19th Century Poetry

“A thing of beauty is joy forever” is what poets like John Keats believed in. 19^th century England was an England inspired by its neighborhood enjoying the colours of the French revolution. The poetry of 19^th century England also was an expression to portray the poets’ desire to break free from the restrictions and regulations that neo-classical poets had maintained. The 19^th century poetry, also dubbed as ‘Romantic Poetry’ began officially in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads of William Wordsworth and the period ends roughly around 1850. 

The 19^th century poetry was marked by taking over of subjective emotions in poetic art. Many forms of poetry were written in this period. Forms like Odes, Sonnets, and Lyrics were the prevalent ones.  The major poets of the era were poets like William Wordsworth, S T Coleridge, L G Byron, John Keats, and P B Shelly.  The poets were writing to express their views about a variety of things they came across. For the first time in the poetical history of England the definition of poetry was “emotions recollected in tranquility” and it was “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”.

Some major works of the era were Prelude, written by William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads, written by Coleridge and Wordsworth together and Don Juan of Byron. These poems were enriched with natural imagery and free from the general constrains of 18^th century poetry. The poetry evoked a feeling of freedom and subjectivity. People who read poetry also increased by this time and also the focus of the subject matter shifted from aristocracy to common masses. A poet in this period was a “man speaking to men” which is pretty inclusive statement

The period though ended with taking over of Novel as a popular literary form but Romantic age was taken to be glorious period for English poetry. During the last stages of romantic age the public read and acknowledge the new form of novel and enjoyed it more than prose. After 1850 there were poets like Rosetti, Robert Browning and E B Browning but they were not as popular as Dickens and other novelists who made their places in the bookshelves of the common masses.

-- Assef Ali

StoryMirror

Writing: A profession

             
         “Father, I want to become a writer”. Father replied “What? Have you gone mad? You dumb. What have you been reading these days? I tell you these are your friends messing with your thoughts. I’m warning you”. The boy cried “But Dad” and father continued “Stop arguing with me. All your stupid novels and books will be thrown. Focus on your studies. You will become an Engineer”. Many among us would have faced this situation or somewhat related to it. It doesn’t end with Engineering. Doctors, Chartered Accountant are the other substitutes.

Why to be a writer is highly questionable? Is it the fault of that person who is so creative and talented? Though for the present generation this situation is minutely altered. The era has changed. Writers are stereotypically imagined as “one wearing a long kurta, shabby attire and doesn’t have money on him”. This has changed over the years. Now, there is a big industry providing young writers an opportunity to build their life around their passion. The creativity that youngster caters can actually evolve it from amateur to a professional.

Professionally that person has a way in to be a content writer or content developer in advertising    industry. He or she can pursue as a script writer for movies, advertisements, event management, media, publishing, editing, small documentaries and along with it continue their own dream as a writer, poet and one cannot leave a philosopher. Even a travel blogger for many big organizations which I personally admire and it is a very big industry on its own ground.

The question has changed over years which one would certainly recognize. It is not about why you want to become this but it is more of what are the career options when you already are one, for that many options have already been mentioned. I personally understand that hindrance when somebody asked you “so as writer what is it you actually do?” It was more of an insult then a question. But it can be answered with all the self confidence I have that I am a content writer for ‘Story Mirror’. It is a platform for all those young aspirant writers and artists to show their talent to the world. A world where a new story is created and lived daily .So for all those freshmen scared to build their future in writing. They are welcome to share their stories and follow their dream.

-Aman Verma 
Story Mirror

Comic-ology – A world of Superheroes and uber-villains

 Have you been one of those who loved heroes like Spiderman, Superman, Batman and villains like Joker, Hades etc? If you said yes then it’s probably because you have lived your childhood among the wonder worlds of comic books. I’m sure you have not wondered about the history of comic books that time but why don’t you do it now? What’s the harm? An example of an early precursor to print comics is Trajan's Column. Rome's Trajan's Column, dedicated in 113 AD, is an early surviving example of a narrative told through pictures, at the same time Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek friezes, medieval tapestries such as the Bayeux Tapestry and illustrated manuscripts were also combine sequential images and words to tell a story which made these one of the ancient examples of comic books. Versions of the Bible relying primarily on images rather than text were widely distributed in Europe in order to bring the teachings of Christianity to the illiterate. In medieval paintings, many sequential scenes of the same story (usually a Biblical one) appear simultaneously in the same painting.

It must be notes that all of these forms of comics did not travel to the reader until the invention of printing press. It would be an extremely interesting venture to put light upon few of the interesting facts about the comic book industry.

Do you know that heroes like Batman, Superman and others have been generating revenues for their creators since 1930s and the cost of comics have gone up from less than a dollar to more than a million dollars and the comic books are becoming key modules for Hollywood movies. It was in 1938 in a comic named Action Comics when Superman made his first appearance in the world of comic books. This was the beginning of the superhero genre and the same comic was sold in 2011 for 2.16 million dollars.

Wolverine is a very famous character in Japan, He used to be a samurai and trained as a ninja.  Spider man edition #583 in 2009 sold more than half a million copies and its plot featured Chameleon impersonating Obama. To list some of the best selling comics over the recent years:-

• The Amazing Spiderman – $30 million
• Batman - $17 Million
• Ironman – 1.66 Billion over 4 movies
• Spider-Man – $1.37 billion over 4 movies

The comic book culture has though expanded from the comic pages to movie screens. This has made a huge difference in the way we perceive comic books. The movies have also expanded the audience from up to teenage to people of higher age and maturity who wouldn’t mind consuming the comic books in the forms of movies.

The comic book culture has though expanded from the comic pages to movie screens. This has made a huge difference in the way we perceive comic books. The movies have also expanded the audience from up to teenage to people of higher age and maturity who wouldn’t mind consuming the comic books in the forms of movies.

Assef Ali
www.storymirror.com