William Wordsworth
I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.
The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.
If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?
The source of Wordsworth’s happiness is the harmony that he observes in Nature. He sees, hears, and smells the flowers, the birds, and the trees, and he is delighted because each part of the scene he observes is doing what it is designed to do, and finds satisfaction. Unfortunately, Wordsworth’s happiness is marred by other thoughts.
‘And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.’
The stark contrast between Nature’s harmony and man’s unhappiness is depressing to Wordsworth. He recognizes that people are unhappy because they do not act in the ways they were meant to act. He believes that society has corrupted individuals and caused them to forget the importance of Nature. In his mind, people have deviated from ‘Nature’s holy plan’ and have renounced a life of simplicity, spontaneity, and beauty for grief and strife. Because of these feelings Wordsworth ends his poem by proclaiming. ‘Have I not reason to lament/What man has made of man?’
It expounds that the reason for man's unhappiness amidst the delicate chain of being in nature, is his pride to think to be greater than what he is, and complain of God's sovereignty.
I still remember reading and later deciphering and answering questions about this famous William Wordsworth poem.
After remembering 26/11 on my last post and going through the news on Tv and web, it's been like an emotional upheaval of sorts for me. The heart feels heavy but one needs to move on like every other emotional and strong person.
Because life is about dealing with human nature…
And the best way to do it is looking at history…
And History repeats itself over and over and over again. Period.
It just that sometimes we don't have the knowledge to realize the same.
Now that I’m older and wiser and not a young teenager as I was when I made my notes at home( without any help from any college or university) to write the eight papers of my History major exams. So though I enjoyed reading the same, I never delved too deep. Or maybe I was just too immature for the same…
I scored good marks but that’s about it…
I coax myself for the same everyday. People like us who grow up on their own but have a humane side need to know all these things, have the knowledge to handle things better in life.
I’m speaking of it after pretty long. Working the frivolous word of Bollywood( even the name is a shameful copy), made my life quite unsubstantial as well.
Not that I wanted to be so. But there was no choice. That’s where my bread and butter was for a couple of years. So interviewing, editing stories of cheap star squabbles, what they do, speak, where they sleep, shop.
As if there was nothing better to do than following the lives of a few people with very little intellectualism.
Watching movies every day first for Sony TV shows and then for reviews every Friday at the theatre . Some of them were unbearable to sit through but I suffered them just because it was my work. Not out of love, mind u.
I’m not saying every movie was bad and there were substantial stuff said and done by the likes of Aamir Khan, and his movies were quite good. But other than that, it was total stagnation. Also the dumb outweigh the bright there.
But quitting that environment has come as a blessing.
I love film history too and like to keep in touch with world cinema. Never had a chance to do that a lot. But now it's nice to blog about it and yes, write a bit of all that in the book I write.
So talking of something substantial as History, one can see a lot and learn a lot…
tudors and human behavior, Russian Rev, French rev, american war of inde,wife of mR.
Or in Cambodia…
While watching the special features on the Judgment at Nuremberg DVD, I viewed the director Stanley Kramer wife’s interview. And she had something on the lines of how one needs to know one's past so that you can handle your present and future better…
This February I had the opportunity to visit the Tower of London. Well it's historical and looks quite nice, and we happily clicked away pics and showed them off later.
Quite later the reality hit me hard. Gosh, this tower had such a bloody history with blood bath being the favorite pass time inside there.
While visiting the London Dungeon, we got a glimpse of what was actually going on there. Delving into the history of London one gets a first hand experience of the gore, the inhuman tortures that were going on just 500- 600 years ago. Hanging people upside them, boiling them, butchering them alive and the perpetrators seem to enjoy it all…
Gosh, it’s pathetic. The cold behavior could beat the o degree Celsius hands down…
Dark history filled with horror stories of poverty, dirt, squalor, plague, fire and murder
I've been a fan of Tudor history. Well, in history everyone would enjoy reading about the Tudors as that’s the most colorful era. So much so that it gets depicted on screen over and over again.
The reigns of Henry V111, Bloody Mary Tudor and the golden age of Elizabeth.
The history books wouldn't delve on the gore as much as the TV shows or the stuff on the net do.
And though I never saw the Tudors on TV, the followed up much of it online and on you tube. It was nicely made but glamorized things quite a bit( that’s understandable) and yes, stayed true to the gore of executions and torture..
On another note, I like Natalie Portman's work but her Anne Boleyn act'The Other Boleyn Girl' has been blasted by most people who know the real history. It was full of made up things and accusations against Anne and George Boleyn which never happened.
Wonder why she decided to be a part of such a faulty film which makes a joke out of history.
People like me already know that you are a good actress Natalie...Leon, the bald act in V for Vendetta, and now Black Swan. Girl you needn't need to do more. Nats I imagine u as Mother Mary, not as a half baked character like that.
In history Queen Anne Boleyn who is the mother of one of the most successful and loved English queens Elizabeth is seen as a victim more than a schemer( though the argument is always on) and so are Mary, Queen of Scots, Marie Antoinette( during the French revolution) Queen Alexandra of Russia( in whose reign the Russian Revolution) happened. Queen Alexandra's daughters and sons for sure became victims of the communist regime.
Guess they were gray characters with their shares of issues, but not compeletely black.
Catherine Howard, another Tudor Queen was the guilty and considered the stupidest girl for playing with fire and having an extra martial affair and premarital fun,even while knowing how vicious the court politics was and how cruel her husband could be. One best example was the fall of her cousin Anne Boleyn. Queen Catherine Howard is portrayed as a complete moron with no self restraint in showtime's 'The Tudors'.
Jane Boleyn made it all possible. This despite both of them knowing that their relative( cousin of Howard and sister- in-law of Lady Rochford) had been falsely implicated and executed only six years before.
Their head rolled soon and guess there are many lessons to be learned from an event like that.
Lady Jane Grey from the Tudor period again was an innocent victim who became a pawn in her families' power games.
By the way,Anne Frank one of the young victims of the Nazi massacre by Hitler had said,
“ I still believe in spite of everything that people are really good at heart.”
But is it actually true. If you look at the majority population of the world, that’s not it… surely not.
Looking at the Killing fields in Cambodia, The Nazi massacre, China, Atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Looks like it's going on for long- the domination of the weak by the strong. No wonder people have always run after power and riches.
But if you go to look at it, you see so much of it in real life, all around us. It;s just that it takes a while to fathom things and for some, they don't understand it at all.
When I was the gawky little girl and even as late as last year I wondered why people are needlessly mean to each other! Why do they like to pass comments knowingly to make the other person feel small, even when the person concerned is not doing/ saying anything offensive? Worse still, why do things to harm the harmless, who's doing things in his/her space
Then the great realization( it was always there, I just didn't get it) hit me one fine day. Well, it all stems out of envy, resentment, arrogance and the various other vices some people like to cultivate. And once they are nurtured well also thanks to an easy environment for them to grow, company of that sort, it takes over …
The person who attacks usually doesn't have something which the target has. So this mean words and deeds provide some kind of sadistic pleasure to him/ her.
And yes, domination of the weak is another natural human tendency. One someone is at a weak spot, just jump in to make the person even more miserable. It's only a few who sympathise with people who are down and out.
But all this has been going on for ages. If u look at .......u will know. Human behavior, that is is.
Some religious sects say 2012 or at least 2036/37 will change it all. And the new world order of peace and love and goodness will be established. There’ll be heavan on earth as the evil wanes away…
As of now, all that seems like a distant dream. We can only wait and watch.
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