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Poetry reading is a topic about which there is always something more that can usefully be said. This book explores key aspects of poetry by discussing poems which are quoted in full and then treated in a sustained way. It considers a broad range of poetry, using examples taken from the Tudor period to the twenty-first century. Some are very traditional, and some are very avant-garde, and most are somewhere in between, so it is unusually broad and eclectic in its generic range. The book invites readers to cultivate generic generosity, and entertain a willingness to be astonished by the bizarre practices poets sometimes indulge in, in the privacy of their garrets, and among consenting adults. The emphasis is on meanings rather than words, looking beyond technical devices like alliteration and assonance so that poems are understood as dynamic structures creating specific ends and effects. The three sections cover progressively expanding areas. The first deals with such basics as imagery, diction and metre; the second concerns broader matters, such as poetry and context, and the reading of sequences of poems. The third section looks at 'theorised' readings and the 'textual genesis' of poems from manuscript to print. By adopting a smallish personal 'stable' of writers whose work is followed in this long-term way, a poetry reader can develop the kind of intimacy with authors that brings a sense of confidence and purpose.

A poem is presented.

A poem is presented.

\"Organic agriculture is a low-cost, sustainable farming method that contributes to increased food and financial security. The current study was carried out to investigate the various obstacles faced by organic vegetable growers in Himachal Pradesh. The sampled households were chosen using a multistage random sampling procedure. A total of 120 organic vegetable growers were comprising 56 marginal, 41 small, and 23 medium farmers. Garrett’s ranking technique was used to prioritise imminent constraints. Small land holdings, a higher incidence of pests and diseases, a decline in crop productivity, a lack of minimum support prices for organic products, non-availability of the marketplace, less erratic monsoon, temperature and humidity fluctuations, and the threat of wild animals were revealed as the most severe constraints faced by farmers in the study area.\"

The recent discovery of an unrecorded work, a portrait of Margaret Butler by the artist Garret Morphey (c. 1650-1716), invites an examination of its place within the artist's known \"oeuvre\" and patronage network. Morphey practiced in England and, from around 1694 onwards, in Ireland, his clients almost exclusively Catholic and Jacobite. An overview of his \"oeuvre\" reveals \"clusters\" of portrait commissions within a small number of families. Those executed in Ireland are arguably the most fascinating, as he garnered the patronage of just those Gaelic Irish, Hiberno-Norman, and Old English families which were at that time facing ethnic extinction in the aftermath of the Williamite wars. By the 1690s this cohort was on the cusp of emigration to France, Spain, and other coreligionist states; or facing penury for those recusants who remained in Ireland and submitted to the severity of the Penal Laws; or choosing religious or marital assimilation with the so-called New English \"adventurers.\" The sitter in the present work is Margaret Butler née Roche (c1665-1735), wife of Ireland's leading Catholic lawyer during this turbulent period. The commission readily complies with the character of Morphey's patronage network, and the biography of the sitter and her husband frequently intersect with the contemporary challenges of their demographic. The value of this discovery is therefore twofold. Most obviously, as an addition to the Morphey catalogue raisonné, it contributes to our knowledge of his working practice and stylistic development. Of broader interest is the fact that it draws attention to the visual language espoused by his Catholic Jacobite patrons, and prompts a wider consideration of those conventions which characterize portraiture within the sub-genre that is non-exiled Jacobite portraiture produced in Britain and Ireland in the earliest years of the cause. [Publication Abstract]

A poem is presented.

The area under maize crop has been consistently decreasing in the Punjab state over the last few decades, despite its multiple uses. Ineffective implementation of price policy along with certain problems, the maize growers could not earn remunerative returns form maize cultivation in the state. The present study was designed to highlight the various problems in the context of production and marketing front of maize crop in the Punjab state. The data with respect to various problems being faced by the maize growers were collected through well structured pre-tested schedule. The data recorded on scales and severity analysis was carried out by using mean rank score. Garret ranking technique was applied to extract the important problems that influence the maize cultivation in the Punjab state. The severity analysis indicated that among biotic constraints, the emergence of diseases (mean score=1.82) was reported as the most severe problem faced by the maize growers. Plant protection measures being adopted by the maize growers for effective control of insect, pest and management of diseases could increase the production cost of maize. Based on the value of mean score, shortage of labor supply during peak season (mean score=2.82) was the most important problems amongst abiotic problems, while the intensity of the problems like price variability, shortage of farm machinery was moderately high in the study area. Low price of the produce was exposed as the most influential problem by applying Likert scale. Shortage of labour supply during peak season, emergence of diseases, insect-pest attack and weeds infestation were exposed as moderately severe problems. Hence, the effective and suitable measures to address the highlighted problems of maize could provide impetus to increase maize acreage in the Punjab state.