English Literature - Read Mode
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Explanation
‘The Tempest’ is generally considered to be the last play that William Shakespeare wrote alone (around 1610-1611). It acts as a farewell to the stage, with Prospero's renunciation of magic mirroring Shakespeare's retirement.
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‘Gerontion’ is a poem by T.S. Eliot, published in 1920. It is a dramatic monologue detailing the thoughts of an elderly man who describes his lack of passion and the decay of European civilization post-WWI.
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This famous elegy was written by Thomas Gray. It meditates on the death of common people buried in a churchyard, celebrating the unheralded lives of the poor and questioning the value of ambition and fame.
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‘Volpone’ is a comedy by Ben Jonson. It is a satire of greed and lust, centering on a wealthy Venetian nobleman who pretends to be dying to trick legacy hunters into giving him gifts.
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Shakespeare primarily used iambic pentameter for his plays. This meter consists of lines with ten syllables comprising five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, mimicking natural speech patterns.
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The Epic, The Comic, and The Tragic are recognized literary modes or traditions. ‘The Occult’ refers to supernatural or mystical beliefs and is a subject matter rather than a standard poetic tradition or genre.
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A limerick is a short, humorous, and often nonsensical poem consisting of five lines. It follows a strict AABBA rhyme scheme, where the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme, as do the third and fourth.
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‘Biographia Literaria’ is a critical autobiography written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817. It blends his life story with his philosophical and literary theories, particularly on the nature of imagination and fancy.
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Robert Browning was a major poet of the Victorian era. He is renowned for his mastery of the dramatic monologue and his psychological insight into characters, distinct from the Romantics who came before him.
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In Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello gives Desdemona a handkerchief embroidered with strawberries as a first gift. It becomes a crucial plot device when Iago uses it to manipulate Othello into believing she is unfaithful.