Are you sure? Yes.
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Where is the main tense? Grammatically speaking,
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what sentence is it? How many sentences do we have
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here? Two. Two? Where are they? First stanza or
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first line? First line. First stanza is one
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sentence? No, first line. Because here it says, Oh
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Rose Dawatik, the invisible worm that flies in the
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night in the howling storm. Still a dependent
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clause. Dependent clause because we have the
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subject, we have the adjectival clause. So the
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first please. Two sentences. Where are they? The
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first line is a sentence. Okay. And then there's.
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This is one whole sentence? Three sentences. Three
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sentences, are you sure? Yeah. What is a sentence?
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We have a verb and a sentence.
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Are you sure? What is a sentence?
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But this
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is a comma, Raf. But this is a comma. A sentence
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is a group of words with at least one main clause.
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A group of words that begin with a capital letter
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and end with a false stop. A falsopora question
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mark sometimes or an exclamation mark like in this
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case. So this is one sentence, one simple
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sentence. Oh Rose, thou art sick. You are sick.
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You are sick. And I really can't understand
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exactly what, like imagine the situation here
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clearly, like is he talking to the rose? Is the
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speaker, what is the speaker? Is the speaker, like
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because here we have a few saying arrows, And a
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worm, or the worm, it's the here, right? So is the
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speaker what? A bird? A tree? Or is it a human
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being? Like observing and saying, does the rose
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know she is sick? Is this warning? And of course,
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this is not sick like you're disgusting, you're
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doing something horrible, and then you're sick.
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This is your pity, oh, you're sick.
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Okay, we'll come to that. So the invisible worm
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That's the subject, the worm is the subject, it's
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described as invisible The witch flies in the
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night, that flies in the night This is adjectival
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clause, but here we have a prepositional phrase
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Yet another prepositional phrase, in the howling
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storm The verb is has found out object thy bed
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Another prepositional phrase, of crimson joy And
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then we have another independent clause So this is
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a complex sentence and this is a compound
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sentence, making it compound complex sentence plus
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one simple sentence. It's two sentences. And I
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like this. Remember with Shakespeare we said every
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line is basically one statement. John Donne
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changed this. where the line could go on for
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three, four, five sentences and it would jump from
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one stanza to the other. The poem in its totality
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makes its meaning rather than every line making
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just one statement. Again, these are different
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styles, doesn't mean this is better than that. But
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this one keeps you busy throughout the whole poem,
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okay? It doesn't cut your train of thought.
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Okay, so we agree that this is one simple sentence
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and then one compound complex, it gets
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complicated, it's the sentence that you say but
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everything else gets complicated because things
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get inside others. I like how the worm is
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described and yet described again with a phrase
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and another phrase and then the verb and then the
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object and then another prepositional phrase,
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things get inside each other. Interesting, what
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else do you notice? Other things about the poem?
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What do you find interesting, different,
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intriguing? Okay, okay, I'll go to the jump, I'll
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jump to the rhyme scheme. There is sick, a, are
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you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure? Should it be
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a? This is the kah sound.
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It's always A? Okay, good. Always A. And then
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worm, B. And then night, C. And storm, possibly
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another B. Not one hundred percent, but still. Now
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I know, like I told you before that people would
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continue with A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, but I like
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doing it differently where we go back to the
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alphabet with every new stanza because sometimes
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you have long poems and then you run out of
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letters and then what should I do next? Different
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scenarios, okay? So go back again to the rhyme
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scheme. We have here A,
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B? C? Are you sure?
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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.
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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.
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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.
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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.
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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.
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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.
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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.
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Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Joy.
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Joy.
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Okay, so rhyme scheme is perfect. What else do you
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notice? Please. Thank you very much. Look at the
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simple words. I'm not sure which word you checked
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using, you used the dictionary to check to
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understand. How many words did you check?
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Honestly, those of you who looked at the report.
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That's the word crimson. Okay, and? Howling, even
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if you don't know what howling is, you can always
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guess because usually we don't say a calm storm,
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usually a storm is windy,
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stormy, strong, powerful, so howling storm and
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then crimson possibly Again, you're not a native
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speaker, so if you don't know one or two words,
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that's still a good achievement, but it means that
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this man is using simple language. Simplicity of
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language. Remember the neoclassicists who would
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always every couple of lines they would send you
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rushing to the dictionary checking the meaning and
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even going googling stuff to understand what he
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means by these references and these allusions and
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translating this Latin and translating this Greek
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and understanding why he's intertexting with
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Horace and everything. You come to the poem and
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you stay for the poem. Unlike the NAE classes
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where usually you come for the poem and then you
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rush out to dictionaries and internet and then you
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come back and go on and on. Simple language.
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That's very good. Very good thing to notice.
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Please. The number of syllables are not the same
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in English.
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00:19:40,250 --> 00:19:43,370
Okay, I'll come to this, but again, let's move
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gradually, Rosanne. What about the words, the
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00:19:46,830 --> 00:19:50,210
choice of words? Tell me this word is interesting,
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00:19:50,310 --> 00:19:52,010
for example, or that word, this phrase is
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interesting. What things do you find interesting?
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We'll come to symbolism, like again it's always
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better to work gradually, look at the poem, notice
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the shape and the form and then look at individual
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words, so what does every individual word inspire
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in you or what does it connote? And then you go
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for, for example, reading the poem, trying to
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understand. We'll do this. We try to link
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everything to a possible reading the poem. Is
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00:20:22,370 --> 00:20:24,490
there one word or one phrase you find interesting,
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00:20:24,590 --> 00:20:26,710
like we did with, for example, here, the howling
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storm or other words? He's giving a bad image
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about what we already know. Again, my question is
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00:20:34,670 --> 00:20:37,830
one particular word, one particular phrase. We're
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00:20:37,830 --> 00:20:40,090
not going to comment on the meaning now. We're
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working step by step.
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A worm is beautiful? Do you like worms?
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00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,740
Worms? Ah, that's because you're reading it warm.
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It's not warm. And it's a character. It's a thing.
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It's a creature. So is worm good or bad? Positive
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or negative? It's what makes the rose sick. Thank
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00:21:10,870 --> 00:21:14,170
you. At least it is, even if worm is good, it is
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what is making the rose sick. And the worm is
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described as? Invisible. That's a very good word.
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So it's not only dark and winter and cold and
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stormy and howling. This creature, the cause of
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this sickness, is working invisibly. It's not,
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it's invisible. What does it mean invisible?
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Because it's like, is the worm in disguise,
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disguising? Is it a close, is it a family member?
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Is it somebody you trust, somebody you try, you
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seek safety, security and protection from? And
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then it turns out that this person, this thing is
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the very opposite of what you think. The person
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you seek, the person whose protection and stuff
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you seek is the very reason for your destruction.
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That's invisible. What does it mean? What does it
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indicate? Why is it invisible? Other words, we'll
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come back again to wrap things up. What other
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words do you find peculiar?
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Okay, so we jump to the kind of love. There is
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love. Love is good, right? Oh Rose, thou art sick.
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Bla bla, night, visible worm, howling storm. But
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then there is love. If you look at the poem From
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Afar, you see the word love. Could give you a good
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impression. Against the mostly negative words.
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Sick. Rose is good, yeah? But this is a rose that
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is sick. There's a worm that is invisible. It's
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night. It's stormy and it's howling. And then
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there is love. But this is not an ordinary love.
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This is a love that is, number one, first, it's
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secret. Is it one-sided, unrestricted love?
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But why is it secret? When is love secret? When it
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is harming, like destroying its life. Okay. And
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the thing is that it's dark. Like say hey to خلصنا
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or لا. Why would you say it's dark, love, love?
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00:23:45,990 --> 00:23:51,570
It's a disease. Love is not always good and not
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all kinds of love are good. So you're saying this
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is, this means unhealthy love? Unhealthy love. For
350
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example, the character of the worm. Let's, let's,
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for example, consider that, consider the rose as a
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woman and the worm as a man. He could be an
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oppressive person if he loves her, but he's
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oppressive at the same time. So that's going to
355
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destroy her life. So, the dark secret. Do you
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think that toxic people, toxic lovers understand
357
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this? They know that they're not doing a good job,
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that they're being abusive and everything? It's
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their nature. They don't know that what they're
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doing is unhealthy, but it is unhealthy. That's
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why it's invisible. That's why it's invisible?
362
00:24:36,050 --> 00:24:39,370
Invisible to whom? To the rose?
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The speaker knows. The speaker is diagnosing
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everything. The speaker is all-knowing. He's a
365
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third-person narrator. He knows that there is a
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worm that is flying and that it is invisible. Is
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there
368
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an indication in the text that the speaker is
369
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:07,540
guessing? No. Or probably invisible to the rose.
370
00:25:08,470 --> 00:25:10,770
But yeah, these are all valid points. We don't
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00:25:10,770 --> 00:25:12,990
have, and it's again the beauty of poetry. This is
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the beauty of even romanticism. It's an extra
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feature we have in romanticism. You can talk about
374
00:25:18,110 --> 00:25:21,770
a poem for a year and have different opinions and
375
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everything. There are many gaps. These are poems
376
00:25:25,570 --> 00:25:29,320
that encourage us to think, to link. try to make
377
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:31,420
up our mind and then something shows up and then
378
00:25:31,420 --> 00:25:34,980
yeah possibly the other reading is is also is also
379
00:25:34,980 --> 00:25:39,460
valid so this is a love that is secret but it's
380
00:25:39,460 --> 00:25:45,280
also a love that is dark destructive what else
381
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:48,660
there's one word one key word that is significant
382
00:25:48,660 --> 00:25:53,840
that you haven't highlighted there's
383
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:56,460
one word here that is also other than the ones we
384
00:25:56,460 --> 00:25:58,100
highlighted a word we didn't highlight
385
00:26:01,630 --> 00:26:02,270
Okay,
386
00:26:04,970 --> 00:26:11,470
I like that you paid attention to his, yeah. But
387
00:26:11,470 --> 00:26:15,290
you're saying that she's a woman because the worm
388
00:26:15,290 --> 00:26:18,810
is a he, not necessary, but rose is usually taken
389
00:26:18,810 --> 00:26:21,770
as feminine. I think this is a key word in the
390
00:26:21,770 --> 00:26:25,650
whole poem. He could have simply said it.
391
00:26:30,230 --> 00:26:36,590
Does it make a difference that the worm is ahi? In
392
00:26:36,590 --> 00:26:41,630
what sense? He's personifying the worm in order to
393
00:26:41,630 --> 00:26:44,270
show that this… He's also personifying the rose,
394
00:26:44,350 --> 00:26:46,390
don't forget. Yes, okay, but here he's
395
00:26:46,390 --> 00:26:49,410
personifying the rose to raise, let's say raise
396
00:26:49,410 --> 00:26:53,850
her awareness, to raise her awareness to what she
397
00:26:53,850 --> 00:26:56,890
is facing but she does not know. Like we're saying
398
00:26:56,890 --> 00:27:00,250
hey, we're saying here that you are sick and you
399
00:27:00,250 --> 00:27:02,790
do not know that there is an invisible worm. Why
400
00:27:02,790 --> 00:27:05,780
is the worm a he? The worm is here because he
401
00:27:05,780 --> 00:27:09,360
wants to give it the traits of people, of human
402
00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:11,780
beings, like they are deceptive. Why isn't the
403
00:27:11,780 --> 00:27:13,040
worm another she?
404
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:25,220
We can consider his return to worm because his
405
00:27:25,220 --> 00:27:31,340
return to the worm itself. Yeah, his refers to
406
00:27:31,340 --> 00:27:33,220
worm. Do I agree on this?
407
00:27:37,340 --> 00:27:40,940
Because the poet wants to say that his dark, maybe
408
00:27:40,940 --> 00:27:43,840
the rest she doesn't know about this love, she
409
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:47,600
doesn't even know that she is sick because he's
410
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,780
saying, oh Rose, thou art sick. I know that you
411
00:27:50,780 --> 00:27:55,640
are sick, but you don't know that. Why is the worm
412
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,420
a he? Because you are sick because of the
413
00:27:58,420 --> 00:28:02,800
invisible worm that he has his dark secret love
414
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:08,460
for you. Okay, thank you very much. I think he
415
00:28:08,460 --> 00:28:12,920
used his to indicate that the whole poem is like
416
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,360
deeper than a relationship between a rose and a
417
00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:18,300
worm. He is indicating the relationship between a
418
00:28:18,300 --> 00:28:20,740
woman and a man. Okay, so you're taking this
419
00:28:20,740 --> 00:28:23,040
symbolically, he's personifying, if he's
420
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:25,440
personifying, if he said, by the way, if he said
421
00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:27,640
it referring to the worm, we would also guess that
422
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,180
this is a man and a woman, but he's making it
423
00:28:30,180 --> 00:28:34,360
clearer to us that this is a his where the man is
424
00:28:34,360 --> 00:28:38,940
the cause of the destruction, man. If you want to
425
00:28:38,940 --> 00:28:40,980
take it symbolically, we'll come to this in a bit.
426
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,440
That man, probably man, not only man, that's
427
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:47,860
masculinity. If you're talking about an abusive
428
00:28:47,860 --> 00:28:52,060
relationship. If not masculinity, perhaps it's
429
00:28:52,060 --> 00:28:55,340
about the patriarchal society as a whole. The man
430
00:28:55,340 --> 00:28:58,980
-made society, the society controlled by men and
431
00:28:58,980 --> 00:29:03,140
made for men. Where women are silent, silenced and
432
00:29:03,140 --> 00:29:04,740
shushed all the time. Please.
433
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,320
Okay, but the human soul, what he's taking, he's
434
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:16,140
focusing on, he's saying, okay, there are the
435
00:29:16,140 --> 00:29:18,940
human soul, there's the man and there's the woman.
436
00:29:19,300 --> 00:29:21,320
The woman is sick because of the other half of
437
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:25,380
humanity, because of man. I think he too falls
438
00:29:25,380 --> 00:29:27,640
into the stereotypes of masculinity and
439
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,560
femininity, because he's also portraying the rose
440
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,420
as naive and doesn't know that she's sick. That's
441
00:29:33,420 --> 00:29:37,420
true. So he's associating what is naive and
442
00:29:37,420 --> 00:29:41,310
innocent So women cannot represent themselves,
443
00:29:41,450 --> 00:29:43,590
cannot speak for themselves. They should be
444
00:29:43,590 --> 00:29:48,410
represented. They don't even know when they are in
445
00:29:48,410 --> 00:29:52,170
a mess like this. He's informing her, please. I
446
00:29:52,170 --> 00:29:55,730
think this poem goes beyond a relationship between
447
00:29:55,730 --> 00:29:58,630
a man and a woman. I think he's actually lamenting
448
00:29:58,630 --> 00:30:01,850
the loss of innocence in any way. But there's
449
00:30:01,850 --> 00:30:04,450
nothing wrong even with taking it on this
450
00:30:04,450 --> 00:30:07,090
particular level, on man-woman relationship.
451
00:30:09,590 --> 00:30:12,470
As I said, he's lamenting the loss of incense in
452
00:30:12,470 --> 00:30:15,270
any kind of way. Okay. The warmth is something
453
00:30:15,270 --> 00:30:19,630
that makes you lose your interest. Okay. Now we'll
454
00:30:19,630 --> 00:30:22,750
come now to the symbolism, but somebody said
455
00:30:22,750 --> 00:30:25,730
something about the number of syllables. Okay. How
456
00:30:25,730 --> 00:30:27,230
many syllables do we have in line number one?
457
00:30:27,250 --> 00:30:32,890
Five. Usually if you have five, it means there are
458
00:30:32,890 --> 00:30:37,740
two feet. because some feet consist of three
459
00:30:37,740 --> 00:30:40,260
syllables yes most feet consist of two syllables
460
00:30:40,260 --> 00:30:42,840
but some of them consist of three syllables so
461
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:47,620
we'll take this as you know as two two feet line
462
00:30:47,620 --> 00:30:53,620
number two how many how many syllables are
463
00:30:53,620 --> 00:31:03,950
you sure say again the invisible worm okay three
464
00:31:03,950 --> 00:31:10,650
feet and then five that flies in the night five in
465
00:31:10,650 --> 00:31:16,770
the howling storm also five and then has found out
466
00:31:16,770 --> 00:31:23,770
thy bed five syllables of crimson joy four and
467
00:31:23,770 --> 00:31:30,930
then he's dark and his dark secret love? And then
468
00:31:30,930 --> 00:31:34,050
finally, does thy life destroy?
469
00:31:36,810 --> 00:31:40,850
Of course
470
00:31:40,850 --> 00:31:43,510
irregular, going from four to five to five to six
471
00:31:43,510 --> 00:31:49,730
to four to five. Does this make The Sick Rose any
472
00:31:49,730 --> 00:31:52,070
less of a poem?
473
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:58,520
It doesn't make it unpoetic, doesn't lose some of
474
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,400
its poeticality, some of its beauty, because it
475
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:05,860
doesn't conform, it doesn't obey the rules of
476
00:32:05,860 --> 00:32:10,940
decorum. Now, we'll talk about this in a bit, what
477
00:32:10,940 --> 00:32:14,400
the romantics think about the rules of decorum.
478
00:32:15,260 --> 00:32:18,220
And I'm sure that the likes of Alexander Pope,
479
00:32:18,500 --> 00:32:21,640
methodized and systematized, speaking about rules,
480
00:32:24,270 --> 00:32:26,370
and those people will be pulling their hair now,
481
00:32:26,470 --> 00:32:29,810
that those people are like, sorry, this is not the
482
00:32:29,810 --> 00:32:33,090
way we should do poetry. This is the way how we
483
00:32:33,090 --> 00:32:35,950
should do poetry. So what about the symbolism?
484
00:32:36,170 --> 00:32:42,390
What does the poem stand for? Which is the key
485
00:32:42,390 --> 00:32:46,430
issue in the poem, like thinking of this, thinking
486
00:32:46,430 --> 00:32:49,730
of the words, the negative words, even the one
487
00:32:49,730 --> 00:32:54,130
beautiful word here is negative. The rose itself
488
00:32:54,130 --> 00:32:58,290
or herself. That's it. So what do you think? What
489
00:32:58,290 --> 00:33:01,450
does the rose symbolize? Please.
490
00:33:15,470 --> 00:33:17,350
This doesn't apply to William Blake. William Blake
491
00:33:17,350 --> 00:33:20,150
was a Londoner. He lived in London. He stayed in
492
00:33:20,150 --> 00:33:23,050
London. And some say he even loves London despite
493
00:33:23,050 --> 00:33:25,710
the fact that he was severely critical of London
494
00:33:25,710 --> 00:33:29,770
and the life there. So what does the rose in
495
00:33:29,770 --> 00:33:34,150
specific symbolize? Please. I think this word
496
00:33:34,150 --> 00:33:39,070
symbolizes one thing. Stop counting. Do this.
497
00:33:39,990 --> 00:33:45,310
Okay, the rose symbolizes love where one half of
498
00:33:45,310 --> 00:33:48,710
this relationship, love relationship is sick,
499
00:33:48,870 --> 00:33:51,510
destroyed, and the other half is causing this
500
00:33:51,510 --> 00:33:55,270
destruction. Thank you, interesting. Also stop
501
00:33:55,270 --> 00:33:58,450
counting, one. So okay, you think that the word
502
00:33:58,450 --> 00:34:02,890
rose symbolizes nature. What is destroying nature
503
00:34:02,890 --> 00:34:05,230
in your sense? What is man? Please.
504
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,680
You know, yeah, sometimes you feel he loves
505
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:18,160
London, sometimes you think he, you realize that
506
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:19,500
he hates London, he doesn't like it.
507
00:34:24,340 --> 00:34:28,140
He, him, oh, yeah, okay. So he's Rose, he's, it's
508
00:34:28,140 --> 00:34:30,740
like, you know, the Da Vinci painting, some people
509
00:34:30,740 --> 00:34:33,540
think that this was a self-portrait, Da Vinci
510
00:34:33,540 --> 00:34:36,400
drawing himself, the Mona Lisa, right? So this
511
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:40,460
could be, oh, Rose looking in the mirror, And, you
512
00:34:40,460 --> 00:34:43,760
know, liking himself and then say, it's the city
513
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:47,660
that destroyed me. I like this. Thank you very
514
00:34:47,660 --> 00:34:53,060
much. Please. This is innocence and this is
515
00:34:53,060 --> 00:34:54,300
experience. We'll talk about innocence and
516
00:34:54,300 --> 00:34:59,640
experience in a bit. Please. The worm is life, the
517
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:04,500
rose is life in general. Please. Stop counting.
518
00:35:04,580 --> 00:35:08,800
One thing. Beauty. So if beauty can be destroyed
519
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,880
by what? What's the worm here if this is beauty?
520
00:35:12,860 --> 00:35:18,160
If this is beauty, what is the worm? Makeup? Or
521
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:28,320
food? Age, thank you. Age. Poetry is the rose and
522
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:33,200
what is destroying it is the Okay, I find this far
523
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:38,360
-fetched but also I like it I like it if you want
524
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:40,360
to take this the whole poem is symbolic and also
525
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:49,640
parody Toxic
526
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:51,780
because it's repressive and restrictive it
527
00:35:51,780 --> 00:35:53,980
prevents you from expressing yourself being
528
00:35:53,980 --> 00:35:58,440
yourself Rose
529
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:05,280
rose rose The rules? I think sometimes they do.
530
00:36:06,580 --> 00:36:07,720
Sometimes we do.
531
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,480
That's my opinion. That's your opinion. Again,
532
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:18,760
this is up to you whether you want to like
533
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:20,500
classical poetry, whether in Arabic or English,
534
00:36:20,620 --> 00:36:23,180
whether you like classical poetry more than
535
00:36:23,180 --> 00:36:26,520
metaphysical or romantic poetry, free verse, blank
536
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:28,800
verse, or vice versa. This is a personal
537
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:33,600
preference. Please. I think you can also say that
538
00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:38,420
the Halloween storm symbolizes life. Okay. In this
539
00:36:38,420 --> 00:36:40,660
sense, what is rose? What is the worm?
540
00:36:43,430 --> 00:36:47,650
Okay, so life, innocence, and experience. Now look
541
00:36:47,650 --> 00:36:50,170
at this. Please, finally.
542
00:36:54,370 --> 00:36:59,830
So you're
543
00:36:59,830 --> 00:37:01,870
connecting it with this understanding that this
544
00:37:01,870 --> 00:37:05,650
could be about the repressive rules, the invasive
545
00:37:05,650 --> 00:37:08,690
rules of life, of modern life, of the city
546
00:37:08,690 --> 00:37:11,990
controlling and limiting our imagination. Thank
547
00:37:11,990 --> 00:37:12,110
you.
548
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:23,700
Like what? Okay, what else? Who usually depend on
549
00:37:23,700 --> 00:37:27,560
others in the society, in our life? Okay. Oh,
550
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,240
don't say that the rose is students and the worm
551
00:37:30,240 --> 00:37:34,300
is a teacher. Okay. Maybe it's vice versa. Maybe
552
00:37:34,300 --> 00:37:37,480
we are, you know, we are sick because of the
553
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:41,380
invisible worms destroying us. Assignments? What
554
00:37:41,380 --> 00:37:46,040
are the assignments? The howling storm? This
555
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:50,680
sense, this oxymoron here, it's like Hamlet says,
556
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:56,100
tough love, cruel to be kind. So this is, okay. I
557
00:37:56,100 --> 00:37:59,180
like how this poem is helping you use your
558
00:37:59,180 --> 00:38:04,100
imagination even more. With the necklaces, it's
559
00:38:04,100 --> 00:38:08,420
usually, sometimes you feel that they have one
560
00:38:08,420 --> 00:38:12,640
idea, one thing to teach in a poem. to teach and
561
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,060
delight, right? But with the romantics, you'll
562
00:38:15,060 --> 00:38:18,640
come to a reality where a poem could mean many
563
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:22,080
things. And I think all your understandings and
564
00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:24,620
interpretations are valid here. But we can also
565
00:38:24,620 --> 00:38:26,680
take this poem to today. I remember last year, one
566
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:31,280
of the students was saying, this is women now on
567
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:37,060
social media, sometimes men. you know, take
568
00:38:37,060 --> 00:38:39,620
advantage, try to take advantage of women, of
569
00:38:39,620 --> 00:38:42,540
their innocence, of their, you know, and they try
570
00:38:42,540 --> 00:38:45,580
to destroy their lives. I like this
571
00:38:45,580 --> 00:38:47,640
interpretation. The other day, a student was
572
00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:51,340
saying, La Rose is Palestine, the worm is the
573
00:38:51,340 --> 00:38:54,500
Zionist entity coming to Palestine, destroying
574
00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:55,520
Palestine, and
575
00:38:58,450 --> 00:39:01,370
That is also valid. But there are two things here.
576
00:39:01,430 --> 00:39:04,630
We don't want to mix things. For William Blake,
577
00:39:04,970 --> 00:39:07,430
yes, this could be taken as some might suggest
578
00:39:07,430 --> 00:39:09,870
that the rose is probably an actual rose. He was
579
00:39:09,870 --> 00:39:12,010
walking down the road, I don't know, somewhere in
580
00:39:12,010 --> 00:39:13,770
London. He found a rose where there is a woman
581
00:39:13,770 --> 00:39:17,390
that he made a fuss out of all of this. Or the
582
00:39:17,390 --> 00:39:20,330
rose could symbolize nature. It could symbolize
583
00:39:20,330 --> 00:39:22,490
life in a city and how it was destroyed by the
584
00:39:22,490 --> 00:39:24,290
Industrial Revolution and the factories and the
585
00:39:24,290 --> 00:39:27,820
pollution, somebody said here. Or it could mean
586
00:39:27,820 --> 00:39:30,940
some woman, a woman he knows, or women in general,
587
00:39:31,140 --> 00:39:33,840
or children. I expected some of you to say
588
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:37,940
children, but there's not much indication here.
589
00:39:38,020 --> 00:39:41,140
But this could be about, or a child, or childhood,
590
00:39:42,100 --> 00:39:46,400
or innocence and experience, or beauty, or nature,
591
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:48,220
or the countryside and how it's being destroyed
592
00:39:48,220 --> 00:39:54,960
by. Now what is it about? I think it's about all
593
00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,140
of these. And I think this is a feature of
594
00:39:58,140 --> 00:40:02,920
romanticism, imagination. Encouraging imagination,
595
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:08,920
encouraging using your mind, not to think
596
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:11,420
intellectually, to find facts, to create facts
597
00:40:11,420 --> 00:40:12,020
about this,
598
00:40:15,340 --> 00:40:20,380
but to imagine how things could be, how things can
599
00:40:20,380 --> 00:40:23,740
be. The fact that the poem offers so many
600
00:40:23,740 --> 00:40:27,180
possibilities is the very opposite of neoclassical
601
00:40:27,180 --> 00:40:31,940
literature, where usually there's one main
602
00:40:31,940 --> 00:40:34,900
understanding of the text. This is what it is.
603
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,940
It's like mathematics. In a sense, I don't want to
604
00:40:37,940 --> 00:40:40,740
be extreme. But here, there are so many
605
00:40:40,740 --> 00:40:46,240
possibilities for one poem. So if in your exam I
606
00:40:46,240 --> 00:40:51,460
ask you, what is the rose a symbol of, you could
607
00:40:51,460 --> 00:40:54,710
say, whatever you like as long as you support your
608
00:40:54,710 --> 00:40:59,770
argument with things about Blake or things from
609
00:40:59,770 --> 00:41:02,170
the book. But don't go too far to taking it to say
610
00:41:02,170 --> 00:41:07,590
this, it stands for Palestine or Facebook. What I
611
00:41:07,590 --> 00:41:11,050
mean here is that you could post this poem, you
612
00:41:11,050 --> 00:41:16,560
could have this Photoshop design put a picture of
613
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,040
the top of the rock or a map of Palestine and
614
00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:21,600
write this and it worked and say, oh Rose, thou
615
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:26,420
art sick than visible worm. You could say this to
616
00:41:26,420 --> 00:41:29,260
somebody who has been in a toxic relationship like
617
00:41:29,260 --> 00:41:32,420
trying to cheer them up. I don't know, tell them
618
00:41:32,420 --> 00:41:36,420
it has been happening. But remember, I don't care
619
00:41:36,420 --> 00:41:38,620
about the authorial intention. I don't care what
620
00:41:38,620 --> 00:41:42,140
he intended, William Blake. He could have intended
621
00:41:42,140 --> 00:41:47,280
all these things you just mentioned. Now, in the
622
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:49,740
remaining time, I want you to see this other
623
00:41:49,740 --> 00:41:52,340
beautiful poem by William Blake.
624
00:41:55,660 --> 00:41:59,320
William Blake was very famous for
625
00:42:02,130 --> 00:42:06,750
like two groups or two volumes of poetry entitled
626
00:42:06,750 --> 00:42:09,470
Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience where he
627
00:42:09,470 --> 00:42:13,010
talks about the two statuses of life. Sometimes
628
00:42:13,010 --> 00:42:17,490
the same experience is looked at because he
629
00:42:17,490 --> 00:42:20,870
believes in the fact that the world is our own
630
00:42:20,870 --> 00:42:25,690
perception. We create the world, we create it. How
631
00:42:25,690 --> 00:42:30,070
we see the world, is what the world is, and you
632
00:42:30,070 --> 00:42:35,270
see it. I'll quote him in a bit. He says, both
633
00:42:35,270 --> 00:42:41,870
read the Bible day and night. Thou saw dark, I saw
634
00:42:41,870 --> 00:42:45,010
light. It's the same Bible, different people,
635
00:42:45,170 --> 00:42:48,760
different understanding and perception. And in a
636
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,120
way, but again, this is extreme to some extent,
637
00:42:51,240 --> 00:42:54,160
the world being our own perception. So in the
638
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:56,700
Songs of Innocence, we find, for example, a poem
639
00:42:56,700 --> 00:42:58,960
about the chimney sweeper in innocence from the
640
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:02,540
perspective of the children, how things are from
641
00:43:02,540 --> 00:43:07,060
how the kids see things. And then we'll have a
642
00:43:07,060 --> 00:43:10,860
chimney sweeper from an experience point of view
643
00:43:10,860 --> 00:43:14,270
where See, the poem focuses on the corruption and
644
00:43:14,270 --> 00:43:16,270
the destruction of life and innocence and
645
00:43:16,270 --> 00:43:18,470
childhood in the poem. The same thing happens
646
00:43:18,470 --> 00:43:21,330
here. We have two poems, Songs of Innocence and
647
00:43:21,330 --> 00:43:23,410
Songs of Experience. I'm sorry this doesn't fit
648
00:43:23,410 --> 00:43:25,570
the whole poem. The first poem, the innocence
649
00:43:25,570 --> 00:43:31,110
poem, is actually four stanzas. I'll read it very
650
00:43:31,110 --> 00:43:34,830
quickly. When the voices of children are heard on
651
00:43:34,830 --> 00:43:38,430
the green. Look at how long it is. Children, the
652
00:43:38,430 --> 00:43:43,170
green extends. And then the voice of children,
653
00:43:43,810 --> 00:43:46,950
what happens here, not only the voices, also
654
00:43:46,950 --> 00:43:52,750
laughing is heard on the hill. My heart is at rest
655
00:43:52,750 --> 00:43:57,670
within my breast. This brings me joy and rest and
656
00:43:57,670 --> 00:44:02,150
happiness. because of the kids playing and
657
00:44:02,150 --> 00:44:06,050
laughing having fun and everything else is still
658
00:44:06,050 --> 00:44:10,010
these are the most important things here then look
659
00:44:10,010 --> 00:44:13,750
at the quote so this is probably the nurse then
660
00:44:13,750 --> 00:44:19,670
come home my children the sun is is gone down and
661
00:44:19,670 --> 00:44:24,390
the dews of night arise come come leave off play
662
00:44:24,390 --> 00:44:27,550
and let us away till the morning appears in the
663
00:44:27,550 --> 00:44:32,510
sky so come back home And then you could come back
664
00:44:32,510 --> 00:44:36,510
to play tomorrow. It's not the end of the day.
665
00:44:36,630 --> 00:44:37,990
It's literally the end of the day, but it's not
666
00:44:37,990 --> 00:44:39,850
the end of everything. You can, it's a cycle. You
667
00:44:39,850 --> 00:44:42,690
keep going on to play. I have no problem with
668
00:44:42,690 --> 00:44:46,710
that. So this is the nurse first describing what's
669
00:44:46,710 --> 00:44:50,030
going on and then because it's the sun is gone
670
00:44:50,030 --> 00:44:56,150
down, come, come. The sun is gone, leave off play
671
00:44:56,150 --> 00:44:59,610
and let us away till the morning appears in the
672
00:44:59,610 --> 00:45:05,110
skies. And then the kids also, this is a quote,
673
00:45:05,990 --> 00:45:10,490
speaking back, talking back. No, no, let us play
674
00:45:10,490 --> 00:45:15,890
for it is yet day. It is still day, Fada. And we
675
00:45:15,890 --> 00:45:20,510
cannot go to sleep. Besides, in the sky little
676
00:45:20,510 --> 00:45:24,370
birds fly. There are still birds out there. And
677
00:45:24,370 --> 00:45:27,310
the hills are all covered with sheep. So people
678
00:45:27,310 --> 00:45:30,210
are out there, life is there, nature is there. Why
679
00:45:30,210 --> 00:45:34,370
would you take us back home? Well, well, and this
680
00:45:34,370 --> 00:45:37,830
is again the nurse. Well, well, go and play till
681
00:45:37,830 --> 00:45:41,410
the light fades away. And then go home to bed.
682
00:45:42,230 --> 00:45:44,570
That's the end of, again, the speech here, the
683
00:45:44,570 --> 00:45:46,670
dialogue. Look at the dialogue. You will not find
684
00:45:46,670 --> 00:45:50,150
this dialogic thing in neoclassical, this much of
685
00:45:50,150 --> 00:45:56,070
dialogism in neoclassical poetry. The little ones
686
00:45:56,070 --> 00:46:01,050
leaped. and shouted and laughed and all the hills
687
00:46:01,050 --> 00:46:06,890
echoed. Nature is laughing back. Very simple poem,
688
00:46:06,970 --> 00:46:09,890
yeah? It's very simple. Kids playing, come back
689
00:46:09,890 --> 00:46:12,450
home. No, we're not coming back home. There's
690
00:46:12,450 --> 00:46:15,490
still, you know, birds and sheep out there. So
691
00:46:15,490 --> 00:46:19,050
okay, play some more, like one more hour, 30
692
00:46:19,050 --> 00:46:22,290
minutes more, and then when the light fades away,
693
00:46:22,610 --> 00:46:25,710
come back home. Look at this poem, okay?
694
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:36,640
This is the same experience, the same story from a
695
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:40,560
different point of view, experience. The nurse's
696
00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:41,440
song experience.
697
00:46:44,220 --> 00:46:46,800
The first thing is that this is the whole poem.
698
00:46:48,540 --> 00:46:54,280
Two syllables, two stanzas. It's 50%, it's half
699
00:46:54,280 --> 00:47:00,880
the song of innocence. When voices of children are
700
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:05,400
heard on the green, the very same first line, and
701
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:11,660
not laughing and giggling and playing and sounds
702
00:47:11,660 --> 00:47:17,300
and naughtiness, whisperings. Now there is, why
703
00:47:17,300 --> 00:47:19,880
would we whisper? It's either a secret or there's
704
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:24,670
fear, you're not allowed to speak. You're not
705
00:47:24,670 --> 00:47:26,910
allowed to speak. You shouldn't speak. And
706
00:47:26,910 --> 00:47:31,510
whisperings are in the dale. The days of my youth.
707
00:47:31,610 --> 00:47:33,350
The poem is about the speaker. It's no longer
708
00:47:33,350 --> 00:47:35,210
about the children. That's why it changes from
709
00:47:35,210 --> 00:47:39,030
innocence to experience. The days of my youth rise
710
00:47:39,030 --> 00:47:44,330
fresh in my mind. My face turns green and pale.
711
00:47:45,050 --> 00:47:47,950
Probably an older person. Feels jealous. Feels,
712
00:47:47,970 --> 00:47:54,610
you know, green and pale. Not happy that the kids
713
00:47:54,610 --> 00:47:58,490
are playing, not happy that the kids are, then
714
00:47:58,490 --> 00:48:02,730
it's not even an attempt to strike a dialogue
715
00:48:02,730 --> 00:48:05,330
here, to begin a conversation. It's just taken
716
00:48:05,330 --> 00:48:08,070
matter-of-factly. Then, come home, my children.
717
00:48:08,290 --> 00:48:11,850
The sun is gone down and the dews of night arise.
718
00:48:12,030 --> 00:48:17,270
Your spring and your day are wasted in play. And
719
00:48:17,270 --> 00:48:19,610
you, yeah, wasted. That's a very negative word.
720
00:48:19,730 --> 00:48:24,750
And you winter a night in disguise. The good is
721
00:48:24,750 --> 00:48:27,890
yet to come, the bad is yet to come. That's the
722
00:48:27,890 --> 00:48:30,510
whole problem. There's no reply from the kids.
723
00:48:31,150 --> 00:48:34,730
They don't talk back. They're not allowed to speak
724
00:48:34,730 --> 00:48:35,450
back.
725
00:48:38,290 --> 00:48:41,770
They're never taken seriously. Kids are muted.
726
00:48:42,170 --> 00:48:46,390
Kids are repressed. And probably two of the most
727
00:48:46,390 --> 00:48:50,250
important English poets that were fascinated with
728
00:48:50,250 --> 00:48:54,500
the concept of childhood William Blake and William
729
00:48:54,500 --> 00:48:59,340
Wordsworth. Wordsworth says a child is the father
730
00:48:59,340 --> 00:49:03,760
of man. A child is the father. It's paradoxical
731
00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:08,240
for what it means. So look at the differences here
732
00:49:08,240 --> 00:49:10,360
in language, look at the differences in
733
00:49:13,240 --> 00:49:16,220
and the size and the dialogue. The most important
734
00:49:16,220 --> 00:49:18,840
thing I like about this poem is the fact that the
735
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:21,620
first, the innocence poem includes the dialogue
736
00:49:21,620 --> 00:49:24,620
that the kids speaking, having their voice,
737
00:49:24,780 --> 00:49:28,420
representing themselves, you know, asking for
738
00:49:28,420 --> 00:49:31,640
their right to play, to have fun, to laugh, to
739
00:49:31,640 --> 00:49:31,940
run.
740
00:49:34,980 --> 00:49:38,560
And that's why the first poem is, it's a musical,
741
00:49:38,940 --> 00:49:43,120
the positive words, it's not only the kids
742
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:47,160
playing, also nature, the sheep, the birds,
743
00:49:47,260 --> 00:49:50,300
everything is also happy and singing and dancing
744
00:49:50,300 --> 00:49:54,340
with the kids. Is he saying that when kids are
745
00:49:54,340 --> 00:49:56,780
playing and happy, everything around will be also
746
00:49:56,780 --> 00:50:00,220
happy? But in the second poem, because the kids
747
00:50:00,220 --> 00:50:04,850
are not allowed to speak, We destroy them but also
748
00:50:04,850 --> 00:50:07,370
we destroy ourselves because we don't see the
749
00:50:07,370 --> 00:50:09,950
beauty of the children playing and being innocent
750
00:50:09,950 --> 00:50:15,210
and all we see is green, pale,
751
00:50:17,450 --> 00:50:23,850
wasted and also disguised. Yeah? Green I think
752
00:50:23,850 --> 00:50:26,410
like has two indications here it is like gloomy
753
00:50:26,410 --> 00:50:28,970
and it's a sad indication but there it's like
754
00:50:28,970 --> 00:50:32,820
green, the green helps and you So the same thing,
755
00:50:32,980 --> 00:50:37,120
thank you for noticing this, the idea is that this
756
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:41,300
is what innocence and experience, like innocence
757
00:50:41,300 --> 00:50:44,540
is usually things viewed from the perspective of
758
00:50:44,540 --> 00:50:48,100
children mostly of innocence or purity. Experience
759
00:50:48,100 --> 00:50:51,460
means like, I don't know, corruption? Like it
760
00:50:51,460 --> 00:50:53,240
doesn't mean like having more experience, having
761
00:50:53,240 --> 00:50:55,480
something that is negative that's destroying your
762
00:50:55,480 --> 00:51:00,060
life. You being corrupted by age, by life, by the
763
00:51:00,060 --> 00:51:03,040
city, by the fact that you have to compete, by
764
00:51:03,040 --> 00:51:05,660
conflicts you have around, by the hate you have
765
00:51:05,660 --> 00:51:08,020
when you grow up. When you are kids, you would
766
00:51:08,020 --> 00:51:12,240
fight with somebody. But ten minutes later, you're
767
00:51:12,240 --> 00:51:15,380
playing again, your friends again. But when you
768
00:51:15,380 --> 00:51:18,240
grow up, if you hate somebody, sometimes you hate
769
00:51:18,240 --> 00:51:21,740
them forever. Even if you later on realize that,
770
00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:26,120
well, it's been some insignificant issue. It's a
771
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:27,040
silly thing. Please.
772
00:51:36,790 --> 00:51:38,630
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for
773
00:51:38,630 --> 00:51:41,530
bringing the Industrial Revolution because it's
774
00:51:41,530 --> 00:51:44,570
one reason for why we have the romantic poets
775
00:51:44,570 --> 00:51:46,670
writing the poetry they wrote. Industrial
776
00:51:46,670 --> 00:51:49,970
Revolution, French Revolution, the American
777
00:51:49,970 --> 00:51:51,610
Revolution. We'll talk about this more when we
778
00:51:51,610 --> 00:51:55,810
speak about William Wordsworth. So the industrial
779
00:51:55,810 --> 00:51:59,010
revolution changed life, corrupted life, polluted
780
00:51:59,010 --> 00:52:02,730
life. But the industrial revolution also brought
781
00:52:02,730 --> 00:52:08,090
people in masses from the countryside to the city.
782
00:52:10,130 --> 00:52:12,690
And when you go to the city, you go to the city,
783
00:52:13,250 --> 00:52:18,230
why? For the experience? For work, okay? For a
784
00:52:18,230 --> 00:52:22,150
job, to improve your life, for looking, expecting.
785
00:52:23,050 --> 00:52:26,490
your dreams to come true. But at that time when
786
00:52:26,490 --> 00:52:31,030
England was becoming the greatest empire of all
787
00:52:31,030 --> 00:52:33,630
times, the empire on which the sun never set,
788
00:52:37,830 --> 00:52:41,210
The British armies were, and companies and
789
00:52:41,210 --> 00:52:44,090
enterprises, they were bringing raw materials from
790
00:52:44,090 --> 00:52:46,710
the colonies, from India, Africa, around the
791
00:52:46,710 --> 00:52:50,210
world, and bringing most of them to the factories
792
00:52:50,210 --> 00:52:53,110
in London, in Liverpool, in Manchester. And these
793
00:52:53,110 --> 00:52:56,550
factories needed so many laborers and workers, and
794
00:52:56,550 --> 00:52:59,510
they would be leaving the countryside, the rural
795
00:52:59,510 --> 00:53:02,090
areas, hoping for a better life, and they would
796
00:53:02,090 --> 00:53:07,520
end up enslaved for factories. They would end up
797
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:12,440
being controlled, working from six or eight or
798
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:16,200
seven a.m. until six or eight or seven p.m.
799
00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:23,060
And thank you very much. And this is, we'll quote
800
00:53:23,060 --> 00:53:27,120
Shelley, describing the situation. Similar to the
801
00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:30,760
situation we live in Gaza nowadays. The poor get
802
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,800
poorer. And the rich get richer. And again, we
803
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:36,180
always come back to Bernie Sanders saying the 1%
804
00:53:36,180 --> 00:53:43,660
and the 99%. So the 1%, the richest people keep
805
00:53:43,660 --> 00:53:46,600
getting rich no matter what. And the poor people
806
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,740
are destroying their lives. Look at Amazon and GFP
807
00:53:49,740 --> 00:53:53,380
pesos, $180 billion.
808
00:53:56,890 --> 00:54:00,050
There was a story the other day about an employee
809
00:54:00,050 --> 00:54:04,090
at Amazon who died, who just fell. He had a heart
810
00:54:04,090 --> 00:54:06,750
attack and died and nobody noticed him for 20
811
00:54:06,750 --> 00:54:09,970
minutes. Despite the fact that there are so many
812
00:54:09,970 --> 00:54:15,240
people there. And I think his brother said that a
813
00:54:15,240 --> 00:54:20,380
week before this guy mistakenly labeled a
814
00:54:20,380 --> 00:54:22,800
different product, and within two minutes, the
815
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:26,800
cameras and the computer managed to find this
816
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:30,880
error and mistake. Two minutes. If you make a
817
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:33,180
mistake for a product, for a thing that brings
818
00:54:33,180 --> 00:54:36,260
money, it can be recognized. But when somebody
819
00:54:36,260 --> 00:54:41,120
just falls, dies, has a heart attack, a human
820
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:45,150
being is not as important as As a product that
821
00:54:45,150 --> 00:54:50,170
could cost, I don't know, two or three dollars. So
822
00:54:50,170 --> 00:54:54,450
yeah, there is always this in romantic poetry. The
823
00:54:54,450 --> 00:54:56,210
industrial revolution is always in the background.
824
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:02,400
We can't apply industrial revolution on this
825
00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:06,340
because when a man lives in a city and he misses
826
00:55:06,340 --> 00:55:09,620
nature, so when he goes to the countryside and he
827
00:55:09,620 --> 00:55:13,860
values nature more because he misses it and he's
828
00:55:13,860 --> 00:55:15,880
not used to it. But people who live in the
829
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:18,300
countryside, they see these flowers and nature and
830
00:55:18,300 --> 00:55:20,740
beauty every day, so maybe it's the opposite.
831
00:55:21,470 --> 00:55:23,470
You're right, but with the Romantics, even with
832
00:55:23,470 --> 00:55:25,230
Wordsworth and Coleridge who lived in the
833
00:55:25,230 --> 00:55:28,310
countryside, they loved the countryside. I agree.
834
00:55:28,950 --> 00:55:31,270
They actually talk about this. This is a feature
835
00:55:31,270 --> 00:55:35,530
of Romanticism. They try to defamiliarize their
836
00:55:35,530 --> 00:55:40,530
experiences. to rip the veil of familiarity. When
837
00:55:40,530 --> 00:55:43,630
you live, there are flowers and roses and trees
838
00:55:43,630 --> 00:55:46,390
and cats and birds around campus here, right? But
839
00:55:46,390 --> 00:55:48,470
sometimes, usually we don't pay attention. I
840
00:55:48,470 --> 00:55:51,430
usually say this, like, when is the last time you
841
00:55:51,430 --> 00:55:55,930
looked at the moon? Spinach is because we live in
842
00:55:55,930 --> 00:56:01,230
concrete buildings. We don't have even a crack to
843
00:56:01,230 --> 00:56:03,570
the moon. We usually don't see it from our windows
844
00:56:03,570 --> 00:56:07,170
from where we live most often. Very few of us
845
00:56:07,170 --> 00:56:09,510
would just wait for the moon to look at how big it
846
00:56:09,510 --> 00:56:11,030
is, how beautiful it is. Remember when we were
847
00:56:11,030 --> 00:56:14,490
kids, we spent most of our time looking at clouds
848
00:56:14,490 --> 00:56:17,390
and what shapes they make. We don't do this now,
849
00:56:17,770 --> 00:56:20,050
even if you like nature, because we're busy, we
850
00:56:20,050 --> 00:56:21,690
have exams, we have to study, we have reflections
851
00:56:21,690 --> 00:56:23,590
to write, we have classes to attend, we have work
852
00:56:23,590 --> 00:56:27,090
to do, we have, you know, we need, we keep rushing
853
00:56:27,090 --> 00:56:29,710
and this is city, this is new, this is life, this
854
00:56:29,710 --> 00:56:34,050
is civilization. Therefore, the romantics call for
855
00:56:34,050 --> 00:56:36,630
this thing called the childlike experience. We
856
00:56:36,630 --> 00:56:40,490
have to see everything anew, afresh every time.
857
00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:44,820
And I always give the example of the, I mentioned
858
00:56:44,820 --> 00:56:48,680
this many times, how the little kid, if you have a
859
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:51,060
kid in a car or something, they would see a donkey
860
00:56:51,060 --> 00:56:54,300
and then a donkey and then a donkey. You hate the
861
00:56:54,300 --> 00:56:56,080
scene yourself. When you see a donkey, it's like,
862
00:56:56,160 --> 00:56:58,440
you know, because you are now grown up, you're
863
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:01,640
civilized. It's like, it's a donkey. But the kid
864
00:57:01,640 --> 00:57:05,380
will say, eh, mah, eh, mah, eh, mah, right? Even
865
00:57:05,380 --> 00:57:07,980
the light, you know, right? We see this all the
866
00:57:07,980 --> 00:57:11,440
time. When kids see stuff, they always, it's as if
867
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:14,100
it is the first time ever to see this. And the
868
00:57:14,100 --> 00:57:16,500
romantics want us to go to this state of
869
00:57:16,500 --> 00:57:20,360
innocence. No corruption, nothing changing or
870
00:57:20,360 --> 00:57:23,820
blinding us, nothing keeping us away from, that's
871
00:57:23,820 --> 00:57:26,880
why this is a process of defamiliarizing to rip
872
00:57:28,350 --> 00:57:31,830
the veil of familiarity. We see this in the
873
00:57:31,830 --> 00:57:35,210
daffodils. We see daffodils, we see flowers around
874
00:57:35,210 --> 00:57:41,450
very often, but do we stop to think? Not to think
875
00:57:41,450 --> 00:57:46,470
actually, to gaze, to enjoy, to imagine. So what
876
00:57:46,470 --> 00:57:51,200
are the features of this photo. What new things do
877
00:57:51,200 --> 00:57:54,600
you find here in both poems about play? Quickly.
878
00:57:54,880 --> 00:57:58,040
If you want to come up with a list of five or six
879
00:57:58,040 --> 00:58:00,500
or seven features, please. First of all,
880
00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:03,380
imagination. Thank you very much. Imagination.
881
00:58:04,140 --> 00:58:06,880
Simple language. Simplicity of language.
882
00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:09,880
Excellent. Inspiration. Inspiration from what
883
00:58:09,880 --> 00:58:14,260
generally? What is the source of inspiration? The
884
00:58:14,260 --> 00:58:19,720
rules of the Qur'an or something else? Nature,
885
00:58:19,900 --> 00:58:27,600
childhood, innocence, please. No rigid rooms,
886
00:58:27,940 --> 00:58:31,720
probably free forms of poetry, new forms of poetry
887
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:34,460
rather than free because sometimes we talk about
888
00:58:34,460 --> 00:58:38,980
this more. Defamiliarization of ordinary mundane
889
00:58:38,980 --> 00:58:42,360
experiences. The subject matter could be about
890
00:58:42,360 --> 00:58:44,380
anything. It's about a rose. It's about, I don't
891
00:58:44,380 --> 00:58:47,220
know, it's about children playing. This wasn't the
892
00:58:47,220 --> 00:58:50,500
case with neoclassicism. Childhood is also a
893
00:58:50,500 --> 00:58:54,150
feature. They are fascinated with childhood. I
894
00:58:54,150 --> 00:58:56,370
will say something. I think that decriminalization
895
00:58:56,370 --> 00:58:58,870
appears in the word spring. Like in Song of
896
00:58:58,870 --> 00:59:02,410
Experience, he only says your spring and your day.
897
00:59:02,730 --> 00:59:06,290
But in the Song of Innocence, he illustrates more.
898
00:59:06,390 --> 00:59:10,570
And he says like hell's sky fly and birds fly and
899
00:59:10,570 --> 00:59:14,910
sheep. So this is how children see spring, while
900
00:59:14,910 --> 00:59:17,590
this is like the word spring itself is how adults
901
00:59:17,590 --> 00:59:18,270
see spring.
902
00:59:21,050 --> 00:59:23,530
It's possible, but defamiliarization is basically
903
00:59:23,530 --> 00:59:28,070
making familiar things look unfamiliar. Like when
904
00:59:28,070 --> 00:59:31,290
you read the daffodils, the thousands of daffodils
905
00:59:31,290 --> 00:59:33,210
dancing and tossing their heads and like that.
906
00:59:33,330 --> 00:59:35,610
That is something like, what's his name? The guy
907
00:59:35,610 --> 00:59:37,710
who draws the sunflowers.
908
00:59:39,610 --> 00:59:47,150
Van Gogh. He drew hundreds of these sunflowers and
909
00:59:47,150 --> 00:59:50,030
every time you see them, they look different. It's
910
00:59:50,030 --> 00:59:51,790
as if you see them for the first time.
911
00:59:56,370 --> 01:00:00,910
I'm sorry that Blake was interested in the
912
01:00:00,910 --> 01:00:05,420
childlike vision more than childhood itself. And I
913
01:00:05,420 --> 01:00:08,800
think both. I think both. But yeah, the vision is
914
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:11,080
like, not only the vision, the vision and the
915
01:00:11,080 --> 01:00:15,060
state of innocence. So here we find that the nurse
916
01:00:15,060 --> 01:00:19,960
also has that childlike vision here because she's
917
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:22,320
telling children to play. Okay, just play. The
918
01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:25,240
first one. Yeah, the nurse. You're speaking about
919
01:00:25,240 --> 01:00:28,500
a mature person here, not only the children. She
920
01:00:28,500 --> 01:00:31,140
has a childlike vision, she supports playing, she
921
01:00:31,140 --> 01:00:33,280
thinks it's healthy and it's something that should
922
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:36,520
be done. While the nurse in the other one
923
01:00:36,520 --> 01:00:40,220
experienced that belief that it's a waste of time.
924
01:00:40,660 --> 01:00:44,300
And again there is no room, no space for kids to
925
01:00:44,300 --> 01:00:46,580
express themselves. So she doesn't have the
926
01:00:46,580 --> 01:00:52,000
childlike vision. That's right. True. And look at
927
01:00:52,000 --> 01:00:54,700
how the kids even, I'm imagining a situation where
928
01:00:54,700 --> 01:00:57,300
the kids are playing and then this nurse comes and
929
01:00:57,300 --> 01:01:00,260
everybody starts whispering rather than laughing.
930
01:01:00,460 --> 01:01:02,400
So they know here already that she's repressive,
931
01:01:02,720 --> 01:01:07,820
she's going to oppress them. I'll go through and
932
01:01:07,820 --> 01:01:10,200
then finish. I'll go through some of William
933
01:01:10,200 --> 01:01:15,000
Blake's fascinating, by the way, if you Google top
934
01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:20,890
most influential British people of all time, 100
935
01:01:20,890 --> 01:01:23,870
most influential British people, Blake is on the
936
01:01:23,870 --> 01:01:28,190
list. Wordsworth is not. Many people you think of
937
01:01:28,190 --> 01:01:30,450
are not on the list. But William Blake is one of
938
01:01:30,450 --> 01:01:32,930
the people because he's a pioneer of this
939
01:01:32,930 --> 01:01:37,850
movement. Look at what fascinating things. If you
940
01:01:37,850 --> 01:01:40,330
are interested in Blake, you could go for more
941
01:01:40,330 --> 01:01:45,070
quotes or things. Prisons are built with stones of
942
01:01:45,070 --> 01:01:45,310
law.
943
01:01:48,630 --> 01:01:54,040
brothels with bricks of religion. How this man was
944
01:01:54,040 --> 01:01:57,060
anti-establishment. In his poem London, you should
945
01:01:57,060 --> 01:02:00,620
read this poem. He clearly openly attacks the
946
01:02:00,620 --> 01:02:03,440
establishment, the palace, and the church. How
947
01:02:03,440 --> 01:02:08,260
they exploit people, exploit their privileges to
948
01:02:08,260 --> 01:02:11,340
destroy people. How the law is turning people into
949
01:02:11,340 --> 01:02:13,900
criminals. How religion here is used to turn
950
01:02:13,900 --> 01:02:17,440
people. Great things are done when men and
951
01:02:17,440 --> 01:02:23,680
mountains meet, nature. Both read the Bible day
952
01:02:23,680 --> 01:02:33,020
and night, but thou read black where I read
953
01:02:33,020 --> 01:02:33,380
white.
954
01:02:39,340 --> 01:02:42,980
He says the Bible is different, not because the
955
01:02:42,980 --> 01:02:46,270
Bible is different, because we are different. If
956
01:02:46,270 --> 01:02:48,610
you are open-minded, if you see things, you know,
957
01:02:49,390 --> 01:02:51,710
you see good things, positive, you look at the
958
01:02:51,710 --> 01:02:54,790
stupid cliche of looking at the half empty of the
959
01:02:54,790 --> 01:02:58,310
cup and the half full of the cup. So I read, you
960
01:02:58,310 --> 01:03:02,450
read black because of your, you know, your mind,
961
01:03:02,570 --> 01:03:05,230
thank you, your perception. I must, I think this
962
01:03:05,230 --> 01:03:07,410
is the most powerful thing you need to learn about
963
01:03:07,410 --> 01:03:10,010
William Blake. I must, look at the must here, not
964
01:03:10,010 --> 01:03:14,810
should. I must create a system. Create my own
965
01:03:14,810 --> 01:03:18,530
rules, my own constructs. Or be enslaved by
966
01:03:18,530 --> 01:03:21,630
another man's. Or else I'll be enslaved by another
967
01:03:21,630 --> 01:03:28,090
man's rules. The three?
968
01:03:32,370 --> 01:03:37,130
A, B. Possible, it could be common with him. But
969
01:03:37,130 --> 01:03:41,890
different from the A, B, B, A or A, B, A, B. I
970
01:03:41,890 --> 01:03:44,310
will not reason, but again, it's not only about
971
01:03:44,310 --> 01:03:45,930
the rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme is just one
972
01:03:45,930 --> 01:03:49,570
indication. I will not reason and compare, like
973
01:03:49,570 --> 01:03:52,330
the age of intellectuality, the age of reason, the
974
01:03:52,330 --> 01:03:55,730
Augustan Age. My business is to create. By the
975
01:03:55,730 --> 01:03:58,690
way, he was a famous painter. If you Google his
976
01:03:58,690 --> 01:04:03,190
poems and look at Google images, he would be doing
977
01:04:03,190 --> 01:04:05,850
these engravings and beautiful paintings for his
978
01:04:05,850 --> 01:04:11,120
poems. They were very expensive. The tree which
979
01:04:11,120 --> 01:04:15,080
moves some to tears of joy. Again, look at how he
980
01:04:15,080 --> 01:04:19,040
focuses on these two states, how experience and
981
01:04:19,040 --> 01:04:22,900
our perceptions create the world we live in. In
982
01:04:22,900 --> 01:04:27,800
the eyes of others, only a green thing, only a
983
01:04:27,800 --> 01:04:31,080
green thing could move you. Something that happens
984
01:04:31,080 --> 01:04:33,120
all the time. You find somebody says something, is
985
01:04:33,120 --> 01:04:35,860
telling a story, and some people are like crying
986
01:04:35,860 --> 01:04:39,090
their eyes out, and some people are like, Nothing.
987
01:04:39,290 --> 01:04:41,170
It means nothing to them. It doesn't mean you're
988
01:04:41,170 --> 01:04:43,830
bad. It means this time this place is not touching
989
01:04:43,830 --> 01:04:45,170
something new.
990
01:04:47,460 --> 01:04:51,640
But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature
991
01:04:51,640 --> 01:04:54,580
is imagination itself. We see this in words,
992
01:04:54,780 --> 01:04:57,840
words, words. Nature is the theme. Some people say
993
01:04:57,840 --> 01:04:59,680
Shakespeare is using nature. Shall I compare thee
994
01:04:59,680 --> 01:05:02,180
to a summer's day? He's saying summer's day. But
995
01:05:02,180 --> 01:05:05,620
he's using nature to ornament his poem, to make
996
01:05:05,620 --> 01:05:10,060
his poem as metaphors. But here nature itself is
997
01:05:10,060 --> 01:05:12,140
the theme. Imagination itself is the theme. It's
998
01:05:12,140 --> 01:05:16,550
not only the medium or The tool. What is now
999
01:05:16,550 --> 01:05:21,310
proved was once only imagined. Beautiful. What is
1000
01:05:21,310 --> 01:05:24,650
now proved was once imagined in somebody's
1001
01:05:24,650 --> 01:05:28,050
imagination. Pottery fitted. I love this very much
1002
01:05:28,050 --> 01:05:31,610
again. Pottery and this clearly shows how he
1003
01:05:31,610 --> 01:05:34,150
deliberately was saying sorry to the rules of
1004
01:05:34,150 --> 01:05:38,310
decorum and classicalism. Pottery fitted. Pottery
1005
01:05:38,310 --> 01:05:42,900
that is restrained, restricted by rules. fitters
1006
01:05:42,900 --> 01:05:46,380
the human race. That's an extreme opinion. If you
1007
01:05:46,380 --> 01:05:49,880
control poetry, if you repress poetry, restrict
1008
01:05:49,880 --> 01:05:53,320
poetry, you restrict human race, our imagination
1009
01:05:53,320 --> 01:05:58,280
and our experiences. Nations are destroyed or
1010
01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:01,780
flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting
1011
01:06:01,780 --> 01:06:05,840
and music are destroyed or flourish. This feels
1012
01:06:05,840 --> 01:06:09,680
like somebody in the 20th century, 21st century
1013
01:06:09,680 --> 01:06:14,010
said. This is how ahead of his time he was. This
1014
01:06:14,010 --> 01:06:17,930
is another extract from a beautiful poem. What
1015
01:06:17,930 --> 01:06:22,370
he's doing, to see a world in a grain of sand and
1016
01:06:22,370 --> 01:06:26,010
a heaven in a wildflower. Hold infinity in the
1017
01:06:26,010 --> 01:06:29,430
palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
1018
01:06:33,400 --> 01:06:35,740
When I tell the truth, it's not for the sake of
1019
01:06:35,740 --> 01:06:38,740
convincing those who don't know it, but for the
1020
01:06:38,740 --> 01:06:41,820
sake of defending those that do.
1021
01:06:45,100 --> 01:06:49,240
When I tell the truth, it's not for the sake of
1022
01:06:49,240 --> 01:06:52,160
convincing those who don't know the truth, but
1023
01:06:52,160 --> 01:06:54,240
convincing those who know the truth or who are
1024
01:06:54,240 --> 01:06:58,350
willing to know the truth. Those who restrain
1025
01:06:58,350 --> 01:07:01,790
their desires do so because theirs, their desire
1026
01:07:01,790 --> 01:07:07,230
is weak enough to be restrained Desires,
1027
01:07:07,890 --> 01:07:11,330
imagination, feelings shouldn't be controlled If
1028
01:07:11,330 --> 01:07:14,450
the doors, again the perception issue here, if the
1029
01:07:14,450 --> 01:07:18,770
doors of perception were cleansed everything would
1030
01:07:18,770 --> 01:07:21,610
appear to man as it is, infinite
1031
01:07:24,800 --> 01:07:28,400
And again, the city life destroys our perception,
1032
01:07:28,800 --> 01:07:32,480
makes everything mundane, boring, repetitive
1033
01:07:32,480 --> 01:07:39,740
Without contraries, there is no progression If
1034
01:07:39,740 --> 01:07:44,300
something is very black, it could sound very black
1035
01:07:44,300 --> 01:07:47,800
when it's next to very white color or something
1036
01:07:47,800 --> 01:07:50,180
like this, very short, very tall, and these things
1037
01:07:50,970 --> 01:07:53,190
And that's why he's focusing on these two states
1038
01:07:53,190 --> 01:07:57,270
of mind. If you don't understand innocence, unless
1039
01:07:57,270 --> 01:08:03,610
there is experience there and vice versa. And
1040
01:08:03,610 --> 01:08:06,050
finally, this is a very powerful statement, but it
1041
01:08:06,050 --> 01:08:09,850
shouldn't be fixed here. I care not whether a man
1042
01:08:09,850 --> 01:08:14,950
is good or evil. All that I care is whether he is
1043
01:08:14,950 --> 01:08:23,480
a wise man or a fool. Go put off holiness and put
1044
01:08:23,480 --> 01:08:28,100
on intellect. Don't disguise under an attire or a
1045
01:08:28,100 --> 01:08:33,680
mask of religion or goodness or whatever. All I
1046
01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:37,400
care about is whether you are a good man, a wise
1047
01:08:37,400 --> 01:08:41,680
man or a fool. If you are a wise man, like if you
1048
01:08:41,680 --> 01:08:42,300
are a fool,
1049
01:08:45,010 --> 01:08:48,390
I'm stopping here. Okay I want you to think of
1050
01:08:48,390 --> 01:08:53,600
possible features for William Blake. and his
1051
01:08:53,600 --> 01:08:57,180
poetry. Read more poetry by William Blake. Many
1052
01:08:57,180 --> 01:09:00,080
students usually approach me and ask me, I want to
1053
01:09:00,080 --> 01:09:01,940
write poetry. I want to like English poetry. Where
1054
01:09:01,940 --> 01:09:04,200
should I start? I usually point to William Blake.
1055
01:09:04,520 --> 01:09:07,420
If you want to write poetry, read his many, many,
1056
01:09:07,420 --> 01:09:09,220
many poems. You're lucky if you're doing also the
1057
01:09:09,220 --> 01:09:12,800
romantic literature course because you will be
1058
01:09:12,800 --> 01:09:15,180
exposed to more poems by William Blake. Thank you
1059
01:09:15,180 --> 01:09:17,420
very much, ladies. If you have a question, you can
1060
01:09:17,420 --> 01:09:18,040
stay behind.