SEMESTER 6 ENGLISH

UNIT 4
POEM: Strange Meeting” Summary
“Strange Meeting” was written by the British poet Wilfred Owen. A soldier in the First World War, Owen
wrote “Strange Meeting” sometime during 1918 while serving on the Western Front (though the poem
was not published until 1919, after Owen had been killed in battle). The poem's speaker, who is also a
solider, has descended to “Hell.” There, he meets a soldier from the opposing army—who reveals at the
end of the poem that the speaker was the one who killed him. The poem is deeply pessimistic as it reflects
on the shared humanity of these two men and the broader horrors of war. Though the poem suggests that
human beings aren't going to stop fighting anytime soon, it also calls for such violence to be replaced by
reconciliation and solidarity.
SUMMARY
It seemed like I escaped from battle down into a very deep, dark tunnel—a tunnel that had been carved
out of the granite bedrock by some enormous wars in the past.
Even in the tunnel, I found people moaning and suffering. They were either too deeply asleep to be
stirred, or they were already dead. Then, as I poked and prodded them, one of the sleepers jumped up and
stared at me. He seemed to recognize me—and he pitied me. He lifted his hands sadly, as if he were going
to bless me. And I could tell from his lifeless smile that the dark hall in which we stood was Hell itself.
You could see all the fear etched into his face—even though none of the blood or violence from the battle
up above reached the hall where we stood. You couldn’t hear the artillery firing down there; the guns
didn’t make the chimneys in the hall groan. I said to him, “Unfamiliar friend, there’s no reason to be sad
down here.” He replied: “No reason except for all the years I'm missing out on, and the loss of hope. You
and I had the same hopes. I threw myself into seeking the most beautiful thing in the world, and
I'm not talking about physical beauty. This beauty makes fun of time as it steadily passes by. If this
beauty is sad, its sadness is so much richer than the sadness you find down here. If I hadn't died, my
happiness might have made a lot of other people happy too; and even in my sadness, I would have left
something important behind, something that can’t survive down here. I’m talking about truth itself, the
truth that no one talks about: the horror of war, war boiled down to its horrifying essence. Since I didn’t
get to tell people how horrible war is, people will be happy with the destructive things our armies have
done. Or they'll be unhappy, and they'll get so angry that they'll keep fighting and killing each other. They
will be as fast as tigers. No one will speak out or disagree with their governments, even though those
governments are moving society away from progress rather than towards it. I was full of courage and
mystery. I was full of wisdom and expertise. I won't have to watch the world as it moves backwards,
marching into cities that, foolishly, don't have fortifications. If the wheels of their armored vehicles were
to get clogged with blood, I would go wash them with water from pure wells. I would wash them with
truths too profoundly true to be corrupted. I would do everything I possibly could to help—except for
fighting, except for taking part in more horrible war. In war, even those who aren't physically hurt suffer
from mental trauma.
“I am the enemy soldier you killed, my friend. I recognized you in the dark: you frowned when you saw
me in just the same way as you frowned yesterday, when you killed with me with your bayonet. I tried to
fend you off, but my hands were slow and clumsy. Let’s rest now…”
PROSE:THE PIECE OF STRING SUMMARY

The Piece of String" is a short story by Guy de Maupassant, in which Maitre Hauchecorne is
falsely accused of theft. He explains that he merely bent down to pick up a piece of string, but no
one believes him.
Hauchecorne picks up a piece of string. When a peasant claims to have been robbed,
Hauchecorne is accused.
In the morning, the pocketbook is found on the side of the road, but the villagers still don't trust
Hauchecorne.
Hauchecorne realizes that his reputation as a crafty old man has turned the villagers against him.
He dies repeating, "A little bit of string."
"The Piece of String" by Guy de Maupassant is a short story set in a small Norman village in
France. The story focuses on the character of Maitre Hauchecorne, an old peasant who becomes
embroiled in a scandal when he is falsely accused of stealing a pocketbook.
The story begins on an autumn market-day in Goderville, where Hauchecorne is about to enter
the square when he sees a piece of string on the ground. He picks it up, but is embarrassed when
he realizes that his enemy, M. Malandain, the local harness maker, has seen him do it.
Hauchecorne hides the string in his pocket and continues on to the market.
Later that day, Hauchecorne is having lunch at a local tavern when the town crier announces that
a pocketbook containing five hundred francs has been lost by M. Houlbreque. Hauchecorne is
later summoned to see the mayor, who accuses him of stealing the pocketbook. The only witness
to the alleged theft is Malandain.
Hauchecorne vehemently denies the accusation, insisting that he found only a piece of string and
not a pocketbook. However, no one believes him, and he is searched but no pocketbook or large
sum of money is found on him. The mayor dismisses him, but warns that he will consult a higher
authority on the matter.
Hauchecorne returns to the village and tries to clear his name by telling anyone who will listen
that he only found a piece of string. However, no one believes him, and he is shunned and
mocked by his peers.
A week later, the pocketbook is found and returned to its rightful owner. Hauchecorne is
overjoyed and returns to the market to tell everyone the good news. However, he is met with
disbelief and mockery once again. He becomes angry, dejected, and confused, unable to
understand why no one believes him.
Hauchecorne becomes increasingly fixated on clearing his name and proving his innocence. He
becomes ill and bedridden, and in his delirium, he repeatedly utters the phrase "a little bit of
string."
The story ends with Hauchecorne dying alone and misunderstood by his community. The theme
of the story is the injustice of reputation and prejudice, and how one's past actions and reputation
can shape how others perceive them.
Throughout the story, Hauchecorne is a sympathetic character who is victimized by the small-
mindedness of his community. He is an old man who has lived a hard life, and his only crime is
picking up a piece of string. However, his past reputation as a crafty and cunning peasant has
created a prejudice against him, and he is unable to clear his name despite his best efforts.
The other characters in the story are unsympathetic and quick to judge Hauchecorne. They are
suspicious by nature and ready to think the worst of him, and they relish in mocking and
ridiculing him. Even when he is proven innocent, they continue to doubt him and refuse to
believe his version of events.
The story is a commentary on the human tendency to judge others based on their past actions and
reputations, and how difficult it can be to overcome these prejudices. It is a poignant and tragic
tale that explores themes of injustice, prejudice, and the human condition.

UNIT 5
POEM: After Apple – Picking summary
Robert Frost's poem “After Apple-Picking” is the story of a man falling asleep after a long day of
working in an orchard. There are multiple interpretations of this poem available; while some
simplistic readings of the poem interpret its tone as one of contentment, others admit further
nuance in the speaker’s weariness. The speaker ultimately acknowledges the momentary
satisfaction of labor—whether at apple-picking; at poetry, as some biographical interpretations
see it; or at life itself. Too, though, he feels discontent: both in the knowledge of all he left
undone or untouched and in the awareness that even what he thought he wanted to do was not
quite enough.

The speaker in the poem has just finished a day’s work of picking apples in the orchard. He
comes down from his ladder, which is still perched in the apple tree, pointing toward heaven
above. He remarks that he has left a barrel unfilled, and there are a few apples left in the trees
that could still be collected, but he has declared his work done. He seems to smell winter,
equated with sleep, on the air as the end of the day comes—and he, too, is falling toward sleep.
He remembers the ice he took from the surface of the drinking trough that morning, an indication
of overnight frost and winter to come, and “cannot rub the strangeness from [his] sight.” These
intimations of oncoming cold seem to overlap with the speaker’s drowsing at the tail-end of
autumn.

“I could tell,” the speaker says, “What form my dreaming was about to take.” What follows is a
catalog of images that brings the commonplace activity of apple-picking into a nearly surreal
state. As the speaker drops toward sleep, the poem’s phrases become increasingly disjointed. In
the speaker’s dreaming imagination, images of apples magnify and sharpen; the feeling of the
ladder rung presses on his instep, and he can “feel the ladder sway”; and he hears the sound of
“load on load” of apples being piled into the cellar bin as they are collected for storage. He
begins to rest, and the world fades away from him, the sounds and smells of apple-picking thick
in the air around him.
The poem shifts here, and the speaker says,
I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
His sense of exhaustion with the “ten thousand fruit to touch” mingles with his joy at
“cherish[ing]” them: the speaker seems deeply ambivalent, and the reader is left somewhere
between the feelings of repletion and emptiness. The poem resolves to choose neither, and in fact
this uncertainty seems to be largely Frost’s point.
As the poem’s end approaches, sleep too becomes irresolute: it can be like the woodchuck’s
“Long sleep”—a winter’s hibernation that resembles death— “Or just some human sleep.” In
keeping with the dreamlike tone of the poem as a whole, both are true, in a way. Just as the
speaker’s feelings about his labor are unresolved, the reader, too, is left without easy answers.

UNIT 6
POEM: The New Colossus
Introduction
"The New Colossus" is an Italian sonnet written by the Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus.
Lazarus was a passionate immigration activist, becoming particularly involved in the plight of
Russian Jewish refugees. She wrote the poem in 1883 to help raise funds for the construction of
the Statue of Liberty's pedestal, but the poem was not actually mounted on the pedestal until
1903. The poem compares the Statue of Liberty to the ancient Greek Colossus of Rhodes,
presenting this "new colossus" as a patroness of immigrants rather than a symbol of military
might. The statue's role and the poem's hopeful, un ironic tone offer an idealistic vision of
America's role on the world stage as a welcome and protector of immigrant
The speaker first describes what the New Colossus will not be like: the giant bronze statue of the
sun-god Helios in ancient Rhodes. The Colossus of Rhodes was constructed to commemorate a
military victory and was thought to stand with its legs on either side of a harbor. The speaker
then moves from ancient Greece to America, describing the new statue’s position on America’s
eastern shoreline. The statue looks like a powerful woman and holds a torch that's lit through the
modern wonders of electricity. She is depicted as a motherly figure who welcomes immigrants to
America. She does so through the guiding light of her torch and her gentle yet powerful gaze
upon New York Harbor, which is sandwiched between New York City and Brooklyn (which
were still separate cities when the poem was written).
The poem then gives the statue herself a voice. She speaks directly to the nations of Europe,
telling them she wants no part of their showy displays of power. Though she is a silent statue, the
speaker suggests that her symbolic message is clear. She goes on to command the ancient
European nations to send its impoverished citizens—the thousands who long for freedom—to
America. These people have been forgotten and rejected in their overly-populated countries with
limited resources. Once again, she commands the ancient nations to send her those who have
been exiled and battered by the storms of misfortune. She beckons these immigrants toward her
with her torch, which metaphorically illuminates the entryway to America and all the
opportunities it offers.
Themes
The New Colossus” compares the Statue of Liberty to an ancient Greek statue, the Colossus of
Rhodes. While the ancient statue served as a warning to potential enemies, the new statue’s
name, torch, and position on the eastern shore of the United States all signal her status as a
protector of exiles. Her protection extends both to the exiles who founded the United States, and
to refugees hoping to make America their new home. When the speaker imagines the statue’s
voice, the statue speaks directly to the “ancient lands” of Europe and claims its forgotten and
rejected ones as her own. Each of these features contributes to the poem’s presentation of the
Statue of Liberty as a symbol of welcome, and to the poem's broader message to embrace
foreigners with open arms.
Through its description of two statues’ relationships to the land on which they stand, the poem
offers contrasting ways of relating to one’s homeland and to foreigners. The first involves the
“brazen giant” or Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was
constructed to commemorate a military victory, and its “conquering limbs” were believed to
have straddled a harbor. All foreign ships would have had to pass beneath its “brazen” or bronze
legs and, in so doing, to contemplate the demise of the defeated soldiers from whose abandoned
weapons the statue was made. This threatening stance served as a warning to approaching sailors
and potential invaders. In contrast, the New Colossus stands firmly at the “sea-washed, sunset
gates” of America. This lyrical image of America’s Eastern shore—the shore that faces Europe
across the Atlantic Ocean—connotes a sense of openness to new visitors.
This sense of openness is confirmed in lines 4-8, in which the statue is called “Mother of Exiles”
and her torch is described as a beacon. The Statue of Liberty's French sculptor included a torch to
symbolize reason and liberty enlightening the world. In the poem, though, the torch instead
glows for the same reason a lighthouse does: to safely guide travelers home. It is a “beacon” or
sign of “world-wide welcome” to the thousands of immigrants arriving in New York.
The statue’s role as patron of immigrants is solidified when the sonnet's sestet (or final six lines)
puts the new world’s guardian in direct conversation with the “ancient lands” of Europe from
which they emigrate. The statue rejects the “storied pomp” through which European empires,
such as those of ancient Greece, were founded and maintained. The Colossus of Rhodes was
built from the abandoned bronze weapons of the defeated army of Cyprus. As such, it is a
pompous display of power that highlights the victor’s story but obscures the suffering of the
conquered people. The New Colossus commands the old lands to send its marginalized people,
the “huddled masses,” to her. She will ensure that those who are “homeless” and long to “breathe
free” will find refuge. The statue’s torch returns in the final line as a “lamp” that illuminates the
“golden door” of American opportunity.
This golden promise of the Statue of Liberty, then, offers a tantalizing alternative to all that the
ancient Colossus of Rhodes represented. The speaker hopes that the maternal statue and her
promise of radical hospitality will become a symbol for America itself. In other words, the poem
presents the Statue of Liberty as both part of America and representative of its values, and in so
doing argues that America should be defined by its willingness to both accept immigrants and
actively welcome them.
PROSE: THE BISHOP’S CANDLE STICKS

The plot of the play revolves around a story that brings forth the themes of Religious virtues like
love and redemption. The play dramatically depicts how the love and the compassion of the
Bishop brought about a change of heart in a convict and turned him into a man of promise for a
good life. The Bishop was a kind-hearted man who being a true Christian was also an ardent
humanist. He was ready to sacrifice everything to help the needy people. Even after selling all he
had for others he felt sorry that he could do so little whereas the world had so much suffering. He
sold his saltcellars and gave the money to Mere Gringoire so that the latter might pay his rent to
the bailiff. His sister. Persome was however a worldly woman neither as self-less as her brother
nor so noble. She did not like her brother ‘s benevolence. She thought that people took an unfair
advantage of his charitable nature. But the Bishop thought that if the people pretended to be in
distress and deceived him then they are the poorer in spirit and not he. His door was never shut
and it was open for everybody. One night when the Bishop was about to go to bed a convict
entered the house. At the point of his knife he demanded food from the Bishop. The Bishop was
unruffled. He called Persome and asked her to give some supper to the convict. The convict
wondered why the Bishop kept his doors and windows open and whether or not he was afraid of
thieves and robbers. The Bishop told him that he was not afraid but that he was sorry for them as
they were only poor sufferers. He treated the convict with all love and respect as he regarded him
too as a sufferer. He regarded him as a fellowman and a friend. His attitude had some effect on
the convict. If we treat a man as a beast, then he becomes a beast. If we treat a beast as a man,
then it becomes a man. A man is what we think him to be. The convict told the Bishop how he
was caught by the police while he stole some food for his ill and starving wife. He was caught
and sentenced to ten years in prison. The authorities did not pat any heed to the fact that he had
stolen only to feed his ill and starving wife Jeanette. They regarded him as a born criminal and
treated him like a beast for ten years. Then one day he escaped but the society treated him no
better. As he was a prisoner nobody would give him any job. The police hunted him down. He
was running away from them starving. So he stole again for food. Thus society with its wrong
attitude did not give him a chance to lead a good life. Then he entered the house of the Bishop as
he was hungry. The kind Bishop was touched and gave him a bed to sleep on. The Bishop went
to sleep. Left alone on his bed the convict could not resist the temptation to steal the silver
candlesticks of the Bishop. He took them and went out of the house. As he went out the door
slammed. Persome got up at the sound and found out that the convict had stolen the silver
candlesticks and had gone away. Persome reacted violently. She shouted and was very upset.
The Bishop was also upset but he blamed himself for exposing the convict to the temptation. The
Bishop was sorry to lose the candlesticks as they were given to him by his mother. But like a true
Christian he felt that he was responsible for the convict‘s behaviour. By keeping them before
him he had led him into temptation. The Bishop thought that he used to value the candlesticks
very highly. It is a sin to get addicted to wealth. Lastly the candlesticks might be of some use to
the convict and what had happened had happened for the good. But the convict was arrested by
the gendarmes along with the candlesticks The sergeant saw the convict moving stealthily and
arrested him. They recognized the candlesticks of the Bishop and brought him back to him. But
the Bishop told that the accused was his friend and that he himself had given the candlesticks to
him. The police sergeant released the convict and went away. The convict was overwhelmed by
the love of the Bishop and now hews convinced that the Bishop was kind and loving. He
regained his faith that there could be goodness in men. He was sorry that he had stolen the
candlesticks. He felt that he was once again a human being and not a beast. The kind Bishop told
him of the secret road to Paris and gave him the candlesticks. The candle sticks were a gift from
the Bishop‘s mother. They reminded him of her. But when the convict received them as a gift
they become symbols of hope and life. The convict would now believe in the goodness of life
and lead a steady life. He asked him to remember that the body of man is the temple of God. The
convict was already a changed man and he promised to remember the Bishops‘ last words and he
went away.