Task 1 : Criticism: IAR : Practical Criticism

This Blog-post is the response of the task,on Reading selective poem and analyze from the reference of I.A.Richards's 'Practical Criticism' given by Prof.Dr.Dilip Barad Sir.To know more about this task, CLICK HERE.    

• Introduction of this Task:

We studying about Ivor Armstrong Richards's  Essay, 'Practical Criticism' who is the pioneer of 'New Criticism'. The theory of 'Figurative Language' given by Richards. He also gave the misunderstandings of reading the poetry. Here is the poem which I selected as per my roll number. 

I ’M nobody! Who are you

I ’M nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell!

They ’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

In the particular essay, I.A.Richards described an experiment conducted by him at Cambridge and elsewhere. In the experiment, undergraduate students of English were given a number of unfamiliar poems, whose authorship was not revealed, and were asked to read and to submit written comments upon them.(Click here to read the summary of this article)

Here, Our professor also gave us same activity to enhance our analytic sense. In this poem, Without any references of particular work, we might be turned into misunderstanding of the meaning. Obviously I also misunderstood this poem! But Richards gave the very perfect analysis that how we find the solution with uses of two languages, Emotive and Scientific language. 

The speaker start with very first line that he or she is 'Nobody' with Exclamation mark which quite surprised me, and the psychologically, there were many thoughts sudden came on in my mind. Perhaps the speaker tries to tell the identity. Then also the speaker told to the other who supposed as 'nobody' like him/her that id he/she is then do not tell to 'They'--here they is who?Society? or the rubbish people? 

In the second stanza, might be the explanation of 'Nobody'. As Barad sir said in our previous session that how many word you will need to find in dictionary, it's also notable things. I needed dictionary, to find several words. To match the appropriate meaning of word regarding the poem is also necessary. Here is the list of the word and also I mentioned that through which dictionary I used to take and also I do Hyperlink:

• dreary: unattractive and having nothing of any interest, and therefore likely to make you sad: It was a gray, dreary day, with periods of rain.(Cambridge English Dictionary)
• Bog :The word bog is an Indo-Iranian word signifying riches, abundance, and good fortune. (Folk Conception of Slavic Religion) and another meaning is a poorly drained usually acid area rich in accumulated plant material, frequently surrounding a body of open water (Merriam Webster)

In the second stanza, perhaps speaker personified the people like frog. If we looks up the second line, and we try to connect both lines with each other, then we know that, 'To tell your name the livelong day' that means here poet mentions the biologically process of frog. If one frog croaking, then another will also croaking and this process going on. Perhaps the people might be ordering to another people to telling his/her name? It might be not possible also. I also mingled two rhymes, frog and bog and I found the image.

But it's wrong! The other word Bog is also related to 'Slavic Religion'. Bog is connected to Slavic Religion. It is one of the from of a series of Belorussian songs a divine figure enters the homes of the peasants in four forms in order to bring them abundance.Source from Britannica. After come to know this meaning which related with the peasants, sudden I connecting the words, dreary, frog and Bog these words come are relating the season of Monsoon. So, stuck on with this Bog word is sudden come to in light. 

• Conclusion:

Without any reference of the particular work, we don't find such a appropriate meaning or harsh meaning of the work. But Richards try to explain the misunderstandings of reading or self-study of the poem is also necessary to know the flow of understanding the work. The process of searching with technology is also very interesting and working speedily.