WRITER OF THE DAY

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Author, Poet & Philosopher

1803 - 1882

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.

—RW Emerson

Today's thought

A man's style is his mind's voice. Wooden minds, wooden voices.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A life spent making mistakes is not only more
honorable but more useful than a life
spent doing nothing.

-- George Bernard Shaw

A J CRONIN

Archibald Joseph Cronin, M.D. FRCP (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981) was a Scottish novelist and writer of non-fiction.^[1] His best-known works are Hatter's Castle, The Stars Look Down, The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years, all of which were adapted to film. He also created the Dr. Finlay character, the hero of a series of stories that served as the basis for the popular BBC television and radio series entitled Dr. Finlay's Casebook.

William Wordsworth: The great poet of nature

THE DAFFODILS; OR, I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

WANDERED lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of the bay:

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:




For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Solitary Reaper

Read this Wordsworth poem slowly and mindfully, singing a melancholy strain.
Listen for overflowing sounds that break the silence.

Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings?--
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?
Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;--
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

An eminent Indian writer in English

R. K. Narayan (October 10, 1906 – May 13, 2001), shortened from Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami was an Indian author whose works of fiction include a series of books about people and their interactions in an imagined town in India. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in English, along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. He is credited with bringing Indian literature in English to the rest of the world, and is regarded as one of India's greatest English language novelists.

His profile is shown below

R. K. Narayan
Born	October 10, 1906(1906-10-10) Madras, British India (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
Died	May 13, 2001 (aged 94) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	Indian
Genres	Fiction, Mythology, and Non-fiction
Notable award(s)	Padma Vibhushan, Sahitya Akademi Award, AC Benson Medal, Padma Bhushan

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is renowned as the English playwright and poet whose body of works is considered the greatest in history of English Literature.

Shakespeare's Life:

Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564 and it is assumed that he was born on April 23, 1564. We also know that in 1582 at age eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, an older women who was twenty six at the time. Shakespeare left Stratford for London to make his fortune roughly fours years later.

Shakespeare as a writer:

Shakespeare's works are often divided into four periods beginning with what is referred to as an experimental period starting around 1591 and ending around 1593 which includes Titus Andronicus, Love's Labour's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew.

The second period ending around 1601, marks the establishment of Shakespeare and includes the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the comedies, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor and the history plays, Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henry V, Richard II, King John and Julius Caesar.

The third period ending around 1610 marks perhaps the apex of Shakespeare's work with the tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear but also comedies such as Twelfth Night, All's Well that Ends Well and the epic history play, Antony and Cleopatra.

The final period ends around 1611 with the plays, Cymbeline, Henry VIII and romances such as The Tempest and The Winter's Tale.

The Shakespeare we read today comes from The First Folio of 1623 written by fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell to preserve Shakespeare's legacy. Amazingly, no original manuscripts survive reflecting the fact that many of these manuscripts were written purely for performance and were not regarded as pieces of literary work. There is also no general consensus on when all the plays were first performed. It might surprise readers to know that many of Shakespeare's plays, especially in the experimental period were hardly original, borrowing plot features from earlier plays. Likewise with his history plays, Shakespeare compresses events and does not follow history too closely to add to the drama. However borrowing plots and taking liberties with historical facts was not uncommon in Shakespeare's time and his skill for language, imagery, pun and his creative adaption of myth and history have set Shakespeare apart as arguably the greatest playwright of all time.

Click the following to watch some scenes

THE TEMPEST

KING LEAR

A famous life Quote

Our attitude towards life determines life's attitude towards us.


Earl Nightingale.

Quote of the day

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)