hello

[hera-on-earth]

hi all of u at the forum. im from india. studying in jadavpur university in the faculty of arts, department of english. looking forward to continual interaction and help. take care.

[Virgil]

Hi Hera. Welcome to lit net. I hope you like lit net. We can always use another english major in our discussions. You've picked an interesting name. Wasn't Hera the shrewish wife of Zeus who spoiled all his fun? :D Well then, keep a close eye on your husband. Lord knows what nymph he's after. :lol:

[Pensive]

Hi hera, Welcome to the forum!

Virgil, have you read Greek mythology?

[Virgil]

Hi hera, Welcome to the forum!

Virgil, have you read Greek mythology?
Yes. Most of it. Mostly when I was your age. Why? Did you want to know anything about it?

[Pensive]

Yes. Most of it. Mostly when I was your age. Why? Did you want to know anything about it?

Nope, I was just wondering... :D

[Virgil]

Out of curiosity, Pensy, how prevalent is english in Pakistan? Are there book stores that sell books in english?

[Pensive]

Out of curiosity, Pensy, how prevalent is english in Pakistan? Are there book stores that sell books in english?

I think that in upcoming future, it might become our first language. There are many book stores where English books are available but ofcourse the number of English books compared to the number of books in USA or Eurpion countries is small. Sometimes I have to read books online.

Students find it hard to learn English. Usually students are not able to speak/write good English. Actually, we don't use it in our daily basis. We speak Urdu so it is hard for us to adapt English.

[hera-on-earth]

hey, did not really know that it could be tht difficult to get hold of books in Pakistan. being Indian....have always wondered a lot about Pakistan. well, will really appreciate it if anyone is able to help me with "Lycidas" written by milton. i hav a tutorial on it tomorrow. thx.

[Virgil]

Hera - The poem of the week thread starts a new poem for discussion on Mondays. You might want to post Lycidas there and we could discuss it all week long. Unfortunately you need answers by tomorrow. Probably too short a notice. I do enjoy that poem though, and would love to re-read it.

[Petrarch's Love]

Welcome Hera. Hope you'll enjoy your time here at Lit. Net.

Ooo! Lycidas for poem of the week. What an inspired idea. You should consider posting it Hera, and note anything that puzzled you in your reading of the poem so you might get some answers before tomorrow. ;)

[hera-on-earth]

Hera - The poem of the week thread starts a new poem for discussion on Mondays. You might want to post Lycidas there and we could discuss it all week long. Unfortunately you need answers by tomorrow. Probably too short a notice. I do enjoy that poem though, and would love to re-read it.
thx fren....u see just joined in new! came across this forum while searching for something...found it cool....so joined it. will try posting things earlier from now on.

[hera-on-earth]

Welcome Hera. Hope you'll enjoy your time here at Lit. Net.

Ooo! Lycidas for poem of the week. What an inspired idea. You should consider posting it Hera, and note anything that puzzled you in your reading of the poem so you might get some answers before tomorrow. ;)
thx Petrarch's Love. i guess i dont have much time. barely have a few more hours (because i've got to include my sleep hours too) to prepare for quite a lot of stuff.

[Petrarch's Love]

Well, if you have any specific Lycidas questions in the next half hour or so I might be able to help. I know the poem pretty well.

[hera-on-earth]

Well, if you have any specific Lycidas questions in the next half hour or so I might be able to help. I know the poem pretty well.
ok. for starters...what do u think is exactly being stated in the poem? it seems to be keeping me confused..and i personally do not believe that poems which confuse u the most are the best! :D ok...bad jokes kept aside...plz help.

[Petrarch's Love]

Ah! A question that might well fill a week's discussion ;). You don't tell me how much you do know about the poem, so I'll give you the most basic meaning. Milton wrote the poem to mourn the loss of a fellow student of his, a young man about his age who was also a poet, and was drowned at sea. The poem opens mourning for the loss of this young man, and finds comfort in a Christian notion of resurrection and rebirth at the end. It is indeed a complex poem. One thing that might be important for a basic understanding is the significance of the shepheard figure in the poem. Milton refers to the shepheard in two ways. 1) Shepheards often symbolized poets in this period. Through much of the poem when Milton refers to pastoral scenes and the shepheards within them, this is a metaphor for poets and their work. This conceit originates with Virgil's ecologues, and was much imitated in the Renaissance. 2) Milton also plays with the Christian metaphor of God as shepheard (this crops up, especially toward the end), and also inserts a commentary on clergy of his day, who might also be referred to as shepheards (starting roughly around line 109 I think). If your edition of the poem has annotations you should probably read them carefully since there are a lot of allusions in the poem that are probably contributing to your confusion. Any specific lines bothering you?

[hera-on-earth]

to tell u the truth i know all that! but u've put it together very beautifully! it will surely make my work easier. actually, ive got an internal tomorrow on metaphysical poets(namely, marvell and vaughan) alongwith lycidas. so im quite confused what exactly to concentrate on. im finding the metaphysical poets far more attractive though milton is also interesting. guess will have to decide pretty soon.

[Petrarch's Love]

Oh good. Glad you've got that much (I couldn't tell of course, so I thought I'd start with the basics). Of course much of Lycidas is about Milton's ruminations on his own writing and the craft of writing generally. He wasn't really all that close to Edward King (i.e. "Lycidas" the young man who drowned) so the poem isn't about a personal loss as much as a platform to explore the place of the poet and throw in some ecclesiastical satire for good measure.

So the metaphysicals or Milton eh? What an interesting choice to have. I'm in grad school training to teach in the Renaissance period, so I'm pretty familiar with all of them. By the way, what exactly is an "internal?" I haven't heard this type of exam mentioned before. Best of luck with your studies.

[hera-on-earth]

well, 'internals' are assessments done by the dept itself and the univ does not look into it...it is just bothered with the grade!

thx a tonne for ur help!!! atlast i ended up studying the metaphysical poets! i also attempted studyind Lycidas again but i feel i have a block against it. i will try overcoming it! thx anyway.