WHO PRAYETH BEST ?

 

          WHO PRAYETH BEST ?

          Prayer is defined as the act of  communicating  with a deity or higher power to express thanks, offer praise, or make requests.     

            This word also means ---appeal, entreaty, petition, solicitation, supplication, invocation, etcetera.

            The English divine Thomas Hooker (1586-1647) said: Every good and holy desire, though it lack the form, hath in itself the substance and force of a prayer with God, who regardeth the very moanings, groans, and sighings of the heart.  

            The American clergy Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) said: Prayer covers the whole of a man’s life. There is no thought, feeling, yearning, or desire, however low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it, which, if it affects our real interest or happiness, we may not lay before God and be sure of His sympathy. His nature is such that our often coming does not tire him. The whole burden of the whole life of every man may be rolled on to God and not weary him, though it has wearied the man.     

            The English poet laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) believed : More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of. What are men better than sheep or goats, that nourish a blind life within the brain, if, knowing God, they lift no hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friends.

            Prayers are both limited and unlimited. You may pray for yourself, a friend, a relative, the whole mankind, some animal who is your pet, a city, a state, the whole world, even for your rival or enemy.

            However, to pray for the largest number of all kinds of  inhabitants of the world is most praiseworthy.        

            To conclude, one of the most famous quotes on prayer which  came from the English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) said in the concluding stanzas of his long poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

 

            “He prayeth well , who loveth well

            Both man and bird and beast,

            He prayeth best, who loveth best

            All things both great and small;

            For the dear God who loveth us,

            He made and loveth all.

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

28 April 2026

 

                       

THE PRINCE BY NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

 

          THE PRINCE BY NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI             

            “The Prince” is a 16^th-century political treatise. It is one of the most famous books on political science which enabled its author Niccolo Machiavelli  to be known as the “father of modern political science.”

            Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, philosopher, and political theorist . He was born on 3 May 1469 at Florence in Italy and died there on 21 June 1527.

            According to some critical comments The Prince advises leaders that is better to be feared than loved if they cannot be both. It also tells them to abandon medieval idealism and act in a new way which is currently known as the Machaiavellian way comprising deceptive, pragmatic, or cynical politics. In this modern way,  the end justifies the means. It is a pragmatic way preferring  ruthless decisions to moral ones.

            Given below are some short extracts from the book mentioned above.    

·        A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from private station to that rank.

·        A wise prince should never in peaceful times stand idle, but increase his resources with industry in such a way that they may be available to him in adversity, so that if fortune changes, it may find him prepared to resist the bows.

·        It is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about.

·        He wo seeks to deceive will always find some one who will allow himself to be deceived.

·        And you have to understand this, that a prince, especially a new one, cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed, being often forced, in order to maintain the state, to act contrary to fidelity, friendship, humanity  and religion.

·        For this reason a prince ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the above-named five qualities, that he may appear to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright and religious.

·        Finally, everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many; who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result.

                                                            ******

G. R. Kanwal

27 April 2026           

                                                           

              

UNHAPPINESS

 

          UNHAPPINESS     

            For most of the people the world is a place of suffering. It is not one for happiness. The English novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) said in his novel The Mayor of  Casterbridge “Happiness is but an occasional episode in the general drama of pain.“

            Happiness means: joy, bliss, gaiety, gladness, delight, ecstasy, euphoria, cheerfulness, high spirits, etc.

            To be happy is to be contented with your fate, present  physical and mental health, material possessions, all-round, achievements, etc.    

            The Roman statesman, scholar, philosopher, orator, and writer  Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) believed : A perverse temper, and a discontented , fretful disposition, wherever they prevail , render any state of life unhappy.    

            According to the Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) man’s unhappiness comes of his greatness; it is because there is an infinite in him, which, with all his cunning, he cannot quite bury under the finite.

            The main cause of people’s unhappiness is the continuous multiplication of  their desires. It is unfortunate that they lack contentment, and go on asking for more.  They also do not forget  their  past aberrations,  vices,  immoral deeds,  and sins for long times to come.

            The American poet and essayist Walt Whitman (1819-1892) said:

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things.

Not one kneels to another, nor  his kind that lived thousands of years ago,

Not one is responsible or unhappy over the whole earth.   

 

Finally, the following quote by the French tragedian Pierre Corneille (1606-1684):

We never enjoy perfect happiness; our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness; some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.

                                                            ****

G. R. Kanwal

26^th April 2026

           

BEAUTIFUL THINGS

 

 

                                                BEAUTIFUL THINGS

            “Beautiful Things” is the title of the poem written by Elllen P. Allerton. She was born Ellen Palmer on October 17, 1835 at Centerville, New York, United States; and died 0n August 31, 1893 at Padonia, Brown County, Kansas, United States.

            By occupation, she was not only a poet but also a teacher and a farmer.

            She was married to Alpheus Burton Allerton who was also a  farmer.

            Ellen is  remembered  for two more poems : The Trail of Fortynine and Walls of Corn.

            In the poem Beautiful Things Ellen shifts her focus from physical appearance to the phrase  Summum Bonum which means “the highest good” or “supreme good”. The three words which define this Latin phrase are goodness, beauty and truth.

            For Ellen not physical charm and attraction, but the virtues of persons are the basis of  theirbeauty.

She believes in the English proverb which says: Handsome is that handsome does.

            The ethical qualities  which make people  beautiful are : honesty,  goodness, hard work , kindness, selflessness, and  pure soul, etc.

            The English poet John Keats (1595-1621) said: A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, and in one of the examples of beautiful things, he mentions:

                        All lovely tales that we have heard or read:

                        An endless fountain of immortal drink,

                        Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.     

 

            Ellen’s poem begins with the lines:

 

                        Beautiful faces are those that wear ---

                        I matters little if dark or fair ---

            Whole-souled honesty printed there.

           

            The complete text of the poem follows:

 

Beautiful faces are those that wear__

It matters little if dark or fair__

Whole-souled honesty printed there.

 

Beautiful eyes are those that show,

Like crystal panes where hearth-fires glow,

Beautiful thoughts that burn below,

 

Beautiful lips are those whose words

Leap from the heart, like songs of birds,

Yet whose utterance prudence girds.

 

Beautiful hands ate those that do

Work that is earnest and brave and truer

Moment by moment, the long day through.

 

Beautiful feet are those that go

On kindly ministries, to and fro__

Down lowliest ways, if God wills it so.

 

Beautiful shoulders are those that, bear

Ceaseless burdens of homely care

With patient grace, and with daily prayer.

 

Beautiful lives are those that bless__

Silent rivers of happiness,

Whose hidden fountain but few may guess.

 

Beautiful twilight, at set of sun;

Beautiful goal, with race well won;

Beautiful rest, with work well done.

 

Beautiful graves, where grasses creep,

Where brown leaves fall, where drifts lie deep;

Over worn-out hands__oh, beautiful sleep !

 

                        **********

G.R.Kanwal

25 April 2026                     

LOYALTY

 

                LOYALTY     

            Loyalty is the quality of being faithful in one’s support of something or somebody. Its synonyms  are :  Sincerity, faithfulness, fidelity, allegiance, true-heartedness, steadfastness, trustworthiness, reliability, constancy, stability, and dependability.

            A loyal person does not change at any stage.  He is firm, devoted, stable, dutiful, constant, unchanging, unwavering , unswerving, and non-treacherous.

             In Shakespeare’s plays, there are a few quotations on this subject.  They are:

(1). The loyalty well held to fools does make

Our faith mere folly; yet he that can endure

To follow with allegiance to a fall’n lord,

Does conquer him that did his master conquer,

And earns a place i’ the story. ----Antony and Cleopatra, Act 3.

 

Mark in this quotation line 3 which says: To follow with allegiance to a fallen lord.

Allegiance is another word for: loyalty, fidelity, and faithfulness.

Also recall the proverb: Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

 

(2). Master, go on, and I will  follow thee

To the last gasp with truth and loyalty. ----As You Like It, Act 2.

 

(3) Longer than I prove loyal to your grace

Let me not live.----Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 3.

 

            Endless loyalty demands  constant faithfulness to one’s friend, family, boss, political party, country, religion, all kinds of societies, associations, institutions, and organizations, he is concerned with.  

 

            Loyalists do not fall a prey to all sorts of  temptations, offers of material gains, promotions, gifts, personal  advantages, etc.  

  

            In the end, here are some famous quotations:

 

*It is better to be faithful than famous. ---Theodore Roosevelt.

*True Loyalty is proven, not proclaimed---Craig Groeschel.

*Where there is loyalty, weapons are of no use. ---Paulo Coelho.

* Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much. -----Helen Keller.

*To thine own self be true.---William Shakespeare

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

24 April 2026

 

 

WILLIAM SAKESPEARE

 

                WILLIAM SAKESPEARE

            William Shakespeare was a great British poet and dramatist, not for his own country and times but for the whole mankind and for all the times to come.   He was born at Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1564 and died there on the same date in 1616.

            His surviving works consist of 38/39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other poems.

            His most famous plays are: Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Tempest, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Troilus and Cressida, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Henry IV, V, VI,  VIII , The Winter’s Tale, Comedy of Errors,  A Midsummer Night’s Dream,  King John, Measure for Measure, and All’s Well That Ends Well

               The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) said: “Shakeapeare is a great psychologist and whatever can be known of the heart of man may be found in his plays.“

            In his famous sonnet “Shakespeare,” the English poet and critic  Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)  portrays him as an unapproachable, self-secure genius who stands “out-topping knowledge”. He considers him as a “self-school’d, self-scanned, and self-honoured” figure whose work is divine, independent, and ultimately beyond comprehension.

            What follows are a few quotations from Shakespeare’s works:

*Lovers are given to poetry, and what they swear in poetry may be said as lovers they do feign.----From As You Like It.

**Lovers and madmen have such seething brains

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.---From Midsummer Night’s Dream.

 

 

***The quality of mercy is not strain’s,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,

Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

‘T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown.---From Merchant of Venice.

 

 

****What is a man,

In his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.

Sure he hath made us with such large discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and god-like reason

To fust in un us unus’d.-----From Hamlet.

 

 

*****What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable!  in action how like an angel ! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! ------From Hamlet.

     

 

******The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,

Are of imagination all compact:

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,

That is the madman; the lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet’s eye in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name,-------From Midsummer Night’s Dream.

 

 

                                                            *****

G.R.Kanwal

23 April 2026

GOD IS GREAT, BUT NOT MAN

 

GOD IS GREAT, BUT NOT MAN

            One of the best loved poems which will be quoted below is titled: All Things Bright And Beautiful. It is written by the Irish poet Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895). The very first quatrain of the poem says:

            All things bright and beautiful,

            All creatures great and small,

            All things wise and wonderful,

            The Lord God made them all.

But when we  look at the world with eyes of the modern man, we feel extremely depressed. A war is going on; thousands of people have already died; infrastructure worth billions of rupees has been destroyed; hatred, not love is the main basis of relationships. James Kirkup’s poem “No Men are Foreign” is completely forgotten. He had said:

            Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign,

            Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes

            Like ours; the land our brothers walk upon

            Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.  

There are thousands of religious places preaching peace and love but to no universal effect. Most of the countries believe that their survival depends on deadliest weapons, not on good neighbourly relationship.

 

Consequently, man’s productions cannot be titled : All Things Bright And Beautiful.

 

            Here are the remaining quatrains of the above-mentioned poem.

Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colours

He made their tiny wings.

 

The purple-headed mountain,

The river running by,

The sunset, and the morning

That brightens up the sky,

 

The cold wind in the winter,

The pleasant summer sun,

The ripe fruits in the garden,

He made them every one.

 

The tall trees in the greenwood,

The meadows where we play,

The rushes by the water,

We gather every day.

 

He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell

 How great is God Almighty

Who has made all things well.

                                                            ********

G.R.Kanwal

22 April 2026

 

                                               

 

NEW FRIENDS AND OLD FRIENDS

 

         

                   NEW FRIENDS AND OLD FRIENDS

            ”New Friends And Old Friends” is a poem written by a Welsh composer and musician Joseph Parry. He was born on 21^st May 1841 in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, United Kingdom, and died in Penarth, Wales, United Kingdom,  on 17^th  February 1903.  

            Before I quote the text of the aforesaid poem, let us have a look at the meaning of the word “Friend”.

            According to some  dictionaries a friend is a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, trust, and support.

            Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defines the word friend as a person you know well and like, and who is not usually a member of your family.

            Some synonyms of the word “Friend” are: companion, mate, crony, comrade, playmate, soul mate, confidante, ally, associate, chum, buddy, and alter ego.

            The noun friendship means ---- intimacy, close relationship, affinity, comradeship, fellowship, alliance, and close relationship.

            Psychologically, a friend is more than a physician during one’s sickness or any other adversity upsetting one’s  peace of mind.

            The English clergy Robert Hall (1764-1831) said: A friend should be one in whose understanding and virtue we can equally confide, and whose opinion we can value at once for its justness and its sincerity.

            He further said: He who has made the acquisition of a judicious and sympathizing friend, may be said to have doubled his mental resources.

            According to the American neurologist and author Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) : He alone has lost the art to live who cannot win new friends.

            One of the lines in Joseph Parry’s poem New Friends And Old Friends says:

            Friendships that have stood the test ---

            Time and change ---are surely best.

 

Another line which compares well with William Shakespeare’s  following lines :

             “  Love is not Time’s  fool”, and “ “Love alters not when it alteration finds”.  is:

            “Friendship never knows decay”.

Finally, what follows is the full text of Joseph Parry’s poem :NEW FRIENDS AND OLD FRIENDS.

  “Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

New-made friendships, like new wine,

Age will mellow and refine.

Friendships that have stood the test—

Time and change—are surely best;

Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray,

Friendship never knows decay.

For 'mid old friends, tried and true,

Once more we our youth renew.

But old friends, alas! may die,

New friends must their place supply.

Cherish friendship in your breast—

New is good, but old is best;

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.”

                                                                        ************

G.R.Kanwal

21^st April 2026

 

 

OMAR KHAYYAM

 

                                OMAR  KHAYYAM

            “Omar Khayyam” was a poet who had masterly knowledge about many subjects like mathematics, astronomy, Islam, and Persian literature. He was born in Neyshapur, Iran, on 18 May 1048 and died there on 4 December 1131 at the age of 83 years.

            He was influenced by great scholars including  Ibn Sina, Al-Khwarizmi, Albiruni, Euclid, and Apollonius of Perga.

            In Persian literature he is famous for his anthology of about 600 Persian quatrains known as Rubaiyat of Omar  Khayyam. 

            Currently Khayyam is known as a world poet due to the translation of  his quatrains by the English poet and writer Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883). In fact, Fitzgerald himself became famous all over the world due to translating  Khayyam’s  quatrains, which are even now considered the first and the best free adaptation which  touches the hearts of  both the romantic and philosophically minded readers.

            According to a literary opinion about  Khayyam’s philosophy expressed through his quatrains, there is a great emphasis on existentialism , skepticism, and hedonism. He admits that life is short, death is absolute and the future is uncertain; yet he advises his readers to find joy in fleeting moments, wine, books, and companionship.

            Some quatrains translated into English follow:

*Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough,

A flask of wine, a book of verse ---and thou

Beside me singing in the wilderness –

And wilderness is paradise now.

                        --

**Think, in this batter’d caravanserai

Whose doorways are alternate night and  day,

How Sultan after Sultan with his pomp

Abode his hour or two, and went his way.

                        -----

 ***Then to this earthen bowl did I adjourn

My lip the secret well of life to learn :

And lip to lip it murmur’d –“While you live

Drink ---for once dead you never shall return.”

                         ___

           

****Ah, fill the cup: what boots it to repeat

How Time is slipping underneath our feet:

Unborn To-Morrow and dead YESTERDAY

Why fret about them if To-DAY be sweet !

                                    _____

The moving finger writes: and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all your piety nor wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,

Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.

                                    *********

To conclude, the central theme of Khayyam’s quatrains is: The ephemeral   

nature of human life. And his advice to human beings is to  catch the present moment tightly and enjoy it whole-heartedly.  

 

G. R.  Kanwal

20 April 2026

BOOKWORMS

 

                BOOKWORMS

            Bookworms are persons who are extremely devoted to reading. They love  books , buy or borrow them , and spend almost every moment of their life among  old and new books.

            You can call them avid readers and collectors of books. Other names for them are book-lovers, bibliophiles, studious individuals, scholars, and bibliomaniacs.

            The term bookworm is used both in the negative and positive sense. A bookaholic is addicted to buying, collecting and reading books. He is a serious person, not a light-hearted one. His eyes are always focused on books even when he is travelling or having his meals.

            In the positive sense a bookworm is an enthusiastic consumer of books. You will find his room  loaded  with stocks of old and new books on a particular or variety of subjects.

            The most well-known 18^th-century poem titled “The Book-worm“  was written by Thomas Parnell (1679-1718). He was an Irish poet and scholar. According to a commentator his poem is a humorous take on a creature that eats books, arguing that it gains more knowledge than “hungry” scholars who only care about the books’ value.

            Another poem titled “The Bookworm” is by Robert Buchanan  (1841-1901) who lived a somewhat Bohemian life. If I am not wrong, he was a Scottish poet, novelist and dramatist. A few stanzas of his aforesaid poem follow.

            With spectacles upon his nose

            He shuffles up and down ;

            Of antique fashion are his clothes,

            His naples hat is brown,

            A mighty watch, of silver wrought,

            Keeps time in sun and rain

            To the dull ticking of the thought

            Within his dusty brain.

 

            To see him at the bookstall stand

            And bargain for the prize

            With the old sixpence in his hand

            And greed in his grey eyes !

            Then, conquering, grasp the book, half blind,

            And take the homeward track

            For fear the man should change his mind

            And want the bargain back.

 

            But think not as he walks along

            His brain is dead and cold;

            His soul is thinking in the tongue

            Which Plato spake of old ;

            And while some grinning cabman sees

            His quaint shape with a jeer

            He smiles ----for Aristophanes

            Is joking in his ear.

 

            Around him stretch Athenian walks

            And strange shapes under trees ;

            He pauses in a dream and talks

            Great speech with Socrates.

            Then as the fancy fails ---still meshed

            In thoughts that go and come,

            Feels in his pouch, and is refreshed

            At touch of some old tome.

 

After a few more stanzas, the poem concludes with the last one which consists of the following lines:

 

            A good old Ragpicker is he

            Who, following morn and eve

            The quick feet of humanity,

            Searches the dust they leave ;

            He pokes the dust, he sifts with care,

            He searches close and deep,

            Proud to discover here and there

            A treasure in the heap !

                                                *****

G.R.Kanwal

19 April 2026