Bohemian Brouhaha

Asleep in the Valley “And death is sleep – oh, sleep, sleep, sleep, undisturbed sleep!” _ A defeated soldier in G. B. Shaw’s Arms and the Man Title: A title serves its purpose mostly when it represents the content, heightens the theme, extends the purview of meaning, arouses aesthetic sensibilities, and above all, helps one realize the figurative point of view conceived at the core. “Asleep in the Valley”, being the title of the poem, says somebody is asleep in a valley – the event as well as the scene is thus laid out. The title lays stress on what the poem focuses upon – “Asleep”. The very word “Asleep” assumes wider connotation as the marks of bullet-wounds are mentioned. Besides, “Asleep in the Valley” aesthetically and ironically serves what “Dead in the Valley” could not have. Moreover, the title ironically oozes out the latent pathos that lurks behind the term ‘asleep’ as against the brutal backdrop of war; especially when it is eternalized in the sense of

THE EYES HAVE IT Ruskin Bond 1.       Comment on the title of the story, The Eyes Have It. Ø   The story lies in the eyes of the protagonist. Ironically, these eyes do not have the power to see beyond. Scientifically, the physical eyes are only media through which the mind sees. Both the narrator and the girl play the mind game sans their eyes, yet, paradoxically, taking their eyes in. Thus, ‘seeing’ becomes the pivot around which the theme of the story revolves. The title connotes differently since what the eyes have cannot be fathomed easily – whether “it” is seeing or blindness, mind game or ignorance, imagination or reality. Indeed, it truly reflects the trivia the story seems to achieve. The narrator declares, “I was totally blind”, and he goes on to ask the girl, “What is it like outside?” and “Have you noticed ...?”. But his eyes, which are “sensitive only to light and darkness”, receive an insight when the new passenger says, “It was her eyes I noticed