FOCUS SLST ENGLISH

  WBSSC SLST ENGLISH (HONS-PG) LOVING IN TRUTH – PHILIP SIDNEY(POETRY)   1. What is a sonnet? Ans:   A sonnet is a succinct fourteen-line poem, divided in two unequal parts; the first eight lines form the ‘octave’, and the last six lines ‘sestet’. Invented about the year 1230 in southern Italy, the form was popularized by Petrarch in his Canzoniere, and during the Renaissance it spread to different parts of Europe.   2. Who introduced sonnet in England? Why did the form appeal to the Elizabethan poets? Ans:   In the early 16th century Sir Thomas Wyatt imitated Petrarch and introduced sonnet in England. The sonnet amply supplied the Elizabethan poets with a form through which they could experiment with their language, English in an effort to bring in refinement, and also with a form which became a suitable medium to express the new kind of emotions, thoughts, feelings and sentiment that came to dominate the mind of a Renaissance European.  ...

THE FLY – KATHEREINE MANSFIELD(SHORT STORY)   1. Explain the title of the short story The Fly. Ans:   The title of the story The Fly is given symbolically. Mansfield wants to show the helplessness and wretchedness of the Boss through the helplessness of the fly in the cruel hand of superpowers. The Boss plays the role of the Fate or Destiny of the fly. He inflicts pain to the fly to enjoy pleasure. We, human beings, are also the playthings to the hand of Fate. God kills us when he wishes to do so as the Boss’s son died in a very premature age. Thus the symbolic title is just and appropriate.   2. Who is Mr Woodifield? What is the physical condition of Mr Woodifield at the time when the story The Fly opens? Ans:   Mr Woodifield is one of the characters of Katherine Mansfield’s story The Fly. He was one of the friends of the Boss. At the beginning of the story, we see him an old man, weak and feeble because of his age and also for he had suffered from a...