Mane's Musings

UNIVERSITY OF PUNE Revised Course Structure of English S. Y. B. A. Compulsory English (w. e. f- 2014- 2015)   Objectives 1. To develop competence among the students for self-learning 2. To familiarize students with excellent pieces of prose and poetry in English so that they realize the beauty and communicative power of English 3. To develop students’ interest in reading literary pieces 4. To expose them to native cultural experiences and situations in order to develop humane values and social awareness 5. To develop overall linguistic competence and communicative skills of the students Course Content Prescribed Text: Literary Landscapes (Ed. Board of Editors, Orient Blackswan) Literature Components 1. Playing the English Gentleman- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 2. The Homecoming- Rabindranath Tagore 3. A Letter by Hazlitt to His Son- William Hazlitt 4. Freedom of the Press- Shashi Tharoor 5. A Cup of Tea- Katherine Mansfield 6. The Last Leaf...

  On a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes   By :  Thomas Gray.  1716–1771 TWAS on a lofty vase's side, Where China's gayest art had dyed   The azure flowers that blow; Demurest of the tabby kind, The pensive Selima reclined,          5   Gazed on the lake below. Her conscious tail her joy declared; The fair round face, the snowy beard,   The velvet of her paws, Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,   10 Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,   She saw; and purr'd applause. Still had she gazed; but 'midst the tide Two angel forms were seen to glide,   The Genii of the stream:   15 Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue Thro' richest purple to the view   Betray'd a golden gleam. The hapless Nymph with wonder saw: A whisker first and then a claw,   20   With many an ardent wish, She stret...

O Captain! My Captain! BY  WALT WHITMAN O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;                          But O heart! heart! heart!                             O the bleeding drops of red,                                Where on the deck my Captain lies,                    ...

The Model Millionaire                          By:  Oscar Wilde 1 Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. These are the great truths of modern life which Hughie Erskine never realised. Poor Hughie! Intellectually, we must admit, he was not of much importance. He never said a brilliant or even an ill-natured thing in his life. But then he was wonderfully good-looking, with his crisp brown hair, his clear-cut profile, and his grey eyes. He was as popular with men as he was with women, and he had every accomplishment except that of making money. His father had bequeathed him his cavalry sword, and a  History of the Peninsular War  in fifteen volumes. Hughie hung the first over his lookin...