Know than thyself:ALEXANDER POPE

"know then thyself, presume not got to scan; the proper of study of mankind is man." Man has attained great knowledge of the material world .He thinks that he has become wiser than God. But if a man looks into himself he has failed to discover the truth about himself. He knows all other things but he does not know himself. Thus the poet calls man a curious riddle .According to pope the root of man's confusion lies in the fact that man does not try to know himself ,he is not certain about what he is. Analysing man's character poet says that man is a curious paradox .poet has used starting paradoxes as the man does not know whether he should consider himself God or a beast whether he should prefer his mind or body. He is created half to rise and half to fall and he himself is the prey to all. He is both the glory and the jest of the world. The poet has used repetition also and the poet has these techniques successfully .The point he wants to drive home to The Reader is that the proper study of man is man himself. He reminds the Reader again and again that man does not know what or who he himself is but he tries to scan the ways of God. There is the poet's use of heroic couplets which convey his ideas in short.

Receptacle of beauty is at a higher pedastel than beauty itself :SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare has written Sonnet 18th .It is made up of fourteen lines and it has three quatrains and a concluding couplet. A thing of beauty is a joy forever says Keats. Shakespeare puts the receptacle of beauty at a higher pedestal than beauty itself. Shakespeare admits that we have lovely flowers in month of May but he adds that every fare from fair sometime declines .Every living and nonliving thing is subject to death and decay. the poet exerts that the beauty of his friend shall never decay and the poet is certain that his verses will live forever and through them the beauty of his beloved friend. the poet here too strives to establish his own credentials . More than his friend he pays tribute to his own poetic talent and there is a touch of vanity also. the poet never says that his friend will Live eternally rather he says that his lines are eternal .If we discuss about the permanence and transience the poet is mainly talking about transience, the poet compares the shoddiness of all other things with the matchless quality of the poet's verses. The poet uses personification in the line "Nor shall death brag", alliteration in the line "And every fair from fair" , also discusses metaphor. Sonnet ends with the couplet. "so long as men can breathe aur eyes can see ,so long lives this and this gives life to thee".