osho has said that the real alchemy that exists in the world is poetry… i loved it… so simple yet soo profound…
sir please tell me what does the phrase tilting at windmill mean….?????
Well Girish, the hero of the novel, Don Quixote, is slightly mad. He sees each and every ordinary object in his route as a new challenge or dander or threat. At some point in the story, he encounters a pair of windmills, and in his mind he sees them as giants who are threatening him. So he attacks them with his lance (tilting is the technical terming for fighting with a lance) and, not surprisingly, gets thrown off his horse.
So the phrase tilting at windmills can be used for any impractical aim, wild fancy, trying for something unrealistic….
Ratish, to right a wrong means to correct some injustice. So an unrightable wrong means one which cannot be atoned for or set right. As you can see from the rest of the poem, he dreams of doing the impossible….so to right the unrightable wrong means he dreams that he can set right something which cannot realistically be set right.
Unrightable is certainly not a very mainstream word, but well within the realms of poetic license 🙂
Not really – an oxymoron would be when the two things are mutually incompatible (for example “true lies”) This is just an exaggeration, a hyperbole, at maximum – or rather it is like “incurable disease” just stating an extreme case.
regards
J
Wouldnt it be a paradox?
‘To right an unrightable wrong’. The statement is contradicting itself.
CAT-holics 
osho has said that the real alchemy that exists in the world is poetry… i loved it… so simple yet soo profound…
sir please tell me what does the phrase tilting at windmill mean….?????
Well Girish, the hero of the novel, Don Quixote, is slightly mad. He sees each and every ordinary object in his route as a new challenge or dander or threat. At some point in the story, he encounters a pair of windmills, and in his mind he sees them as giants who are threatening him. So he attacks them with his lance (tilting is the technical terming for fighting with a lance) and, not surprisingly, gets thrown off his horse.
So the phrase tilting at windmills can be used for any impractical aim, wild fancy, trying for something unrealistic….
THANK YOU sir…
(y)
Hey,
What does ‘unrightable’ mean? IS there such a word called ‘unrightable’?
And also, what is ‘unrightable wrong’?
Also, what does it mean in the context of the poem – ‘To right the unrightable wrong’?
Ratish, to right a wrong means to correct some injustice. So an unrightable wrong means one which cannot be atoned for or set right. As you can see from the rest of the poem, he dreams of doing the impossible….so to right the unrightable wrong means he dreams that he can set right something which cannot realistically be set right.
Unrightable is certainly not a very mainstream word, but well within the realms of poetic license 🙂
regards
J
Haha, thats what is best about poems. You can defy the laws of grammar to any extent 😛
Anyways, thanks for your fantastic explanation!
What figure of speech would the sentence be though? Oxymoron? ‘Unrightable wrong’?
Not really – an oxymoron would be when the two things are mutually incompatible (for example “true lies”) This is just an exaggeration, a hyperbole, at maximum – or rather it is like “incurable disease” just stating an extreme case.
regards
J
Wouldnt it be a paradox?
‘To right an unrightable wrong’. The statement is contradicting itself.
Could be 🙂 I prefer not to analyse poetry too deeply – poetry is meant to be enjoyed, not dissected 😉
regards
J
Haha, true that!
🙂
Mast hai!
Indeed Diana 🙂 One of my all-time favourites!
regards
J