The Acolyte

"The starry heavens above and the moral laws within" - Kant 1. Kant was a "religious" empiricist, without theoretical reason. 2. He was a German philosopher who was born in Russia, but his parents were from Scotland. 3. His mother was a "methodist" (pietist), and this religious bringing up influenced him a lot. 4. He was a better teacher than a writer. He categorized students into three groups : geniuses, average, idiots - He believed that only the average students needed help. 5. His earlier books were on physics, heavenly bodies etc. He thought there was life on other planets as well. He believed that humans came from animals by evolution, even before the theory of Darwin came. 6. In order to fully understand his philosophy, a brief look at other philosophers around that time is necessary.   # VOLTAIRE : French philosopher who propagated the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity. In him we see theoretical reason without religion.  ...

1. The sonnets 71 & 73 are called "Mortality Sonnets". Here the poet celebrates the mortal nature of man. 2. Sonnet 73 is about how the patron should remember the ageing poet. ANALYSIS OF THE POEM " That time of year thou mayst in me behold   When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang   Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,   Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. " 3. The poet is under the cruel spell of autumn. The image of an autumn day and "yellow leaves" create an impression of nearing death as well as the falling creative abilities of the poet. 4. The line "...shake against the cold" shows the defiance of the poet at the face of death. He is ready to fight back and challenge death. But he realizes that there is no use in that. Once his songs were like those that the "sweet birds sang", but now it is like "bare ruin'd choirs", meaning that the harmony in h...

1. In Sonnets 33-35, the poet is deeply hurt by the patron. These sonnets are called as "Estrangement sonnet cycle" in which we see a "transgression-pardon" cycle. 2. The pain of the poet arises from the disloyalty of the patron. The poet is very jealous and possessive about his patron. ANALYSIS OF THE POEM " Full many a glorious morning have I seen   Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,   Kissing with golden face the meadows green,   Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy; " 3. Those mornings that the poet now recollects were glorious because he and his patron were united back then. The poet compares his patron to the radiant sun. Mountains and meadows are ordinary but they appear beautiful in the sunlight. Sun is performing this "heavenly alchemy" by transforming ordinary things.         " Anon permit the basest clouds to ride   With ugly rack on his celestial face,   And from the forl...