Mending Wall - Robert Frost

In this poem, the poet tries to bring out the acceptance of conventions of the previous generation i.e. “Good fences make Good neighbours”. He wants to show how people still believe in the old customs and live in dark. The poet says “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”. The Two things which are not allowing the wall to stand there, it may the spring season and the hunters.
The author Frost damages the wall and there occurs gap between the walls that even two can pass through. The gap is more widened by the hunters when they try to chase the rabbits between these gaps. No one has seen or heard that who has done this. But, during spring we can find gaps between the walls. The poet one day met neighbour and they decided to set the wall once again. They decided to pick the stone of their side to fix the wall. Sometimes the stone look like a ball sometimes it becomes shapeless. The poet says that some magic is to be used to make the stone. Stand as it is and we should say ‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned”. Their hands have become rough because of the stone. Each time they pick stones from their side looks as if they are playing an outdoor game. Sometimes they try to fix the stone in the wall where it is not required also.
The poet had an apple orchard and his neighbour had pine tree. The poet is asking that his apple trees are not going to eat up his neighbour’s pine tree then why should he built up a wall between them. It is because the neighbor believes in his father saying that “Good fences make good neighbours”. The poet tries to advice his neighbour that he does not have cows that his cows will eat up the neighbour’s pine tree but his neighbour is not ready to change his mind. The poet wants to ask about walling out and says that it is the Elves which does not like a wall.
The neighbour too believes it though the poet knew that it is the nature not the Elves which does not love a wall. The poet sees him holding stones in each hand like an old Stone savage trying to mend the wall. He moves in darkness and in the shades of the tree. It is sure that he will not go behind his father’s saying that “Good fences make good neighbours”. Thus the poet says that his mind is so dark that he is not able to change his attitude.

Refund - Fritz Karinthy

The play refund is full of humour which deals with an extraordinarily ludicrous situation. The main character in the play is Wasserkopf. He is forty years old. He could not get any employment and wherever he went the people told him that he is fit for nothing and nothing worth while he has learnt when he was studying.
One day he met a Lederer and asked him about his business. When the Lederer told him about foreign exchange and Hungarian money, he was not able to understand anything and started asking questions about foreign exchange to the Lederer. For which the Lederer said when you don’t know the silly thing what have you studied, you better go to your school and get your tuition fees back. Wasserkopf who was jobless and didn’t have any finance, this idea sounded something beneficial to him and so he went to the school where he studied once.
When he asks for the refund of his tuition fees, the principal is shocked because after eighteen years he has come to the school thinking that he has learnt nothing worthwhile and so he can get his tuition fees back.
The principal is in a peculiar situation now and he calls for an urgent meeting with all other staff members. They decided to keep a re-examination for Wasserkopf and agreed that whatever answers he gives weather it is right or wrong they will prove him right. One by one each teacher questions him and justified his wrong answer to be correct one and they mark him excellent. Though Wasserkopf gives wrong answers and use abuse words to each teacher, they don’t show their anger because they have to prove him as an excellent student to chuck him out.
At least the mathematics master asks him a difficult question and an easy question. For the easy question he gives wrong answer and the master gets angry and says that he has failed on his examination so he should be given his tuition fees back. The master says that we have decided to give you your tuition fees back and now can you tell as the exact amount which we have to give you. Wasserkopf without knowing that he is going to fall into their trap gives them the list of exact amount. So the mathematics master says that was my difficult question to give the exact amount of your tuition fees for which you gave the right answer.
Now he is proved excellent in the entire subject and they throw him out without allowing him to say anything further. The play is full of humour and full of ludicrous situation. It also shows the ability of the teachers to manage the situation and how they tackle Wasserkopf without spoiling the reputation of their school.

How to Avoid an Argument – Sam Horn

The author in this essay gives three situations to avoid an argument. Once he went to an ice cream shop with his child and demanded for 3 liters of ice cream for which the girl in the shop said ‘Do you know how hard it is to scoop three liters?’ She wanted to question that girl but instead she understood the situation that it was too rush and she was the only girl to serve everybody. The girl felt comfort and relaxed by her words. So the author avoided the situation of an argument. The author gives three techniques in which we can avoid an argument and she calls them as ‘Tongue Fu’.
Handle hassles with humour:
The author once happens to see a tall young man walking in San Francisco Airport. People around him were laughing because his T-Shirt says ‘No I am not a Basket ball player’ and at the back it was ‘Are you a Jockey?’ The author chased him and asked for which the tall man said that he has a whole drawer full at home. The author was surprised to hear this. But the tall man said that one should not bother what others say about him and if he finds that they are making fun of him then to sometimes few catchy quotations or cartoons are put on to change the attitude of the people.
When people complain, don’t explain:
The author says there are situation where we come across complaints in that situation we should not start explaining otherwise it will lead to argument. Like when somebody is ringing to the office and complaining about the catalogue, instead of explaining about the delay its better say sorry and till them that you will get to them back soon. Another example is a man was waiting an appointment with the doctor at 3 o’clock. But when it was time he got angry and started shouting. But the receptionist replied him in a polite voice and convinced him.
Exit gracefully:
In a dinner table there was an argument about the highways. The father-in-law does not like and the son-in-law said it is good to have highways. The father-in-law does not like and he existed from the dinner table.
Another example, there was a talk going on between the author and his friends regarding the election and each one was favouring his own favourite party. When they asked the opinion of the author, the author didn’t say anything and came out of that place. Thus the author says one can avoid argument if he remembers these three steps in life because ‘A spoken word flies; you won’t catch it’. It is waste of time only. So we have to avoid fruitless arguments.

Hawk Roosting – Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes personifies the Hawk in this poem. The poem is a self-appreciation. The hawk is introspecting and is in a self-complacent mood. The Hawk says that he sits on the top of the tree with eyes closed. It never dreams and nor is ready for action between his hooked head and hooked feet. The hawk proudly says that it never does any rehearsal because his killing of prey is perfect.
The hawk then says that the height of the tree, air’s buoyancy and sun are advantage to him because it can see its prey from the height of the faces upward for his inspection. The hawk’s feet locked in the rough branch of a tree. The hawk proudly says that God took whole of creation to produce his foot and his each feather but now he is holding one of God’s creations under his leg.
The hawk kills where ever he likes because he says that everything belongs to him. His body is created in such a way that his manners of attacking the prey are direct tearing off the heads and the prey is allotted death. There is no escape for prey. No one is there to argue with the hawk.
The hawk proudly says that the sun is behind him and nothing has changed since he came to this world. It never wants any changed and he says that he wants to continue this forever. Thus the hawk in the poem praises himself proudly and compares himself as God and says that nobody is there to neither control nor argue with the hawk. The hawk is enjoying its life and it wants to continue the same.

To Know When to Say, ‘It’s None of Your Business’ – Mark McCormack

The author in this essay gives few situation when can say ‘it’s none of your business’. One of his executive in the company has the habit of looking into others matters. One of his favorite plans was to ask a senior executive’s secretary about her boss’s whereabouts. He always wanted to pry into anyone’s affaires-subordinates colleagues, senior executives, even assistants on his staff but nobody dare to say him ‘it’s none of your business’. Only few people used to tell him.
The author says this executive collects all information about everyone. But still people hesitate to tell him ‘It’s none of your business’. According to author there are two topics for which ‘None of Your Business’ should always be one the top of one’s tongue:- someone else’s money and someone’s personal life.
In the matter of money paid for their house, or jewellery we cannot pry into their salary. One of the example is a literary clients called up his agent in New York office and told that they have negotiated the fee for this writer to write the text of an illustrated book. The writer also agreed for the fee given to him by the publisher but later he had a second thought and called up the office and started enquiring about the publisher’s salary. In one sense the writer wanted to know whether he is given fair salary or not but in other sense it look awkward that he is trying to pry into publishers salary.
One’s personal life another area which is nobody’s business but lot of people allow their professional and personal affairs to get blurred. In an office where the boss and subordinate work, they develop a healthy friendship and try to pry on personal things.
The author describes one incident related to personal life. Once he met the CEO of another company and his senior staffers. One day the boss snapped at his staff telling him that ‘May be you would have known more if you didn’t spend your evening on the phone to your girlfriend in Chicago’. The author says the CEO would have not used personal life in front of everybody and made the staff to feel insecure.

History of Chess – Barbara Mack

The Game of Chess talks about the way of life lived by the medieval period. The six different chess pieces represent a cross-section of medieval grandeur and wars. In the eighth century the Moors invaded Spain and brought the game of chess with them and Spanish started playing the chess. The Europeans gave the names to chess pieces and reflect the way of living.
The Pawns on the Chessboard represent serfs or laborers. They were considered as property of land owners. They worked hard and suffered and died young. They sacrificed to escape from harm the castle piece is the home, or the refuge, on Chessboard each side has two castles. The knight represents the professional soldier of medieval times. They have to protect persons of rank. They are of most importance than Pawns, but less important than Bishops etc. They have to protect important pieces.
The role of Bishop is represents the church. The church played a large part in every person’s life. There are two Bishop for each side and they rise to a powerful position. The Queen is the only woman in the Chessboard and most powerful piece. In the medieval times they were most powerful and even she guides the King also. The King is the tallest piece on the board and is defended on chessboard from every angle. If the King is surrendered then the game is over from the lowest to the highest rank officials tries to protect the King.
Thus a Chessboard not only represents the life of the people but also the rank of the people and how they are used by the higher officials.

The Stone – W.W.Gibson

The poem talks about a young woman whose lover died in a stone quarry. She was stunned by the shocking news of her lover’s death. She is a picture of deep sorrow. The poem has an abrupt opening. It starts when the conversation is going on between two people. The woman goes to the poet and asks him for cutting a stone in the opening line.
Three days before a huge rock had struck her lover in a stone quarry. In spite of giving warning and shot fired, he was loitering and full of spirit. Suddenly a rock fell and he was found under the rock. When he saw the rock his eyes saw his end. The poet saw this and he wanted to break this news to his lover. He was afraid and very careful in his words. But before he could utter a word he saw she was standing like a stone because some poor fellow had already told the news. The fellow wide opened the door and told the news of her lover’s death without knowing the consequence and left the woman lifeless.
The poet can guess what would have happened by looking at the woman’s face. The woman stood like a stone, her heart was dead. She didn’t cry nor moan. The boy’s mother was weeping but she didn’t for three days and three nights. She did not stir.
She never closed her eyes, from sunset to sunrise. She didn’t cry but her eyes saw everything. The fourth day, when the poet came from work he saw the woman waiting for him at his door and said “And will you cut a stone for him?” and spoke nothing but followed the poet. When the poet sat in the chair she was just staring at his face. She was waiting patiently. The poet saw her gray eyes which were staring at him and he felt as if the eyes are plucking his heart and sucking the breath from him.
The poet could not wait any more so he stood and started to cut the stone in a square. As the poet was working she sat beside him watching everything day & night. When he was cutting the name of her lover she was watching each stroke but didn’t utter a single word. The stroke broke her silence.
Her eyes didn’t move from my hands. She was watching me with bloodless lips. Every cut of the chisel gave a deeper cut to her heart. It looked as if death was killing her inside. When the poet has finished his work she breathed his name and with a sigh passed through the open door and never came again. The next night the poet was working late because he was cutting her name on the stone.
Thus the woman represents the picture of silent and sorrow, it also shows how she was in love with her lover that she could not bare the sorrow of his death and so died after cutting his stone.

Leave this Chanting – Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was a freedom fighter, social reformer and the composer of national anthems for India and Bangladesh. He won noble prize for literature in 1913.
In this poem, Leave this chanting; Tagore wants the religious minded to go beyond the four walls of their shrines to where god really exists with the farm worker and the construction labourer. In the first paragraph the poet says one should leave this chanting, singing, and telling of beads. He questions the religious people that who do you worship in this dark corner of a temple? Open your eyes and see God is not there before you.
One can see God where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and the pathmaker is breaking stones. The poet says that one can see God in sun and shower where the tiller and the pathmaker is and come down to the dusty soil.
The poet then questions what is deliverance? And where can we find it? God is the creator and master of everything. God has created this world joyfully and is attached with us, then why people are meditating and chanting? They think that when one is doing chanting he is very real to God and he can achieve everything.
But according to the poet one can find God not in the temple but with the workers who are working whole day in the dirt and under the hot sun. He asks us what harm is there if you work under the sun and if your clothes become dirt. Even when your clothes are turn out or stained there is no harm because one is going to see the creator. Thus the poet says there is no harm in meeting God in such circumstances because the creator is there in these places.