English Literature Made Easy for Students

The Letter by Dhumketu Explained in Hindi Video 1 of 2 Class X

1.     The Brook: by Alfred Lord Tennyson Lines 1-12 : I come from haunts of coot and herns……..to join the brimming river/For men may come and men may go,/But I go on for ever.” I come from haunts of coot and hern,   I make a sudden sally   And sparkle out among the fern,   To bicker down a valley.   By thirty hills I hurry down,   Or slip between the ridges,   By twenty thorpes, a little town,   And half a hundred bridges.   Till last by Philip's farm I flow   To join the brimming river,   For men may come and men may go,   But I go on for ever.   Word-meanings : 1. Brook: A brook may be called a narrow stream of water that runs through the narrow passages between mountains and valleys 2. Haunts : The places which are frequently (again & again) visited by animals/birds/human beings 3. Coot : it is a black-coloured bird with white beak and it lives near water 4. Hern (heron ): a large b...

Dear students, open your Literature book of class X. Today I’ve brought for you a drama  ‘The Dear Departed’ by Stanley Houghton  from your prescribed book, . In this play, the characters are the two sisters, Mrs. Slater, Mrs. Jordon, Victoria Slater is a girl of ten years and their husbands, Mr. Henry Slater and Mr. Ben Jordon. Mr. Abel Merry Weather is the father of the two sisters. As the scene opens, you assume that the stage is in front of you. I try to describe the scene. It is of a lower middle class.  There is a sitting room of a lower middle class people of a provincial town. On the left side of the spectators, there ia window in the wall, and the blinds are down. A sofa is placed in front of it and there is a fireplace on the right side, having under the mantelpiece. An armchair is also lying near it. In the middle of the wall facing the spectators, there is a passage that leads inside. A cheap & shabby chest is lying to the left of the central...

The Inchcape Rock by Robert Southey About the Poem: The poem is about the struggle that always goes on between the good and evil forces in this world. The person who digs a ditch for others also falls himself in it. Nature also takes its nemesis. Evil forces are punished by the Divine at last. For some time they seem to be winning, but in the end Good wins over defeating the Evil. In this poem, the same thing happens. Sir Ralf the Rover symbolises evil forces and the Abbot of Aberbrothok  stands for the Good forces. There was a reef (long line of sand or rocks) 18 kms. away from the eastern coast of Scotland. It posed a danger to the ships and the sailors passing by that way. Many ships were damaged and sailors lost their lives after the accidents. In stormy weather when the wave rose very high, the Inchcape Rock could not be seen by the sailors, so their ships or boats used to strike against the rocks in the ocean. An Abbot did an act of kindness by setting up a bell there...

2. Journey By Night by Norah Burke The author describes a night’s journey by a boy of just twelve years in this lesson. The boy has a load of his younger brother, who is suffering from stomach pain, in the sling tied to his back and forehead. He had to pass through dense forest replete with its dangers. Sometimes he was frozen to see the snake spreading its hood on his way, horrified to see the marks of the bear’s paws and then he had a narrow escape from a herd of elephants. After that he had to cross two rivers. Detailed Summary of the Lesson As the story begins, we find Sher Singh’s younger brother twitching with pain in his stomach. He is in a small hut of Laldwani village. Sher Singh’s age is twelve and his brother is of nine years. The condition of the boy is getting worse. The writer also tells us about Sher Singh in the second paragraph. He is a brown cheerful boy of the jungle, who was habitual of living in the hard conditions of life. These had been other children...