English Literature – Page 2 – Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Remarkable Rocket’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Remarkable Rocket’ is one of the fairy tales for children written by the Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). It was published in the 1888 collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

‘The Remarkable Rocket’ is about a firework which is set to be let off as part of the spectacular wedding celebrations held in honour of a prince and princess, but because he cries and makes himself damp, he doesn’t go off. Instead, he is set off by two boys and his great explosion is witnessed by no one.

10 of the Best Erotic and Sensual Love Poems

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Love is obviously a key subject in much classic poetry. But what are the best sensual love poems ever written: those poems which carry an erotic frisson which speaks of desire as well as devotion?

Below, we select and introduce some of the very best sensual love poems which are more than just conventional love poems. They are erotic poems, too, in the true sense of that word: suggesting erotic love, with ‘suggesting’ being the key word. There’s no explicit detail here, but instead the right words invoking the steamy and sensual experience of being in love, and lovemaking itself.

20 of the Best George Orwell Quotations

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Eric Arthur Blair (1903-50), who is better-known to the world as George Orwell, was one of the leading English essayists of the first half of the twentieth century, writing about everything from the Spanish Civil War to the ideal pub to how to make a perfect cup of tea.

Of course, George Orwell is also known for his last two novels, the short fable Animal Farm (1946) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). The latter of these led to the adjective ‘Orwellian’ entering the English language.

16 of the Best Virginia Woolf Quotes

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), born Adeline Virginia Stephen, was one of the most important writers of the first half of the twentieth century. A leading modernist novelist and short-story writer whose novels Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and The Waves are widely regarded as classics, Woolf was also an influential writer of non-fiction.

The Meaning and Origin of ‘Cannon to Right of Them, Cannon to Left of Them’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them’: these lines have become famous, although they’re often misquoted (with a ‘the’ being added before ‘right’ and ‘left’). The quotation originated in the 1854 poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92), while he was UK Poet Laureate during Queen Victoria’s reign. Tennyson, who was Poet Laureate for a record 42 years, wrote the poem in response to a very specific event, and it was this event that inspired the lines, ‘Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them’. Let’s take a look at the poem, and the event.