My favourite author
Essay : 01
My favourite author is William Shakespeare, a man who has written enough for immortality.
Though a few hundred years have elapsed since the death of Shakespeare and volumes have been written on the life and work of this great writer, his early life still remains a subject for speculation and conjecture. It is generally believed that Shakespeare had very little schooling. Yet his keen intellect and mastery of language have earned for him the appreciation and applause of the literary world.
Shakespeare’s fame, ‘I think, originates from his ability to identify his readers with the characters in his stories. In most of his stories we find reflections of our own experiences. This shows strikingly that Shakespeare had an insight into ‘human nature and the problems of life. His tragedies such as “Macbeth’ and “Hamlet” clearly show his deep knowledge of the human mind. Man’s ambition, desperation, sorrows, frustrations and hopes are dealt with in these tragedies with such skill that the reader himself experiences all the mental conflicts and emotions, and thus gets a better idea about human nature. With equal skill, Shakespeare deals with man’s joys and pleasures in all his comedies. His comedies like, “Twelfth Night” and “As You Like It,’ are a delight to read. Through the characters in his stories Shakespeare conveys his views on life and the world. Most of his characters, such as Hamlet, are vehicles for moral instruction. Man’s nature is the theme of all his writings. By a skillful combination of words and situations, he reveals the worst as well as the best in man. His choice of words is masterly and many of his phrases are literary gems. As man’s nature is his theme, what he wrote years ago remains true even today, and it will remain so till the end of time. It is for all these reasons that I enjoy reading Shakespeare.
However, I do enjoy reading the works of other writers too, such as those of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. But they do not give the satisfaction that Shakespeare gives. I find Shakespeare’s stories so interesting that I have read the same stories several times in last few years; and, every time I read the same story, I learn something new about human nature. Shakespeare was indeed a genius.
Essay : 02
My Favourite Poet
I am a great lover of poetry. I learn poems in my literature class and I have studied many poets in detail. Shelly, Keats, Yeats, Wordsworth etc., have been taught to us.
Of all the English poets, the one I am most fond of is Wordsworth. He belonged to the Romantic Age, the age that was a reaction to the neo-classical poetry of the 18th century.
Wordsworth wrote in a unconventional style with a diction that was easy to understand. His poetry is the spotaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. He was not so concerned with the downfall of kings and queens.
He was more concerned with the simple People that he came across in his life. The more simple a person was, the more appealing Wordsworth found him. That is the reason why some of his most beautiful and touching Poems are about a solitary girl who reaps in the field.
She is an ordinary village girl, who sings a sad plaintive song and this is enough to transfix Wordsworth to the place where he heard her song echoing in the valley.
Wordsworth was a worshipper of nature. It was his firm belief that the company of nature brings joy to our hearts. Nature to him provides a healing power to comfort, troubled minds: He believed that nature is a teacher who can educate human beings. He was the only poet who gave nature so much importance that he evolved a philosophy on nature.
Wordsworth paints very beautiful vivid pictures of beauty from nature and this endears him to me. I can never forget the effect of his words as I read them and enjoy the music of his words.
I also find a lot of peace and comfort in nature and when I read nature poetry, I feel that I can relate to it immediately and this is why Wordsworth poems become a source of great joy for me.
