English Notes

About the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, written by W.B. Yeats in 1888, is a twelve line poem composed of three quatrains. It reveals the poet’s nostalgia for the peace and tranquility he enjoyed on the Lake Isle during his childhood. This desire to lead a simple life on the quiet island also presents the poet’s dislike for humdrum of life in cities and towns. So deep are the emotions of the poet that he can hear the waves striking against the banks of the Lake in his mind. “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” has the rhythm that makes you think about a tide. The imagery that Yeats uses helps us to see the desire the speaker has for leading a quiet life. He lures us into this tranquil desire and then we are suddenly reminded of reality. This happens in line 11 where it states, “While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey.” If you dig deeper into the poem, you can see that it is about the love of nature. It is known that Yeats was a man who loved nature and one of...

Summary 1. The Happy prince was a statue. He was placed on a high column in the square of the city. His body was covered with leaves of fine gold and sapphires in his eyes. A large and rare ruby was set on the hilt of his sword. 2. Swallows had flown away to the warm and pleasant land of Egypt. But one small swallow was left behind. He was late but he had made up his mind to fly and join his friends who were waiting for him. 3. All day long he flew and arrived at the city. He decided to spend his night between the feet of the Happy Prince. 4. Drops of water fell on him and realized that the Prince was weeping. The Prince said that while he lived in the palace, he did know sorrow. After death, he was placed on a pedestal and could see all the misery in the town. 5. The swallow became his messenger and gave the ruby to the poor seamstress with a sick son, one sapphire to a playwright and one sapphire to the match girl and the gold leaves on his body to t...

Summary This is an interesting story about a Kingdom of Fools. The king and his minister ordered that night should be considered as a day and vice-versa. They ordered that the people should keep awake at night and sleep during the day. One day a guru and his disciple visited the kingdom. To their utter surprise the city looked deserted during the day time and by evening the shops opened and they purchased food to eat. The price of everything was the same – one ‘duddu’. The disciple felt happy at the cheap rate of good eatables and decided to stay back, while the guru rejected the idea. One day a thief entered the house of a merchant but before he could steal anything the wall fell, on him and he died. The brother of the thief complained to the king against the merchant whose weak-wall had taken that life of his poor brother. Ultimately the merchant blamed the mason, the mason blamed the dancing girl, the dancing girl blamed the goldsmith and the goldsmith blamed the ...

Summary Albert Einstein was born on 14th March in 1879, in the German city of Ulm. For about two and half years he could not speak and when he did learn to speak, he uttered every word twice. His playmates called him “Brother Boring”, and his mother regarded him a freak because of the abnormally large size of his head. At school, his head master regarded him as stupid and good for nothing. But he proved them all wrong. At the age of 6, on behest of his mother, he learned to play the violin. He became a gifted violinist. At the age of 15, his family shifted to Munich. He did not feel at ease with the strict regimentation of the school and left it for good. Later on, for higher education, he joined the University at Zurich because the atmosphere there was more liberal and amenable to new ideas and concepts. He showed more interest in Physics and Mathematics. He met a fellow student, Mileva Marie at the University- equally intelligent and clever. Later on they married an...