Appreciating the English Language

  

Language has these, and more.

The following story, about the famous English poet, Lord Byron, was told by one of my university professors:

When Lord Byron was a young child and in school, he was told to write an essay on the `Wedding at Cana'.  Before I continue with Lord Byron's childhood exploit with his writing skills, let me enlighten those unfamiliar with this Biblical reference.  Jesus was once invited to a wedding at Cana, but midway through the wedding reception, the wine ran out.  He then instructed that jars be filled with water.  When the guests were served from these jars, it was found that the water had turned to wine and the guests complimented the host on serving the finest wine toward the end of the feast.  Now, let's get back to our story about the young Lord Byron.  While the other children in his class feverishly wrote their essays, our young Lord Bryon was gazing out of the window, seemingly lost in a dream.  Just as the teacher told the class they had five minutes to finish their essays, Lord Bryon wrote the following one-liner:

The water saw its Lord and blushed.

That one-liner is what I call, `art'! The whole story of `The Wedding at Cana' is captured in that one-liner.

In that one-liner, you will find that water is personified and takes on the characteristics of a bride.  The active verb, `blushed', provides a beautiful imagery of not only the changing properties of the water, but it also hints at the inner feelings of a bride.  The reference to `Lord' is an allusion to how a groom was perceived in a bygone era.  Yes, all it took was a one-liner to capture the essence of the changing of the water to wine and link it beautifully to an event set during a wedding.

Now, would you like to discover more of the `art' in the language? Enrol in our course, Literary Analysis for Beginners I, and learn to appreciate the `art' in the English Language!

Though the course is targeted at students who will be learning English Literature for the first time, anyone can enrol in the course as this will be useful for those who would like to, not only learn the English Language, but also gain an appreciation of its artistic usage from the masters of the language.