English language & literature

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

‘At last I behold her soul undraped!’
Thinks the man who had loved her more than himself;
‘My God!—’tis but narrowly I have escaped.—
My precious porcelain proves it delf.’
His face has reddened like one ashamed,
And he steals off, leaving his stick unclaimed.

The speaker forgets to take his stick which has just been left in his lover’s house. When he goes back near the house, he hears an unpleasant female voice. He sees his lover shouting at her mother with angry eyes for something said when he was there before. He finally sees the true personality of his lover whom he loves so much. He is ashamed, embarrassed and disappointed. He leaves quietly in disillusionment.

He is on the outside looking into the house where he is able to see the inner soul of the girl. It is as if the window of the house provides a window to see into her true soul and true personality (disrespectful, impolite, pretentious). It implies that if you are on the outside looking in, you will see the inside truth.

His love makes him blind to the truth about his lover until he is able to view her from the outside. The beauty he perceives his lover to have proves itself false. After coming to the realization that his lover might not have been the woman he thought she was, “his face has reddened like one ashamed”. Love causes people to believe fake appearance and pretenses only to come to the realization that love is blind.

Wild seabirds
And fisherman pulling out to sea
The sun surfacing defiantly

From the east
Of his small emerald island
He always comes back groggily groggily

Comes back to sands
Of a grey metallic soar
To surge of wheels
To dull North Circular roar

Muffling muffling
His crumpled pillow waves
Island man heaves himself

Another London day

An island man feels like waking up to the sounds of the ocean. He is dreaming of being home in the Caribbean where he belongs. His dreaming, imagining and memories gradually fade into the actual reality of what is happening in London, like waking up. He would rather wake up to the sound of the ocean and the sight of the sun instead of the noisy traffic in London. It shows his homesickness and sadness.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

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

It is winter, still and quiet.

The speaker is attracted by the deepness and darkness of the woods. The serene, mysterious, seductive Nature compels the speaker to hang out in spite of dangerous consequences.

He is contemplating staying in the woods rather than returning to the village to fulfill the obligations and promises he’s made and flirts momentarily with the idea of breaking them, before deciding against it.

The feeling of being so far away from where you need to be almost makes you feel like easier to just give up and hang out.

He might be reflecting upon something deeper and darker like death.

It’s as though the horse reminds the speaker of the “promises” he has made to those in the village and reminds him of the social life he has in the village.

He tells himself that he’s got things to do, people to see and places to go. He’s still got a long way to go before he can rest and sleep, so he had better get going.

Michael is thrown overboard and lands on an island. At first, an elderly Japanese Kensuke does not want Michael on his island. He wants to be alone. He is very angry that Michael makes fire to attract people’s attention. He wants people to stay away from his island because they will shoot orangutans and gibbons. So he draws a line on the sand to keep Michael away from his territory.

When Michael is stung by jellyfish and becomes paralyzed, Kensuke saves him and brings him to his cave. There, they wash clothes together, go fishing together, fruit gathering together, cook together and do the drawing and painting together. Michael teaches Kensuke English and Kensuke teaches Michael painting. Then, they talk more and become friends.

But, when Kensuke finds out the message in the bottle that Michael sends, he is very upset because Kensuke thinks that Michael does not tell him his feelings as he did. Kensuke keeps Michael at a distance. They do not talk much as before. Later, Kensuke understands that Michael wants to go home and has his long life ahead waiting for him. Unlike himself, Michael just cannot live his whole life on this island. Then they have a friendly reconciliation.

Kensuke reveals that he is too old for the new world after staying on the island for 40 years. It would be very difficult for him to adapt to the whole new world. Japan was his world a long time ago. The island is his world now. Even if Kimi and Michiya are still alive, they are no longer the same persons. They are more like strangers than family. On the island, Kensuke has his new family – the orangutans, the gibbons, the turtles. He will look after them and protect them from hunters and killers. He cannot forget the damage caused to him by WWII.