The Vision of Mirza

By: Joseph Addison

Rowel R. Piloton

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• Addison was born on 1 May 1672 in Milston, Wiltshire

• Was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician

• He was educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met Richard Steele, and at The Queen's College, Oxford.

• Died at Holand House on 17 June 1719

Was a man of cheerful and amiable disposition. He was a master of the art of living with his fellowmen. He set himself to strip off the mask of vice, to show ugliness with all its deformity, and to reveal the truth with all its loveliness.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

In April 1709, his childhood friend, Richard Steele, started “The Tatler”. Adisson inspired him to write this essay.

Adisson contributed 42 essays while Steele wrote 188.

In The Spectator, Adisson soon became the leading partner. He contributed 274 essays out a total of 555; Steele wrote 236 for this periodical.

Genre

EssayAn essay is generally a short piece of

writing written from an author's personal point of view, but the

definition is vague, overlapping with those of an article, a pamphlet and

a short story.

Point of View

First Person Point of View:…The Sound of it was exceeding sweet, and wrought into a Variety of Tunes that were inexpressibly melodious, and altogether different from any thing I had ever heard. They put me in mind of those heavenly Airs that are played to the departed Souls of good Men upon their first Arrival in Paradise, to wear out the Impressions of their last Agonies, and qualify them for the Pleasures of that happy Place. My Heart melted away in secret Raptures….

Literary Devices

Symbolism…I see vultures, harpies, ravens,

cormorants, and among many other feathered creatures… …These,' said the Genius, ` are Envy, Avarice,

Suspicion, Despair, Love, with the like cares and passions that infest human

life.'

Allegory

Is a literary device in which characters or events in a literary, visual, or musical art for represents or symbolize ideas and concepts.

Literary Devices

Vocabularyhabit

-clothesrapture

- a feeling of great happiness or excitementhaunt

-favourite placeapprehension

-a feeling of worry; anxietyhobble

-walk lamely

SummaryThe speaker in the essay, “The Vision of Mirza”, is having a conversation with a genius man who was playing a musical instrument up the mountain. At first, the speaker was alone in the mountain, until he heard a man playing an instrument. His music was so sweet that the speaker was attracted to it and went to see the player of that instrument. As the speaker sees him, the genius man told him to sit in a top of a high rock.

SummaryThe genius tells the speaker to tell him what he sees. And the speaker answered that he sees a valley with a tide of water. The genius man tells him what is the meaning of the valley and the tide of water. The valley he saw is the Valley of Misery while the tide of water is a part of a great tide of eternity. The tide the speaker saw rises out of a thick mist in one end and loses itself in a thick mist at one end.

SummaryThen the genius man told the speaker to look closer and tell him what other things he sees. The speaker saw a bridge used by the people to cross the tide of water. And the genius man explained that the bridge he saw is the human life. That bridge was once so strong but when a great flood hit it, the bridge became weak.

SummaryNow, the people crossing it are experiencing a hard time to prevent the fragile parts of the bridge. Most of the people fall down the bridge and are drowned In the tide off water. Only small number of people is able to cross that bridge safely. There were different kinds of bird that are hovering about the bridge which represent the unusual factors that infest human life.

Short AnalysisThe Vision of Mirza by Joseph Addison is a vision of paradise given to him by a flute-playing genie. It consists of mansions on green islands. Some make it to these islands, others fall (or are pushed) into the sea.

Source:http://www.bartleby.com/27/5.htmlhttps://www.google.com.ph/?gfe_rd=ctrl&ei=8jAoU62OOMeQiAe9vYD4BA&gws_rd=cr#q=the+vision+of+mirza&safe=active

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