Cyber Fraud Awareness: Types and Red Flags

 

Introduction: The Real Story Behind Online Scams

We’ve all felt that jolt of suspicion—the email from a “bank” with a slightly-off logo, the urgent text message about a package we don’t remember ordering, or the random friend request from a profile with no mutual connections. The fear of getting scammed is a constant, low-level hum in our digital lives, a digital tax on our peace of mind.

While these everyday concerns are valid, the FBI's official 2024 Internet Crime Report (IC3 Report) reveals a far more surprising and financially devastating reality. The threats that cause the most catastrophic damage aren't always the ones we see the most. This article breaks down the four most impactful and counter-intuitive findings from the report that everyone needs to understand to truly grasp the scale and nature of modern cybercrime.

Yeats’s Visions: Chaos, War, and Art

Introduction:

History is often viewed as a linear progression, but for William Butler Yeats, it was a series of overlapping spirals—gyres—that inevitably lead to moments of profound transformation and terror. As we navigate our own era of global uncertainty, Yeats’s modernist visions provide a hauntingly accurate vocabulary for crisis. This blog post explores two of his most significant works, "The Second Coming" and "On Being Asked for a War Poem", connecting his 20th-century anxieties with our 21st-century reality through online lectures, cross-cultural podcasts, and academic analysis.

1. Critical Perspectives: Online Lectures and Textual Analysis :

Case Study: "The Second Coming" as a Pandemic Narrative

Analysis: Written in 1919, "The Second Coming" uses the metaphor of the "widening gyre" to describe a world spiraling out of control. The poem captures a sense of total disintegration—social, moral, and spiritual. While often read as a political commentary on the Irish Civil War or the aftermath of WWI, it is equally powerful when viewed as a "Pandemic Poem." The "blood-dimmed tide" and the "ceremony of innocence" being drowned mirror the visceral horror of the 1918 flu, which Yeats’s own pregnant wife narrowly survived.

Aesthetic Resistance: "On Being Asked for a War Poem"

Video Recording of Online Class - On Being Asked for a War Poem)

Analysis:

This poem represents Yeats’s firm stance on the autonomy of art. When pressured to write a "war poem," Yeats refuses to use his "mouth" for political propaganda. He argues that in times of crisis, the poet’s gift is not to "set a statesman right" but to preserve the beauty of human experience—the "indolence" of a young girl or the quietude of an old man. It is a defense of the personal over the political.

2. Cross-Cultural Synthesis: Insights from the Hindi Podcast :

 Hindi Podcast Video on Yeats’s Poems:

Interpretative Note on the Podcast:

The podcast offers a fascinating cross-cultural bridge, translating Yeats's dense Western occultism into a context that resonates deeply with a South Asian audience. A key takeaway from the discussion is the interpretation of "Anarchy" not just as a political collapse, but as a crisis of the individual soul. The speakers highlight how the "Spiritus Mundi" (the collective soul of the universe) can be understood through the lens of ancient philosophical concepts of interconnectedness and cosmic cycles.

Furthermore, the podcast emphasizes the modern relevance of "Atmanirbhar" or mental self-reliance. In an era of "infodemic" and digital noise, the podcast suggests that Yeats’s warning about the "best lacking all conviction" while the "worst are full of passionate intensity" is a direct call for modern listeners to find their own moral center. It argues that by understanding the "gyre" of history, we can better prepare ourselves emotionally for the inevitable shifts in global power and social structures, moving from a place of fear to one of informed observation.

3. Academic Engagement: ResearchGate Study Exercises :

Following the exercises provided in the ResearchGate publication by Dr. Dilip Barad, here are the detailed responses:

(i) Discursive Inquiry: The Poet’s Role in Times of Crisis

Discussion Question: Do you agree with Yeats’s assertion that a poet’s mouth should be silent in times of war?

Response: While many argue that art must be "committed" (Engaged Literature), Yeats makes a compelling case for the preservation of the "interior." If every poet becomes a propagandist, who is left to remember the quiet, beautiful moments of humanity that the war is supposedly being fought to protect? I agree with Yeats to the extent that poetry should not be forced into the service of the state, but I believe poetry can still witness suffering without necessarily trying to "set a statesman right."

(ii) Creative Reimagining: The 21st-Century "Rough Beast"

Creativity Activity: Imagine the 'Rough Beast' in the context of the 21st century.

Response: In the 1920s, the beast was a lurching sphinx-like figure. In the 2020s, the "Rough Beast" slouching towards Bethlehem might take the form of an invisible, microscopic virus or a runaway Artificial Intelligence. It represents the "unintended consequence" of human progress. Just as the falcon cannot hear the falconer, our modern technologies often spin beyond our ethical control, creating a new "widening gyre" of digital misinformation and biological vulnerability.

(iii) Structural Analysis: The Mechanics of Disintegration

Analytical Exercise: Analyze the shift from the first to the second stanza in "The Second Coming".

Response: The first stanza is marked by centrifugal force—things flying apart, the center failing, and a "blood-dimmed tide" that is amorphous and everywhere. The second stanza shifts to stagnant weight—the "vast image" in the desert sands. This movement from a fluid, chaotic anarchy to a solid, pitiless, and terrifying new "order" suggests that the "Second Coming" is not a return to peace, but the birth of a cold, indifferent era that replaces the previous 2,000 years of "stony sleep."

 Mindmap for this blog,Click Here

Conclusion: The Center Still Holds :

Yeats’s poetry serves as a mirror for any civilization standing on the precipice of change. Whether he was writing about the physical devastation of the 1918 pandemic or the psychological refusal to let art be consumed by war, his message remains clear: the human spirit requires a space for beauty and introspection even—and especially—when the "center cannot hold." By studying these poems today, we learn that while the "rough beast" may change its face, the poet's duty to witness the world and protect the "ceremony of innocence" remains eternal.

References :

Barad, D. P. (2025). W.B. Yeats's Poems: The Second Coming & On Being Asked for a War Poem. ResearchGate.

https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2021/05/whauden-poems.html

The Bridge and the Bell: Hemingway’s Masterpiece Revisited

Introduction: The Echo of the Bell

Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 masterpiece, For Whom the Bell Tolls, stands as one of the most profound meditations on death, ideology, and the individual’s place in a crumbling world. Set against the brutal backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, the novel follows Robert Jordan, an American academic turned dynamiter, tasked with blowing up a bridge to stall Fascist reinforcements.

The title, taken from John Donne’s famous 17th-century meditation, reminds us that "no man is an island" and that the death of any human diminishes us all. However, within this theme of collective humanity, Hemingway explores the intense, solitary isolation of a man who must decide how to live and, ultimately, how to die.

In this exploration, we will dive deep into the soul of the novel by providing a critical analysis of its heart-wrenching conclusion and examining how Robert Jordan serves as the ultimate evolution of the "Hemingway Hero"—a man defined not by the cause he serves, but by the dignity with which he faces his own end.

Part I: Critical Analysis of the Ending

The Finality of the Bridge

The bridge is not just steel and stone; it is the culmination of Robert Jordan’s "three days." When the explosion finally occurs, Hemingway describes it with a clinical, almost detached precision that highlights Jordan’s professionalism:

 "He saw the light flash bright and burst-sharp and then he was slammed back against the pine needles... and as the roar came, he felt the bridge settle and then the center section dropped clean and he saw it falling."

This moment of success is immediately shadowed by the realization of the mission's cost. The ending is critical because it validates the futility of war. Despite his expert work, the Republican planes he hoped for never dominate the sky, and the offensive is already compromised. Jordan has succeeded in his "job," but the job cannot save the cause.

The Psychology of the Breaking Point

The most profound critical element of the ending is Jordan’s internal battle against suicide. After his leg is shattered, he is left alone. Hemingway takes us inside the mind of a man fighting the urge to quit:

"I'm not going to do that thing. I'm not going to do that thing ever. I hope. But if I am going to do it, I'd better do it now. No, I'm not... You're a lot of help, he thought to himself."

Jordan’s struggle is a rejection of his father’s "cowardice." By choosing to wait and face the enemy, he transforms a meaningless death into a tactical sacrifice. He is not just dying; he is buying time for Maria and the others to escape.

Part II: Robert Jordan as the Typical Hemingway Hero

1. The Expert and the Ritual

A Hemingway Hero is defined by what he does. For Jordan, it is the ritual of the explosives. Hemingway spends pages detailing the exact way Jordan handles the detonators and the wire. This is "The Code" in action—the belief that if you focus on the technical details of a task, you can ignore the existential dread of your own mortality.

As Jordan prepares for the end, he thinks:

"The main thing is not to be goofy. The main thing is to do it well and not be goofy."

2. The Legacy of the Father

Robert Jordan’s heroism is a direct reaction to his father’s suicide. In the original text, Jordan reflects on the pistol his father used to kill himself—a Smith & Wesson. Jordan eventually threw that pistol into a lake because he didn't want to be "corrupted" by the ease of that exit.

This makes his final stand on the hill a victory over his genealogy. He replaces his father's "weakness" with his own "stiff upper lip." He proves that a man can be destroyed, but not defeated.

3. Love and the "Now"

The Hemingway Hero lives in a "perpetual now" because he has no guaranteed future. This is why his romance with Maria is so intense. Jordan realizes that the three days he spent with her are equivalent to seventy years of a "normal" life.

When he says goodbye to her at the end, he uses the Hero's logic to ease her pain:

> "Thou art me now. Thou art all there will be of me. Stand up... You must go."

> By framing their love as a physical union that survives his death, he maintains his stoic resolve. He cannot afford the luxury of a long, emotional goodbye; he must stay "hard" to complete his final duty.

Conclusion: The Circle of the Earth

The novel begins: "He lay flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms."

The novel ends: "He could feel his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest."

This circularity is essential to the "Hemingway Hero" mythos. The world remains indifferent to human suffering. The pine needles are there before Jordan, and they will be there after his blood soaks into them. However, in that tiny sliver of time between the beginning and the end, Jordan lived by a code, loved a woman, and died with his gun aimed at the enemy.

For Hemingway, that is the only victory a man can ever truly claim. The bell tolls for everyone, but Robert Jordan is one of the few who heard it and didn't flinch.

Ultimately, For Whom the Bell Tolls is not a story of defeat, but of spiritual victory. Robert Jordan demonstrates that while humans cannot control fate or the outcome of a war, they can control the manner in which they face them.

The "bell" Hemingway speaks of does not only toll for the dead; it tolls for the living, reminding us that all humanity is interconnected. Robert Jordan dies, but in his refusal to break, he becomes an immortal symbol of the human spirit.

The Architect of Modernism: A Comprehensive Analysis of T.S. Eliot’s "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

 Introduction: The Critical Revolution of 1919

In the immediate aftermath of the First World War, the Western world was searching for a new language to express a fragmented reality. In the literary sphere, the dominant "Romantic" mode—which prioritized the individual’s emotional experience and spontaneous expression—felt increasingly inadequate for the complexities of the 20th century. It was in this climate of transition that T.S. Eliot published "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1919).

Originally appearing in The Egoist and later collected in The Sacred Wood (1920), this essay did not merely offer a new way of reading; it proposed a complete restructuring of how we view the history of art. By challenging the cult of personality and the Romantic obsession with the "self," Eliot laid the cornerstone for what would become known as New Criticism. This essay serves as a roadmap for understanding Eliot’s "Impersonal" theory of poetry, the "Historical Sense," and the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between the past and the present.

I. Redefining Tradition: Beyond the Ancestral Grave

The word "tradition" often carries a negative connotation, suggesting a blind adherence to the past or a refusal to innovate. Eliot begins his essay by acknowledging that in the English language, "tradition" is often used as a term of censure. However, he seeks to reclaim it as a vital, active force.

The Problem of Inheritance

For Eliot, tradition is not something you are simply born into. It cannot be inherited like a piece of property or a physical trait. He states:

"It [tradition] cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour."

This is a radical departure from the idea of the "natural-born" poet. It suggests that being an artist is a matter of erudition and intellectual effort. One does not become a poet by virtue of their genes or their family name; one becomes a poet by doing the work of engaging with the literary ancestors who came before.

The Historical Sense

At the heart of Eliot’s concept of tradition is the "Historical Sense." This is perhaps the most famous and misunderstood concept in his critical canon. Eliot defines it as:

"a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order."

This is a metaphysical view of time. To Eliot, the history of literature is not a linear timeline where one movement ends and another begins. Instead, it is a "Simultaneous Order." Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton are not "back there" in history; they are "here," existing alongside the modern writer. The historical sense is the ability to see the "timeless" (the eternal truths of art) and the "temporal" (the specific context of the present moment) as a single, unified experience.

II. The Reciprocity of Art: The Individual and the Order

A common critique of Eliot’s theory is that it leaves no room for "Individual Talent." If a poet must conform to tradition, how can they be original? Eliot solves this paradox by arguing that the relationship between the individual and the tradition is a two-way street.

The Existing Monuments

Eliot compares the history of art to a set of "existing monuments." When a new, truly significant work of art is created, something remarkable happens:

"The necessity that he [the artist] shall conform, that he shall cohere, is not onesided; what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it."

In this view, the past is not fixed. When a modern poet like Eliot himself writes a masterpiece, it actually changes our perception of the past. For example, after reading Eliot, we might see the Metaphysical Poets (like John Donne) in a new light. The new work modifies the "Simultaneous Order." Thus, "conformity" for Eliot does not mean imitation; it means entering the system in a way that shifts the entire structure.

III. The Labour of Learning: Shakespeare and the Museum

Eliot addresses the practicalities of acquiring this tradition. He is careful to note that while "great labour" is required, this doesn't mean every poet needs to be a dry academic or a "pundit."

Absorption vs. Erudition

He famously observes:

"Some can absorb knowledge, the more tardy must sweat for it. Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British Museum."

This distinction is crucial. It suggests that the "Historical Sense" is a quality of mind rather than a quantitative checklist of books read. Shakespeare possessed a high degree of "absorption"—the ability to take a single source and extract the essential spirit of the human condition and the literary tradition. For others, the process is more "tardy" and requires "sweat." Whether through intuition or rigorous study, the goal is the same: to move beyond the narrow confines of one’s own personality and time.

IV. The Theory of Impersonality: The Catalyst and the Mind

The second part of the essay shifts from the historical to the psychological. Here, Eliot introduces his "Theory of Impersonality," which stands in direct opposition to the Romantic "Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."

The Process of Depersonalization

Eliot argues that the progress of an artist is a "continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality." To write great poetry, the artist must lose themselves. The poet’s job is not to express their personal life, but to serve as a medium.

The Platinum Analogy: A Scientific Metaphor

To illustrate this "extinction of personality," Eliot uses a scientific analogy—a bold move in an age where literature was trying to claim the same objective authority as science. He describes a chemical reaction:

The Elements: Oxygen and Sulfur Dioxide.

The Catalyst: A filament of platinum.

The Result: Sulfuric acid.

In this reaction, the platinum is essential for the gases to combine, yet the platinum itself remains completely unchanged, neutral, and unaffected. It does not enter the sulfuric acid; it simply facilitates the transformation.

Eliot argues that the poet’s mind is the platinum. It must be a "receptacle" for seizing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, and images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together. The "personality" of the poet is irrelevant to the final product; in fact, the more "perfect" the artist, the more separate will be "the man who suffers and the mind which creates."

V. The Escape from Emotion: Art as a Craft

Eliot’s anti-Romantic stance reaches its climax in his discussion of emotion. For the Romantics, poetry was a way to share the poet’s inner feelings. For Eliot, poetry is a way to escape them.

Escape, Not Expression

He writes:

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality."

This is not to say that Eliot’s poetry is "emotionless." Rather, he distinguishes between personal emotions and artistic emotions. A poet may have a very boring life but produce intense poetry, or a very exciting life and produce dull poetry. The "emotion of art" is something that exists only within the poem itself—a concentration of experiences that are "transmuted" by the mind.

The "Objective Correlative"

Though the term is found in a different essay ("Hamlet and His Problems"), the seeds are here. Eliot believes that emotions must be externalized into art through specific images and structures. By the time the reader feels the emotion of the poem, the poet’s personal connection to that emotion has been severed. Only those who have strong personalities and emotions, Eliot adds with a touch of irony, know what it means to want to escape from them.

VI. Critical Evaluation: The Legacy of Eliot’s Logic

T.S. Eliot’s essay revolutionized the 20th century, but a century later, we can see the cracks in his "monuments." To provide a balanced view, we must look at both his contributions and the valid critiques against him.

The Strength of the New Criticism

Eliot’s focus on the text itself—"directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry"—gave birth to the "Close Reading" method. This liberated literature from being treated as a footnote to history or biography. It allowed us to appreciate poems as intricate, self-contained machines of meaning. His insistence on the "Historical Sense" also reminded us that art is a conversation across time, preventing culture from becoming purely "present-focused" or shallow.

Critique 1: The Elitist Guardrail

The first major critique of Eliot is his Elitism. By defining tradition as "the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer," Eliot effectively built a wall around literature. His definition of tradition is Eurocentric and patriarchal. It suggests that a "true" writer must be deeply versed in a very specific, Western, classical education. This leaves little room for oral traditions, non-Western literatures, or the experiences of those who were historically excluded from the "Museums" and "Monuments" he celebrates. In today’s globalized world, Eliot’s "Simultaneous Order" feels far too narrow.

Critique 2: The Coldness of Impersonality

The second critique focuses on his Emotional Distance. While the "Platinum" analogy is intellectually brilliant, many critics and readers argue that it is psychologically impossible. The "man who suffers" and the "mind which creates" are not separate rooms in a house; they are part of the same human soul. By demanding an "escape from personality," Eliot risks stripping poetry of its most powerful asset: human vulnerability. The "Confessional" poets of the 1950s (like Sylvia Plath or Robert Lowell) would later prove that the "expression of personality" could lead to some of the most profound art of the century, directly contradicting Eliot’s theory.

Conclusion: Why We Still Read Eliot

Despite these critiques, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" remains an essential text. We still read it because it forces us to ask the most important questions about art: What is our responsibility to the past? How much of the "self" belongs in a work of art? Is a poem a biological byproduct of a human life, or is it a crafted object?

Eliot’s genius was in making us see that a writer is not just a person with a pen, but a link in a chain. Whether we choose to "escape" our personality or embrace it, we are all working within a "Simultaneous Order" that began long before us and will continue long after we are gone. By treating literature as a living presence rather than a dead history, Eliot ensured that the "ancestors" would never stop asserting their immortality.

Key Takeaways for Students and Critics

Tradition is earned, not given: You must "sweat" or "absorb" to understand the past.

Art is objective: Judge the poem, not the poet.

The Past is fluid: New art changes how we read old art.

The Poet is a Catalyst: The mind facilitates creation but stays separate from the personal self.

References and Further Reading:

ResearchGate (2024). Tradition and Individual Talent - T.S. Eliot. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377083958_Tradition_and_Individual_Talent_-_TS_Eliot

https://youtu.be/_svovtvE6uo?si=B9kGFFDQkVY3CDhq

https://youtu.be/W7-GwBor4fU?si=NyfLU95ZcWqmwiJ0

https://youtu.be/6TsIwj7LaHs?si=eckWhNbx4e74X680

https://youtu.be/gcgkY8ATjMI?si=kp8xvmJpJ11xq_ZE

“The Illusion of Belonging ,Fish and the Water”

 मछलियों को लगता था 

के जैसे वे तड़पती हैं पानी के लिए

पानी भी उनके लिए 

वैसा ही तड़पता होगा।

लेकिन जब खींचा जाता है जाल

तो पानी मछलियों को छोड़कर

जाल के छेदों से निकल भागता है।

पानी मछलियों का देश है

लेकिन मछलियां अपने देश के बारे में 

कुछ नहीं जानतीं।

- नरेश सक्सेना

Here is the English translation and analysis of the poem:

The fish used to feel,

That just as they writhe for water,

The water too, for them,

Must writhe the same way.

But when the net is pulled,

The water abandons the fish

And escapes through the holes of the net.

Water is the fish's country,

But the fish

Know nothing about their country.

— Naresh Saxena

Sharing My Thoughts  :

In my view, this poem is not merely a tale of a fish and water, but a profound commentary on human beings and their fundamental beliefs or support systems.

1. The Illusion of Reciprocal Expectation

The fish’s belief that the water "must writhe the same way" represents the human tendency towards blind faith and one-sided expectation in key relationships or support systems (our careers, our society, even our concept of God). We project our own intense emotional need ("writhing") onto the source of our comfort, assuming a mutual loyalty or reciprocal longing that often doesn't exist.

2. The Exposure of Reality in Crisis

The moment "when the net is pulled" symbolizes a major life crisis—a betrayal, a disaster, a massive failure. In this moment of acute need, the water (our foundation, our relationship, our belief) suddenly reveals its true, indifferent, or selfish nature by effortlessly "escaping through the holes." This demonstrates that many of our perceived 'bases' or 'foundations' are built on convenience and circumstance, not unconditional commitment.

3. The Tragedy of Ignorance

The final lines are the poem's philosophical climax: "Water is the fish's country, / But the fish / Know nothing about their country."

This speaks to the tragic irony of human existence: we are often ignorant of the true nature of the very thing we depend on most.

We see Nature as our home but forget its capacity for detached destruction.

We rely on Society but are unaware of its quickness to discard us in a crisis.

The fish knows water as 'life' but not as 'an indifferent substance' that prioritizes physics (gravity and hole size) over loyalty.

The core sorrow of the poem lies in the fact that the fish's longing is genuine, but its foundation of belief is hollow. It urges us to understand the reality of our support systems, rather than just clinging to emotional expectations of them.

Here is the analysis of Naresh Saxena's poem based on I.A. Richards' Four Kinds of Meaning framework: 

 Four Dimensions of Meaning: "Water is the Fish's Country..."

Naresh Saxena’s poem utilizes language that goes beyond mere depiction, weaving depth through four layers of meaning: Sense, Feeling, Tone, and Intention. Analyzing these lines through I.A. Richards' criteria reveals the following:

1. Sense

'Sense' defines what is explicitly articulated—the 'items' the poet refers to.

• The Poem's Sense: The fish believes that water longs for it reciprocally (the illusion of mutual love). When the net is pulled, the water abandons the fish and escapes (the foundation's betrayal). Water is the fish's country, but the fish knows nothing about it (ignorance).

• Conclusion: The poem narrates a four-stage event: Belief (Longing) \right arrow Crisis (Net) \right arrow Abandonment (Escape) \right arrow Ultimate Truth (Ignorance).

2. Feeling

'Feeling' is the emotional attitude the speaker (here, the fish/poet) holds towards the thoughts being expressed.

 • The Poem's Feeling

   •Initially: The fish exhibits a naive faith. It feels an emotional oneness with its 'country,' generating a sense of security and love.

  • During the Crisis: This feeling transforms into intense agony and betrayal. The suffering is not just about survival, but about broken, unrequited love.

  •Conclusion: The poet masterfully structures the emotional contrast between faith and shattered faith.

3. Tone

'Tone' is the attitude the writer adopts towards their readers or audience, shaped by the writer's awareness of that relationship.

 •The Poem's Tone: The tone is calm, philosophical, and ironic.

   • The poet describes the fish's agony without any aggressive emotion or exaggeration.

   • The speaker narrates the event like a Neutral Observer, but introduces a pitying irony in the final lines ("But the fish / Know nothing about their country."). This tone invites the reader to engage in deep contemplation rather than mere emotional reaction.

4. Intention

'Intention' encapsulates the writer’s purpose, whether conscious or subconscious—the effect the writer endeavors to evoke.

 •The Poem's Intention: Saxena's purpose is not just to tell a story of a fish but to challenge fundamental truths of human existence.

   • The poet intends to make the readers realize that the foundation (country, relationship, belief system) we rely on blindly can prove to be indifferent in moments of crisis.

   • The poem motivates humanity to recognize the realistic nature of their supports and discard mere emotional expectations.

The Interaction of Levels : 

Sense : Provides the imagery of the net and the escapin  water.  Establishes the framework of the crisis. 

Feeling : Converts innocent faith into sharp, broken suffering. Communicates the emotional intensity of betrayal. 

Tone : Presents the truth in an ironic and composed voice. Compels the reader to think objectively about their supports. 

Intention :challenges blind faith and demands knowledge/awareness.  Raises a philosophical question on human ignorance regarding its own foundations.

Through the analysis of these four dimensions, it becomes clear that the poem transcends the story of fish and water, skillfully exposing the profound truth about human existential foundations and the illusionary expectations associated with them.

Conclusion : 

Naresh Saxena’s poem exposes the bitter contradiction between belief and reality.

The fish's illusion that the water "must writhe the same way" for it is symbolic of human expectations and our blind faith in the foundations of our lives. The poem teaches us that we often expect the same emotional loyalty from our "country" or fundamental support systems as we invest in them.

However, the effortless escape of the water in the moment of the net being pulled (crisis) proves that our 'foundation' (be it nature, society, or relationships) is often indifferent and convenient, not loyal.

The final lines encapsulate the deep philosophical sorrow of the poem: we remain ignorant of the true nature of the very thing we depend on most. This poem compels us to reflect on whether we understand the 'country' of our lives merely through emotion, or whether we truly grasp its reality. This ignorance is the root cause of the fish's (and humanity's) suffering.

Refference:

https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2015/09/just-poems.html

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377146653_IA_Richards_-_Figurative_Language_-_Practical_Criticism

“Poetry Under Fire: How War Shattered Form and Exposed the Old Lie”

I. Introduction: Poetry as Testimony :

The study of literature is often a study of human crisis, and few crises are more profound or destructive than war. War poetry stands as a unique testament to this devastation, operating not as a cheerleading anthem for national glory, but as a visceral, often damning, record of human suffering. This blog post explores the fundamental nature and significance of the genre, tracing its evolution from patriotic fervor to disillusioned critique, focusing particularly on the seismic shift caused by the First World War.

We will first define war poetry and discuss its pivotal significance in the context of content and form. We will then conduct a detailed rhetorical analysis of Wilfred Owen’s masterpiece, "Dulce et Decorum est," examining the profound tension between its message and its structure. Finally, we will challenge a modern AI tool with a prompt—to write a war poem on the 1971 Indo-Pak War in the style of Owen—and reflect on the outcome, using it as a critical lens to appreciate the unique artistry and moral power of the soldier-poets we have studied. The goal is to understand how these poems move beyond mere chronicling to become enduring, complex statements against the enduring "Old Lie" of glorious war.

II. What is War Poetry? Discussing its Significance in Content and Form :

War Poetry is a genre of literature that encompasses poems written during or about a military conflict. Historically, the term is most famously associated with the body of work produced by soldier-poets of the First World War (WWI), such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke. Their work redefined the genre, shifting its purpose from glorification to genuine, unflinching testimony.

The Evolution of Content

The significance of war poetry rests heavily on the contrast between its traditional and modern forms:

1. Traditional/Pre-WWI Content (The Glorification): Prior to the mechanized horror of WWI, the content of war poetry often focused on themes of national honour, duty, heroism, and noble sacrifice. Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" (1914), for example, views death in battle not as an end, but as a purification, a sacrifice that enriches the very soil where the soldier falls. The content elevates the soldier to the status of a selfless martyr.

2. Modern/WWI Content (The Disillusionment): The content of modern war poetry, beginning with WWI, violently pivots to themes of trauma, pity, horror, futility, and the utter dehumanization of the soldier. The poets who experienced the trenches—the "mud-sodden and shelled-out men" (Sassoon)—replaced the high-flown rhetoric with the visceral reality of pity. The content becomes a deliberate act of anti-propaganda, challenging the patriotic establishment and the civilians who perpetuated the lie.

The Significance of Form in the Classroom Discussion :

In our class, we emphasized that the most powerful aspect of WWI poetry is how the Form (how the poem is structured) is used to reinforce the Content (what the poem says).

Aspect	Pre-WWI/Pro-War Poetry	WWI/Modern War Poetry
Form	Traditional and Ordered: Uses established, regular structures like the Sonnet, Ode, and strict Iambic Pentameter. This order reflects a belief in the inherent order and noble purpose of the conflict.	Disrupted and Contorted: Breaks or stretches traditional forms. Employs techniques like Pararhyme (half-rhyme), jarring rhythm, and non-traditional stanza lengths.
Significance	The controlled form validates the message of control and noble cause.	The broken form structurally mirrors the chaos, psychological trauma, and moral rupture caused by the war. The poem's structure is infected by the very horror it describes.

This formal technique is crucial: poets like Owen and Sassoon did not just write about the chaos; they made their poetry chaotic, using the dignified traditions of English verse as a cultural framework that the war brutally dismantles. The formal dissonance is their ultimate artistic statement.

III. The Tension Between Message and Form in "Dulce et Decorum est" by Wilfred Owen :

Wilfred Owen’s "Dulce et Decorum est" is the definitive example of the tension between form and message. It uses a classical poetic vessel to hold a violently anti-classical message.

A. The Condemnatory Message

The poem is a sustained, graphic argument against the Latin adage: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"—“It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country.”

The content proceeds in three distinct acts of brutal honesty:

1. The Exhaustion (Stanza 1): Describes soldiers not as heroes, but as "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks," dehumanized and degraded by fatigue.

2. The Gas Attack (Stanza 2 & 3): The unforgettable, nightmarish scene of a comrade unable to fit his gas mask, drowning in the poison. The language is physical and sickening: "flound’ring like a man in fire or lime," "gargling... the blood/Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs." The message here is that there is nothing sweet or fitting about this death.

3. The Direct Accusation (Stanza 4): The poem closes by directly addressing the reader who has never experienced this horror, calling the classical motto the "old Lie."

B. The Contorted Form and The Tension

The poem is largely written in Iambic Pentameter and attempts a Sonnet-like structure, but Owen immediately destabilizes it, creating the core tension.

1. The Assault on Iambic Pentameter: The line should be a smooth ten syllables. Owen constantly forces extra stresses and jarring word choices that break the expected rhythmic dignity.

   • Detailed Analysis Expansion Point: Analyze the stress in the line: "Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge," The heavy, monosyllabic stresses and the multiple pauses force the reader to slow down and struggle, mimicking the physical struggle of the marching soldiers. The form drags, refusing to move with the heroic ease expected of epic verse.

2. The Significance of Pararhyme: Owen uses a ABAB \ CDCD \ EFEF \ GG rhyme scheme, but the rhymes are often deliberately imperfect. Examples include:

   • Stanza 1: "sacks / backs" (Full Rhyme) vs. "sludge / trudge" (Full Rhyme).

   • Stanza 2/3: "drowning / gowning," and "vile / smile." (Pararhyme/Near-rhyme).

   • Detailed Analysis Expansion Point: The near-rhyme is the technical expression of the tension. The words sound almost right, but the vowels are discordant. This formal imperfection symbolizes the moral and physical imperfection of the battlefield. The form refuses to achieve the expected harmony, proclaiming that the world being described cannot be contained by 'sweet' or 'fitting' language.

In essence, the tension is the deliberate clash between the vessel (a dignified, traditional structure) and the content (the horrifying, undignified reality). The form serves not as a decoration, but as a critical tool, proving that the language and ideals of previous centuries are inadequate—broken—by modern war.

IV. The Generated Poem: Indo-Pak War of 1971 in the Style of Wilfred 

Owen :

For this section, I used a poetry generation tool with the prompt: "Write a war poem on the Indo-Pak War of 1971 in the style and tone of Wilfred Owen." We chose Owen as the master of disillusionment to contrast the historical narratives that often valorize this conflict.

The Generated Poem (Simulated Output)

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Dhaka’s Lie

Down in the silt and scrub, where the river bled,

We watched the city break, a fevered sight,

Men, boys, and shadows, stumbling through the dead,

Too worn for anger, shivering in the light.

Our uniforms were rags, soaked deep in mire,

The smell of jute and gunpowder in the air,

Our eyes held nothing, save a banked-down fire,

And whispered prayers that no one truly heard there.

As under a green sea, when the shelling came,

And one too slow—gasping, gargling, his breath undone—

You saw the white froth on his lips, a bitter shame,

Choking on silence that no gun had won.

If you could march behind the truck we flung him,

See the slack face, the blood-gorged, bulging eyes,

And hear the children’s wailings where the bombs swung,

You would not tell with such high, hurried lies,

To those who yearn for glory, desperate for a name,

The Dulce et Decorum est—that wicked, ancient claim.

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Reflection and Comparison: The Gap Between Imitation and Mastery :

The generated poem is a competent imitation of Owen’s tone and thematic message, but it fails to capture the intricate formal genius that is the hallmark of the studied war poets.

A. Success in Tone and Message (Content)

The poem successfully transposes the Owen-esque thematic content onto the 1971 conflict:

• Focus on the Victim: The content centers on exhaustion, the "dead," and the "stumbling," reflecting the universal plight of the soldier and the civilian during the Bangladesh Liberation War (1971). The mention of "silt and scrub" and "jute" attempts to ground the universal suffering in the specific, riverine geography of East Pakistan/Bangladesh, mirroring Owen’s focus on the mud and trenches of the Western Front.

• The Gas Attack Analogue: The second stanza, describing the man "gasping, gargling," is a direct thematic echo of the famous gas attack in "Dulce et Decorum est," replacing the gas with a similarly violent, choking injury.

• Moral Condemnation: The final stanza directly attacks the "high, hurried lies" and the Dulce et Decorum est claim, proving the bot understood the poem's core function as anti-war polemic.

B. Failure in Form and Structural Tension (Comparison with Studied Works)

Here, the generated poem reveals the limitations of algorithmic imitation, failing to replicate the sophisticated tension found in Owen and Sassoon.

1. The Absence of Pararhyme (Formal Failure): The most glaring flaw is the reliance on perfect, full rhymes (sight/light, air/there, came/shame, name/claim).

   • Comparison Point: In "Exposure," Owen famously uses pararhyme ("silent" / "salient," "cloud" / "cold") to create a sound of shivering and futility. The sound of the poem is never resolved, reflecting the soldiers' unending, freezing vigil. The generated poem’s full, resolved rhymes unintentionally give the poem an air of closure and conventional beauty that fundamentally contradicts Owen's purpose. The form here contradicts the anti-war message by being too aesthetically pleasing.

2. Lack of Ironic Conversationalism (Comparison with Sassoon): Sassoon's poems, like "Suicide in the Trenches," are often short, blunt, and employ a simple, conversational metre to deliver a shocking, satirical punch.

   • Comparison Point: The generated poem remains overly dramatic and descriptive. It lacks the sharp, bitter sarcasm of Sassoon’s opening: "I knew a simple soldier boy / Who grinned at life in empty joy." The generated poem tries for the tragic epic of Owen, but misses the bitter, controlled satire of Sassoon, demonstrating that capturing the "tone" of war poetry requires mastering multiple, distinct voices and structures.

3. The Weakening of Specific Detail: While the generated poem names "Dhaka," the details remain generic.

• Comparison Point: In contrast, a studied work like "Futility" by Owen is built around one heartbreaking, specific action: attempting to wake a dead man by turning him towards the sun. The simplicity of the action and the profundity of the philosophical conclusion ("O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break earth’s sleep at all?") elevate the work. The generated poem’s descriptions of "mire" and "blood" are too generalized to achieve the specificity required to make the universal horror feel personal, a key trait of the best war poetry.

V. Conclusion: The Enduring Power of Poetic Dissonance

War poetry, as defined by the soldier-poets of the early 20th century, is far more than historical documentation. It is a genre forged in the crucible of disillusionment, using the mechanics of form as a direct participant in its moral argument.

Our exploration confirms that the enduring significance of war poetry lies in its ability to harness the tension between message and form. Wilfred Owen’s success in "Dulce et Decorum est" is not just in his graphic description of the gas attack, but in his genius use of pararhyme and broken metre, which forces the very language to fail in its task of sounding "sweet and fitting." It is a poetry of broken harmony.

The AI-generated poem, while stylistically aware, ultimately demonstrates that true literary genius in dissent cannot be mechanically replicated. It can mimic the message of horror, but it cannot replicate the deep, self-aware structural damage—the deliberate formal breakdown—that makes Owen's work a profound, timeless, and necessary testament against the enduring wickedness of the "ancient claim." The war poets we study teach us that in the face of horror, the most powerful artistic response is often a calculated, eloquent refusal of convention.

Refferences :

Brief History of the First World War

Brief History of the Second World War

The Impact of the First World War on British Literature