1. T.S. Eliot is a great modern poet and critic. His early poetry highlights the moral degeneration, spiritual sterility and the feelings of alienation and boredom of modern man. However, the present poem is humorous and the poet has described the mischiefs of a cat named Macavity in a mock-heroic manner. Macavity is a cat, tall and thin, with sunken eyes. It has a rough whisker and a broad head. The colour of its skin is dusty. It commits a number of mischiefs with dexterity and promptness, but it is never caught red-handed by any police or investigating agency.
It cheats people at cards, takes meat away from the meat-safe, drinks milk, steals jewels and fills of important treaties. Really no place is safe from it. This master criminal defies both human and natural laws. The poet, therefore, calls it “The Hidden Paw’. The flying squad of Scotlandyard is helpless before it. It is never caught in the act. The poet is bewildered at its skill in crime and rightly calls it ‘The Mystery Cat.’
2. Fire Hymn’ is a heart touching poem, which has been composed by Keki-N-Daruwala. In this poem, the poet has presented a very realistic scene of funeral rites performed after death at the burning ghat where dead bodies of Hindus.
Keki-N-Daruwala says that when he was a child, he and his father used to visit the burning ghat. The poet says that the sight of the burning dead body becomes shocking and dreadful at night. It frightens passers by. There, he sees the unburnt dead body. The red hot embers still glowing many hours after the dead body has been cremated. The poet is a parsi, who worships fire as God. But he had to consign his newborn into the fire. Because there was no Tower of silence there.
The poet says that burning a dead body is an inhuman act. He feels guilty for violating the Parsi Code. He regrets that he could not save the fire from committing sin. So, he vows to free the fire from the sins of forgetting.
3. ‘My Grandmother’s House’ is an autobiographical poem,
which has been composed by Kamala Das. She was the poetess of a high order. She was short listed for the Nobel Prize for literature in 1984. In this poem, she describes the pitiable condition of her grandmother’s house and her own life.
Kamala Das has written the poem in the memory of her. grandmother with whom she had spent her childhood. She says that she lived with her grandmother in that house. In her childhood, that house was very beautiful. She got a lot of love in that house. But that house in now far away. Her grandmother also died. The poetess remembers that house a lot. She wants to go there. She wants to take the enjoyment of frozen air from the window of that house. The condition of that house is very pitiable. Snakes more among books. Bushes have grown up around the house. But the poetess is proud of that house because she had got a lot of love in that house from her grandmother.
The poetess wants to take from this place an armful of darkness at her house where she used to line. She wants to put his darkness
4. The poem ‘Snake’ has been composed by English poet D.H. Lawrence.
In this poem, the poet describes the activities of a Snake. The poet says that one night he felt thirsty and came out to drink water. It was a hot day of summer. As soon as he came out, he saw a black Snake which also came to drink water. The Snake was looking good, silent and peaceful. It came out from a carob tree to drink water. It was moving towards the tap to drink water. To see its politeness the poet did not fear at all and he began to watch its movement.
The poet’s worldly education told him that it was a poisonous The poet’s worldly education told him thatthe look and movement of the Snake. He did not want to kill it. After drinking water, it began to enter its hole.
After sometime he become afraid of the Snake and decided to hit it and hit the Snake. The poet threw a clumsy log over it. After hitting the Snake the poet starts repenting that he has committed a sin and will be punished by God.
Thus, D.H. Lawrence has commented on modern men and their ideologies. He asserts us to love all the creatures of the world made by God.
6. The Soldier’ is a Patriotic sonnet. It has been composed
by Rupert Brooke. It is a deeply patriotic and idealistic poem that expresses a soldier’s love for his motherland.
The poet is himself a soldier and he has gone to Fight in another country for his country. According to him, a soldier lives and dies for his country. The poet wants to die in battle for his country. He says that if he dies in a foreign land that land would be forever England. He remembers his country with fondness because he was born and brought up there. He loves the nature of his country from the bottom of his heart.
He loves the lights and sounds of his country and remembers his friends. He says that his country has given him flowers to love and air to breathe. All these things show the poet’s deep love for his motherland.
Thus, the poem gives us a strong sense of patriotism. This poem is a patriotic poem that is full of love for England.
