Romantic Writing refers to those works produced between 1780 and 1830 in Great Britain. This period is also known as the Romantic Period. The six well-known poets during the Romantic Period are:
• William Blake (1757 – 1827)
• William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850)
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834)
• George Gordon Lord Byron (1788 – 1824)
• John Keats (1795 – 1821)
• Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822).

Here are some of the poems written by these six big poets during the Romantic Period.

The Lily (Blake)
The modest rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threatening horn,
While the lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.

The Pains of Sleep (Coleridge)
Ere on my bed my limbs I lay,
It hath not been my use to pray
With moving lips or bended knees;
But silently, by slow degrees,
My spirit I to Love compose,
In humble trust mine eye-lids close,
With reverential resignation
No wish conceived, no thought exprest,
Only a sense of supplication;
A sense o’er all my soul imprest
That I am weak, yet not unblest,
Since in me, round me, every where
Eternal strength and Wisdom are.

But yester-night I prayed aloud
In anguish and in agony,
Up-starting from the fiendish crowd
Of shapes and thoughts that tortured me:
A lurid light, a trampling throng,
Sense of intolerable wrong,
And whom I scorned, those only strong!
Thirst of revenge, the powerless will
Still baffled, and yet burning still!
Desire with loathing strangely mixed
On wild or hateful objects fixed.
Fantastic passions! maddening brawl!
And shame and terror over all!
Deeds to be hid which were not hid,
Which all confused I could not know
Whether I suffered, or I did:
For all seemed guilt, remorse or woe,
My own or others still the same
Life-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame.

So two nights passed: the night’s dismay
Saddened and stunned the coming day.
Sleep, the wide blessing, seemed to me
Distemper’s worst calamity.
The third night, when my own loud scream
Had waked me from the fiendish dream,
O’ercome with sufferings strange and wild,
I wept as I had been a child;
And having thus by tears subdued
My anguish to a milder mood,
Such punishments, I said, were due
To natures deepliest stained with sin,—
For aye entempesting anew
The unfathomable hell within,
The horror of their deeds to view,
To know and loathe, yet wish and do!
Such griefs with such men well agree,
But wherefore, wherefore fall on me?
To be loved is all I need,
And whom I love, I love indeed.

She Walks in Beauty (Lord Byron)
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

When I have fears that I may cease to be (Keats)
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Ozymandias (Shelley)
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

She Dwelt Among Th’ Untrodden Ways (Wordsworth)
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
—Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

Source : “Romantic Writings: An Anthology” edited by W.E. Owens and Hamish Johnson. Printed by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall, UK.

(1)       The most powerful weapon known is the weapon of blessing. Therefore, a clever person relies on it. He wins with peace, not with war.

(2)       To be strong, you have to be like water: if there are no obstacles, it flows; if there is an obstacle it stops; if a dam is broken, then it flows further; if a vessel is square, then it has a square form; if a vessel is round, then it has a round form. Because it is so soft and flexible, it is the most necessary and the strongest thing.

(3)       Kind people are never involved in arguments, and those who like to argue are never kind. Truthful words are not always pleasant, and pleasant words are not necessarily truthful.

(4)       The rivers and seas are the masters of the valleys across which they flow. This is because they are lower than the valleys. In the same way, a person who wants to be higher than other people should be lower than they; if he wants to guide people, he should be below them.

(5)       A person who stands on his tiptoes cannot stand long, and a person who is too proud of himself cannot set a good example.

(6)       In order not to pour out a vessel full of water, you should hold it evenly. In order to have a razor sharp, you should sharpen it. The same should happen with your soul if you are looking for real goodness.

(7)       He who is really skilful in communicating with people is usually a humble and quiet person. This is called the virtue of non-resistance. This is called harmony with Heaven.

(8)       A wise man innately knows how to act without searching, because he has the divine within himself. The further you search and seek, the less you know.

(9)       Those who have weak faith themselves cannot arouse faith in others.

(10)     There is nothing in this world more tender and more pliable than water, yet harder and rigid things cannot resist it. Weakness defeats strength, tenderness defeats rigidity. Everyone knows this law, but no one acts upon it. The weakest in the world gain victory over the strongest; therefore, there is a great advantage in humility and silence. Only a few people in this world are truly humble.

Source: “A Calendar of Wisdom : Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul written and selected from the world’s scared tests” by Leo Tolstoy, translated into English from the Russian by Peter Sekirin. Published by Simon and Schuster Inc, USA.

(1) You can achieve wisdom in three ways. The first way is the way of meditation. This is the most noble way. The second way is the way of imitation. This is the easiest and least satisfying way. Thirdly, there is a way of experience. This is the most difficult way.

(2) When an arrow does not hit its target, the marksman blames himself, not another person. A wise person behaves in the same way

(3) In order to reach spiritual perfection, you should first of all take care of the purity of your soul. This can be reached when the heart looks for truth, and strives for wholeness, and depends on true knowledge.

(4) Wisdom is knowing the purpose of life, and knowing how to achieve it.

(5) Even if people do not know what real kindness is, they nevertheless have it within them.

(6) Be attentive to what you do; never consider anything unworthy of your attention.

(7) The more strictly and mercilessly you judge yourself, the more just and kind you will be in the judgment of others.

(8) The goodness which you do give you pleasure, but not satisfaction. No matter how much goodness you do, you should wish to do more and more.

(9) What is no clear should be cleared up. What is no easy to do should be done with great persistence.

(10) Work toward the purification of your thoughts. Without bad thoughts you will be incapable of bad deeds.

(11) A wise man looks for everything inside of himself; a madman seeks for everything in others.

(12) The journey of the wise to virtue is as a journey to a remote land, or the ascent of a high mountain. People who travel to a faraway place start with a single step, and those who climb a high mountain start from the bottom.

(13) The law of right living is not immediately clear to the wish man, but it becomes much clearer when he follows it. The law of right living is immediately clear to the ordinary person, but it becomes less obvious when he tries to follow it.

Source: “A Calendar of Wisdom : Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul written and selected from the world’s scared tests” by Leo Tolstoy, translated into English from the Russian by Peter Sekirin. Published by Simon and Schuster Inc, USA.

(1) Every man becomes what he teaches others to be. Those who gain victory over themselves will gain victory over others. It is most difficult to achieve victory over oneself. Every man has power only over himself.

(2) If a person’s hand is not damaged, then it can withstand the bite of a poisonous snake. Its poison poses no danger to a healthy hand. Evil is harmless for him who is not an evildoer.

(3) All goodness is as nothing compared to the goodness of truth; all sweets are as nothing compared to the sweetness of truth. The bliss of truth surpass all other joys in the world.

(4) You should be truthful; you should avoid wrath; you should give to those who ask, because they ask for small things. You will become holier by following these three paths.

(5) With humbleness, kindness, and self-sacrifice, you will take the weapon from any enemy. Any fire dies if there is insufficient wood.

(6) You alone plan to commit a sin, you alone plan to do evil; and you alone can escape sin and purify your thoughts. Only your inner self can damn you, and only your inner self can save you.

(7) Look at the sky, and at the earth, and think that all things pass. All of the mountains and rivers you see, and all the forms of life, and all creations of nature, all pass. Then you will understand the truth; you will see what remains, what does not pass.

(8) Bad things are easy to do, good things are done only with work and effort.

(9) One man keeps silent, and people discuss him. Another speaks a lot, and people discuss him. A third speaks a little, and people discuss. There is no such thing as a person who is no being discussed or scolded.

(10) He who moves from doing bad deeds to doing good deeds enlightens this world like the moon coming out from behind the clouds. This is the best thing in the world; this is the first step toward divinity.

(11) When you throw a ball up in the air, it doesn’t stay there but returns to the earth; likewise all your good or bad actions will return to you in another form, according to the desire of your heart, no matter which path you take.

Source: “A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul written and selected from the world’s scared tests” by Leo Tolstoy, translated into English from Peter Sekirin’s Russian version.

Muhammad Haji Salleh has written several volumes of poetry in Malay, and one solitary volume, Times and its People (1978), in English. Here is one of his English poems.

do not say
by Muhammad Haji Salled (1942)

do not say my people are lazy
because you do not know.
you are only a critic, an onlooker.
you cannot know or judge,
passing the kampong in your car,
staring at economic data.

do not think my people are weak
because they are gentle,
because they do not build skyscrapers.
have you ever worked in a lading,
or danced the ronggeng?
can you sing the dondang saying?
do not think that we have only music
because we love life.

do not write that we have no literature, culture.
have you ever listened to the sajak or pantun
stayed a night at the bangsawan?
have you read the epic shairs
or the theological theses?
how many times have you wondered about history in the blade
and ancestry in he handle of the keris,
or felt the pattern of the songket?
have you lived in a kampong?

do not condemn us as poor
because we have very few banks.
see, here the richness of our people,
the brimful hearts that do not grab or grapple.
we collect humanity from sun and rain and man,
transcending the business and the money,

do not tell us how to live
or organise such nice associations and bodies,
our society was an entity
before the advent of political philosophy,

do not say –
because you do not know.

This poem is set in a typical Singapore situation. The conversations between the two mothers are about the spending of money and the intelligence of their children.

2 mothers in a hdb playground
by Arthur Yap (1943)

ah beng is so smart,
already he can watch tv & know the whole story.
your kim cheong is also quite smart,
what boy is he in the exam?
this playground is not too bad, but i’m always
so worried, car here, car there,

at exam time, it’s worse

because you know why?

kim cheong eats so little

give him some complan. my ah beng was like that,
now he’s different. If you give him anything
he’s sure to finish it all up.

sure, sure. cheong’s father buys him
vitamins but he keeps it inside his mouth
& later gives it to the cat.
i scold like mad but what for?
if i don’t mad but what for?
if i don’t see it, how can i scold?

on saturday, tv showed a new type,
special for children. why don’t you call
his father buy some? maybe they are better.

money’s no problem. it’s not that
we want to save. if we buy it
& he doesn’t eat it, throwing money
into the jamban is the same.
ah beng’s father spends so much,
takes out the mosaic floor & wants
to make terrazzo or what.

we also got new furniture, bought from diethelm.
the sofa is so soft. I dare not sit. they all
sit like don’t want to get up. so expensive.
nearly two thousand dollars, sure must be good.

that you can’t say. my toa-soh
bought an expensive sewing machine,
after 6 months, it is already spoilt.
she took it back but ….. beng,
come here, come, don’t play the fool.
your tuition teacher is coming.
wah! kim cheong, now you’re quite big.

come, cheong, quick go home & bathe.
ah pah wants to take you chya-hong in new motor-car.

Eunice de Souza, born in 1940 in Pune, is acknowledged as one of the best Indian poets writing in English. Apart from writing extensively on contemporary Indian culture and literature, she has also written books for children. Her collections are as Fix (1979), Women in Dutch Painting (1988), Ways of Belonging (1980) and Selection and New Poems (1994).

Advice to Women

Keep cats
if you want to learn to cope with
the otherness of lovers.
Otherness is not always neglect —
Cats return to their litter trays
when they need to.
Don’t cuss out of the window
at their enemies.
That stare of perpetual surprise
in those great green eyes
Will teach you
to die alone.

He speaks

Well, now tell me
what would you do to a
woman who wrote to you
saying: You haven’t written
for three weeks. You’re the
meanest man alive. Not even
an exclamation mark at the end
and she sends telegrams and
express letters saying it was
a joke, love, it was a joke.

I did what any self-respecting
man would. I ignored her for
a week. Her pleadings wore
me down. She was an affectionate
creature and tried hard, poor dear,
but never quite made the grade.

She would walk too close to me
and then protest naively: How
should lovers walk? Show me:
Ridiculous, too, her unseemly
mirth when I said confidentially:
I have such an hynotic effect
on women. Everywhere I go
they fall into my arms.

Jamie Bond ! She cried
My man is India’s answer to
Jamie Bond !
After that pathological display
I decided there was only one
thing to do: fix her.

The next time we were making love
I said quite casually:
I hope you realise I do this
with other women.

Kamala Das is recognised as one of India’s foremost poets. Das was born on 31 March 1934 in Malabar, in the state of Kerala, southwest India. Her love of poetry was influenced by her great uncle, Nalapat Narayan Menon, a prominent writer. She was also deeply affected by the poetry of her mother and the sacred writings kept by the matriarchal community of Nayars. Das was privately educated until the age of 15 when she got married.

Das’ achievements extend well beyond her verses of poetry. She had also dabbled in painting, fiction and even politics. However, in 1984, Das failed to win a place in parliament

Das dares to break the traditional way of writing about nationalist themes such as legends, religious and general ethical statements to writing about personal experiences and the social issues of women. She has gone far beyond the stereotype of longings and complaining and wrote creatively with deep feelings of the taboo subjects that Indian women are often silence about.

Here is one of her well-known poems.

The Looking Glass

Getting a man to love you is easy
Only be honest about your wants as
Woman. Stand nude before the glass with him
So that he sees himself the stronger one
And believes it so, and you so much more
Softer, younger, lovelier. Admit your
Admiration. Notice the perfection
Of his limbs, his eyes reddening under
The shower, the shy walk across the bathroom floor,
Dropping towels, and the jerky way he
Urinates. All the fond details that make
Him male and your only man. Gift him all,
Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of
Long hair, the must of sweat between the breasts,
The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your
Endless female hungers. Oh yes, getting
A man to love is easy, but living
Without him afterwards may have to be
Faced. A living without life when you move
Around, meeting strangers, with your eyes that
Gave up their search, with ears that hear only
His last voice calling out your name and your
Body which once under his touch had gleamed
Like burnished brass, now drab and destitute.

Kamala Das (1934 – )

Sleep is an indispensable element in our lives. In fact, we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. During our sleep the mind and body are in a different level of consciousness as compared to when we are awake. Our body are inactive, metabolism decreases and the mind is seemingly unaware of the surroundings. However, the body does not completely stop its operations.

What happen during our sleep?
Essentially there are four stages in one sleep cycle.

Stage 1
Light sleep takes up around 5% to 10% on an average night. The body temperature drops and the muscles relax. It is not difficult to awaken sleepers at this stage, and they may not even realise that they have been asleep.

Stage 2
This refers to light-to-medium sleep during which it is still effortless to arouse the sleeper. The body is relatively restored at this juncture.

Stage 3 and 4
The sleeper falls into deep sleep during these two stages. The gradual relaxation of muscles and breathing, increased insensitivity to light and sound, as well as reduced heart rate can be observed. The sleeper is not easily awakened.

The body is most rejuvenated and restored at stage 3 and 4. If a sleeper does not obtain enough deep sleep at these two levels, he does not wake up invigorated. After the completion of stage 4 sleep, we go back to stage 3, then stage 2. After this, we experience the first session of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep for the night.

NREM and REM Sleep

Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep used to describe stages 1 to 4. REM sleep refers to the phase during which we dream. The term “REM sleep” is derived from the fact that our eyes appear to move quickly at random at this stage.

It is found that our brain activity throughout REM sleep is similar to that when we are awake. In contrast to the slower heart rate at stages 1 to 4, the heart rate during REM sleep is comparable to the normal waking pace.

REM sleep takes up about 20% to 25% in a standard night, and is usually linked with light sleep. The interval between each REM phase is approximately 90 minutes. Furthermore, the stages gradually occupy more time as the night advances.

Another sleep cycle starts after the first REM stage ends. We go through levels 2, 3, 4 and subsequently, the second REM stage. On average, four to six sleep cycles occur every night. The duration of each cycle is estimated to be around 90 minutes. As deep sleep mainly takes place in the earlier part of the night, the body is primarily renewed during the first three to five hours of sleep.

Source : “Sleep: Our faithful companion in life” by Wong Pui Yee. Featured in Montage Edition – Many faces, One world. Volume 9. Published by Asiapac Books Pte Ltd.

We all know that if we want to stay healthy, we should eat a balanced diet, avoid too much fat and sugar, exercise regularly, cut out smoking and avoid stress. In other words we should remain as much as possible as nature intended us. But we might want to ask what part does nature play in the natural healing process?

There are times when the intervention of drugs or surgery is essential, however, many illnesses will get better of their own accord regardless of treatment. This is because the human body has an inherent ability to heal itself. The fitter we are, the easier we will be able to cope with the illness and our healing power will also be greater.

We all know that our mental attitude can have a powerful effect on the course of our illness. The desire to get well is often a strong factor in early recovery. It has often been observed by medical profession that of two patients with identical illnesses the one with the positive outlook will recover far more quickly than his counterpart.

Naturopaths have long been advocating a natural whole-food diet that is free from artificial flavouring and preservatives. They are always concern about the prevention of illness by exercise, fresh air, healthy diet and freedom from stress. Naturopaths belief in treating the person as a whole, not just the illness. They will examine all aspects of the patient’s life from eating habits and posture to muscular tension and psychological problems.

Naturopaths differ from the medical professional in that they belief illness is nature’s way of restoring harmony to the body when the body is disturbed in any ways. They therefore advocate that illness should be allowed to run its course and that to suppress the symptoms with drugs will ultimately create more troubles.

There are also concerned to find and deal with the underlying cause of the problem rather than provide temporary relief of the symptoms. Naturopaths do belief that illness is caused by a faulty diet and will often prescribe several days of fasting to eliminate poisonous substances from the body. The patient will then gradually be introduced to a new and healthier diet.

The influence of the mind on illness is well demonstrated in the use of placebos or dummy drugs. One in three patients who are given a placebo which they belief to be a painkiller actually do experience considerable pain relief. Emil Coue, a French chemist, found that many patients were cured simply because they believed in the ‘efficacy’ of the coloured water they were given to drink. Coue concluded that conviction had a powerful effect on the human body and suggested that we should repeat phrases such as “Every day in every way I am getting better and better.”

Relaxation exercises, meditation and yoga, which likewise draw on our body’s resources, are also equally helpful in preventing ill health and in recuperating from it.

Source : “Doctor’s Answers – Published by Marshall Cavendish Partwork Ltd”