Birth: 1552/1553 - London, England (there is still some ambiguity) Parents: His parenthood is obscure, but he was probably the son of John Spenser, a journeyman clothmaker. Spouse: Married his first wife, Machabyas Childe. They had two children, Sylvanus and Katherine. By 1594, Spenser's first wife had died, and in that year, he married a…

Paradise Lost: Book 1 (798 lines) By John Milton The first section (1-26) contains the invocation and the purpose of writing.The second section (27-83) gives a birds-eye view of the consequences of the disobedience and the revolt and the expulsion of Satan from paradise.The third section (84-282) contains the speeches between Satan and Beelzebub (Satan’s…

The Wanderer The Wanderer is an Old English poem preserved only in an anthology known as the Exeter Book, a manuscript dating from the late 10th century. It comprises 115 lines of alliterative verse. As is often the case with Anglo-Saxon verse, the composer and compiler are anonymous, and within the manuscript the poem is untitled. The Wanderer conveys the meditations…

I Have a Dream I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon…

Shooting an Elephant In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very…

Rejecting Knighthood by Rabindranath Tagore Your Excellency, The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India. The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and…

The Merchant of Venice: Summary The Merchant of Venice is a 16th-century play written by William Shakespeare in which a merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. It is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1599. Characters Antonio – a prominent merchant of Venice in a melancholic mood.Bassanio – Antonio's…

Macbeth Summary Macbeth, the full title The Tragedy of Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. It was first published in the Folio of 1623 and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy. Characters Duncan – king…

Critical Appreciation of My Last Duchess by Robert Browing. “My Last Duchess” is the first poem of the volume Dramatic Lyrics that was published in 1842 by the title “Italy”. Seven years later, the title was changed to “My Last Duchess” in 1849. The poem is based on a historical Italian nobleman, Alfonso II who…

Do you want to read one of the finest works of Romantic poet Willam Wordsworth? Read the poem “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, a beautiful specimen of the romantic poetry. It is a record of the poet’s happy moments that happened in 1802 and the poem was written after two years, in 1804. It…