My Favourite Poet

Mark Strand. Who is he? He is a poet, a translator, and also writes short fiction stories. He has also been a professor of English at Columbia University since 2005.Finally, he is my favourite poet!

This is because I feel that he has great ideas for his poems and liked the way he views several things. For example, in the poem, Eating Poetry, it talks about about the character eating poetry which I guess is due to the person in the poem's dislike of poetry. I didn't really understand the poem initially as the idea for the poem is kinda weird. Though I am not interested in poetry, I found this poem interesting and enjoyed reading it.

He also wrote several collections of poetry including the Blizzard of one(1998), The story of our lives(1973), Dark Harbor(1993), The Continuous Life(1990), Man and Camel(2006), Selected poems(1980) and lastly, Reasons for Moving(1968).

The three poems written by Mark Strand are Eating Poetry, Keeping things whole and the room.

Is progress necessarily beneficial for society?

Is progress necessarily beneficial for society? I don't think so. I feel that progress can be either beneficial or detrimental to the society. There are times when the society start to progess but it does not work out and it causes harm to the society. For example, in "Village by the Sea", They decided to bulid a fertilizer factory in the village of Thul. But jobs would not be given to the villagers of Thul as they do not know much about fertilizers. The land used by the villagers for farming would also be used to build the factory. Thus, the villagers, like Hari, would have to find work in the city, or try to adapt to the change, which is not very easy in my opinion.
Another example is Biju's boat. It signals the progress of the society in the village. Technology is getting more advanced and this would help catch more fishes.from these two examples, we can conclude that progress is not necessarily beneficial for society.

My favourite part of VBTS

I guess my favourite part of "Village by the sea" is the ending. Not suprising since its a happy ending and everything turned out great. There wasn't anything much to like about the other parts of the story due to the fact that most of it was about the problems Hari and Lila faced.

At the end of the book, Hari managed to earn some money during his time in Bombay and learnt that we have to adapt to the changes in the world around us. He decided to set up a poultry farm and help others mend watches as plenty of people are coming to Thul once the factory is built. With the help of the De Silvas, their mother was sent to the hospital and recovered from her illness. Their father also turned over a new leaf.So, it was a happy ending and my favourite part of the book.

Favourite character in Village by the sea

I had read the book "Village by the sea" for the literature test. So... who is my favourite character in the book? i guess that would be Mr.Panwallah. I find that he is very helpful,kind and cheerful. When Hari went ot work in Jagu's restaurant, he helped him a lot and even taught Hari how to mend watches. He taught Hari that we should adapt to changes in the world around us. In Hari's case, he should set up a poultry farm and help to mend watches for a living. Mr.Panwallah also brought Hari out on several occasions, helping Hari during his time in Bombay. Even though Hari was just a boy working at Jagu's restaurant, he was willing to help him and made his life easier in Bombay. Thus, Mr.Panwallah is my favourite character.

I rather be the city rat than the country rat

City rat or country rat? Both of them have their advantages and i will list them down below.

City rat
I guess life as a city rat would be alot more comfortable than being a country rat. Technology is also more advanced in the city. There are computers, televisions etc. Thus, it makes life more comfortable and interesting. We are also able to get all our daily neccessities in the city easily.

Country rat
Life as a country rat would be very different from life as a city rat. There isn't any computers, televisions, refrigerators etc, making life very difficult. Some people are poor and might not have enough. But despite all of these, being a country rat can be fun. You could go fishing and other leisure activities to have fun and pass time.


In conclusion, There are advantages and disadvantages in being either a city rat or a country rat. But if i had to choose, I rather be a city rat.