DON’T BE OVER-AMBITIOUS

 

          DON’T BE OVER-AMBITIOUS

Ambition is defined as desire, aspiration, drive, striving, force, enterprise, eagerness, zeal, longing, yearning, etc. It is a virtue, not a vice. It keeps a person active. No great task in the world can be accomplished without the adequate force of ambition.

To be ambitious is to be aspiring, assertive, enthusiastic, purposeful and dynamic.

Ambition cannot be dubbed as weakness unless it is disproportioned to the capacity  of the ambitious person. Italian author, philosopher and historian Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) said: “Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.”

The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) says in Henry VIII, Act 3, Sc.2: “Fling away ambition: By that sin fell the angels: how can man then,/The image of his Maker, hope to win by ‘t?”

Finally, the following viewpoint of the English novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton  (1803-73):

“Say what we will, we may be sure that ambition is an error,. Its wear and tear of heart are never recompensed; it steals away the freshness of life; it deadens our vivid and social enjoyments; it shuts our souls to our youth; and we are old ere we remember that we have made a fever and a labor of our raciest years.”

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

16 June 2024

 

 

The Character of a Happy Life

 

The Character of a Happy Life

‘The Character of a happy Life’ is the title of a poem written by Sir Henry Wotton . He was an English author, diplomat and politician. He was born on 30 May 1568 and died in December 1639. He was a member of the House of Commons in 1614 and 1625 .

The poem mentioned above is one of his best-known fifteen surviving verses. It is based on the principles of a good life which should never be abandoned. Its theme is the eternal sources of happiness.  

A happy man, according to the poet, is incorruptible. His strength is the un-declining love of God. Such a man is : “Lord of himself, though not of lands,/ And having nothing, yet hath all.”   

The full text of the poem reads as follows:

 

“How happy is he born and taught

That serveth not another’s will;

Whose armour is his honest thought,

And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his master’s are;

 

Whose soul is still prepared for death,

Untied  unto the world by care

Of public fame or private breath;

 

Who envies none that chance doth raise,

Nor vice; who never understood

How deepest wounds are given by praise;

Nor rules of state, but rules of good;

 

Who hath his life from rumours freed;

Whose conscience is his strong retreat;

Whose state can neither flatterers feed,

Nor ruin make oppressors great;

Who God doth late and early pray

More of His grace than gifts to lend;

And entertains the harmless day

With a religious book or friend;

 

---This man is freed from servile bands

Of hope to rise or fear to fall:

Lord of himself, though not of lands,

And having nothing, yet hath all.

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G.R.Kanwal

15 June 2024

                                               

 

A POEM ON WILLPOWER

 

          A POEM ON WILLPOWER

In the phrase ‘willpower’  the word ‘Will’ stands for determination, firmness of purpose, single-mindedness and commitment. It also stands for the strength to carry out one’s decisions, wishes, or plans. The proverb ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ carries all these connotations of the word.  

Willpower is said to be the key to success . Successful people are those who have the determination to overcome apathy, doubt or fear in their way. It has been rightly said that the saddest failures in life are those that come from not putting forth the power and will to succeed. Chinese philosopher Confucius (550-478 B.C.}  said ‘‘The general of a large enemy may be defeated, but you cannot defeat the determined mind of a peasant.’’

   What follows is a sonnet on ‘WILLPOWER’ by the American poetess Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919). The title of her sonnet is ‘WILL’.

“There is no chance, destiny, or fate,

Can circumvent or hinder or control

The firm resolve of a determined soul.

Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;

All things give way before it, soon or late.

What obstacle can stay the mighty force

Of the sea-seeking river in its course,

Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait.

 

Each wellborn soul must win what it deserves.

Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate

Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,

Whose slightest action or inaction serves

The one great aim. Why, even Death stands still,

And waits an hour sometimes for such a will. “

 

            Finally, remember that “where there is no struggle, there is no strength.”

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

14^th June 2024

 

 

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

 

                                                                                               

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

“The World Is Too Much With Us” is a sonnet written by William Wordsworth  the greatest romantic poet of England (1770-1850). The  poem which is quoted below expresses his revolt  against people’s excessive interest in materialism. His belief is that we should live in harmony with natural environment and not in  the environment of the city. In another poem Tintern Abbey, he says:

A presence that disturbs me with joy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.

 

The text of The World Is Too Much With Us reads as follows:

 

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

 

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours

And are up-gather’d now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;

 

It moves us not, -----Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,

So might I, standing in this pleasant lea,

 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

                        ---

Notes: 1. A pagan is a person who holds religious beliefs that are not part of any of the world’s main religions. 2. Proteus:  In Greek mythology ‘The old man of the sea’ who could assume any shape or form. 3. Triton: a Greek god of the sea who lived with his parents in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea.

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G.R.Kanwal

13 June 2024

               

BARTER : A POEM

 

                BARTER : A POEM

“Barter” is the title of a  famous poem written by the American poet Sara Teasdale. She was born on 8 August 1884 and died of pneumonia which ultimately  became the cause of suicide on 29 January 1933.

She authored several anthologies of poems in a very simple language.

            The word ‘‘Barter” literally means :” to exchange goods, property, services, etc. for other goods without using money. “

Sara’s poem is about buying loveliness of life by spending all we have.

             Most of the people sayl that life has no loveliness. The whole  world in which we spend our allotted time is a place of suffering and unattractiveness. Sara Teasdale’s view is different. She believes that : “Life has loveliness to sell,/All beautiful and splendid  things.“ The truth is that we do not use our eyes to see them.

Here is the full text of Sara’s poem:-

Life has loveliness to sell,

All beautiful and splendid things,

Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Soaring fire that sways and sings,

And children’s faces looking up

Holding wonder like a cup.     

 

Life has loveliness to sell,

Music like a curve of gold,

Scent of pine trees in the rain,

Eyes that love you, arms that hold,

And for your spirit’s still delight,

Holly thoughts that star the night.

 

Spend all you have for loveliness,

Buy it and never count the cost,

For one white singing hour of peace

Count many a year of strife well lost,

And for a breath of ecstasy

Give all you have been, or could be.

                                    *******

G.R.Kanwal

12 June 2024

A POEM ON SOLITUDE

 

          A POEM ON SOLITUDE

The poem on solitude quoted below is by the American author and poet Ella  Wheeler Wilcox. She was born on 5 November 1850 and passed away on 30 October 1919. She is best known for her poem ‘ Solitude’ which she wrote  after consoling  an aggrieved woman on a train. The first two lines of the poem:”Laugh, and the world laughs with you,/Weep and you weep alone” have become a popular quotation.

            The poem tells us a great truth about the attitude of human beings. They join us when we are in a happy situation but leave us alone when we are in grief. In other words gladness attracts people, sorrow repels them. Look also at this proverb: Prosperity wins friends; adversity tries them.  

            The poem “Solitude’ by Ella Wheeler Wilcox reads as follows:

Laugh, and the world laughs with you,

Weep, and you weep alone.  

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,

But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer,

Sigh, it is lost on the air.

The echoes bound to a joyful sound,

But shrink from voicing care.

 

Rejoice, and men will seek you,

Grieve, and they turn and go.

They want full measure of all your pleasure,

But they do not want your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many,

Be sad, and you lose them all.

There are none to decline your nectared wine,

But alone you must drink life’s gall.

 

Feast, and your halls are crowded,

Fast, and the world goes by.

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

But no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

For a long and lordly train,

But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisles of pain.

                                                            *******

G. R. Kanwal

11 June 2024

                                               

 

IN PRAISE OF GOD

 

IN PRAISE OF GOD

Poets all over the world have written hymns and prayers in praise of God who has created the universe and everything we find therein.

A hymn is defined as a psalm, anthem, carol, religious song, song of praise, or a spiritual chant.

What follows is a hymn written by the Anglo-Irish poet Cecil Frances Alexander. She was born in April 1818 in Dublin, Ireland , and died at Londonderry in  United Kingdom  on 12 October 1895.

The title of the hymn for which she earned a lot of fame and appreciation is “All Things Bright And Beautiful”. It has a universal appeal, especially for children whom it tells what a unique creator God is.

Here is the full text of the aforesaid hymn.  

   All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.  

 

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 eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well.

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G.R.Kanwal

10^th June 2024