Rukhaya M.K

A Literary Companion

Category: Poetry (page 11 of 18)

Poetry Analysis: Langston Hughes’ “Harlem-A Dream Deferred”

November 24, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Langston Hughes poem “Harlem- A Dream Deferred” was written in 1951.The blacks were distraught with dreams and disillusionment after the Civil War had freed them from the shackles of slavery. Though they were liberated and granted the rights to vote by federal laws, the blacks were marginalized in all other significant spheres as they were limited to segregated schools .They were not attributed with the capacity to think and were restricted to menial work. Earlier, if the system of slavery downgraded the blacks openly, the current state of affairs had a ‘sophisticated’ way of doing it. The abolition of slavery was a dream the blacks nurtured. However, it transformed into –‘a dream deferred’ as though the dream was always reserved for the future tense. The raw comparisons verging on revolting images reflects the language of the blacks devoid of any sophisticated erudition, and is straight to the point.

The revision to the U.S. Constitution as approved in the post-Civil War period established basic rights to black Americans as American citizens. Nevertheless, the court and legislative laws later weakened the officially permitted security of the blacks. For instance, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in 1896 (Plessy v. Ferguson) that it was lawful to provide “separate but equal” accommodations for passengers of Louisiana’s railroads.…

Poetry Analysis: Langston Hughes’ “As I Grew Older”

November 24, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Langston Hughes’s “As I Grew Older” reflects the regressive graph of the poet’s dreams as he grew older. The graph appeared to be inversely proportional to the progression of time.

Langston Hughes’s “As I Grew Older” represents not only his growth in stature, but the obstacles to his growth as an individual, and a member of society. The purpose of Life for a person is defined by his dream. He states that “It was a long time ago” that his dream existed. The lines that begin like a fairy tale point to a fairy tale existence–the aspiration of a black in a white-dominated society. The dream at the moment was right in front of him, an ‘in the face aspect’. It is likened to the sun .The comparison is apt, as the Sun stands for sunshine, brightness, the warmth of life and rays of hope. The light of the Sun also seemed to show him the way.

Subsequently, the poet brings in the metaphor of the Wall that grew when he was supposed to grown in its place. The wall referred to here is the wall of Apartheid, the invisible but sophisticated barrier. The wall is emblematic of boundaries,and barriers, and marginalization and segregation, as in Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall’.…

Poetry Analysis: Milton’s “Paradise Lost” as a Tragedy

November 24, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Tragedy stresses on what is past and real and lays emphasis on convergent thinking; likewise Paradise Lost has no room for imaginative freeplay. It tends to be more information-gathering that explains Adam’s desire to gain more and more knowledge from the angel Raphael. However there is uncritical thinking as with Tragedies which is why Adam cannot weigh the possibility of man’ s Fall against his love for Eve. Emotional engagement is another feature of tragedy where the tragic heroes tend to respond with great passion be it hatred, lust, love, revenge.etc. Likewise Adam responds with insatiable lust after his action of devouring the forbidden apple. Tragic heroes are idealistic and attached values to abstract concepts such as Justice, Truth, Honour, Innocence that Adam gives preference to before the fall of Eve. The Finality of leading to inevitable consequences is there, but there is also the possibility of reversing the same through the resurrection of Christ. The Tragic tends to value human spirit that is quite often dualistic prizing the soul over the body.

There is preference for the familiar as with tragedies which is why Adam and Eve choose primarily not to violate the norms; the preference and norm is for known knowledge than unknown knowledge.

…

Poetry Analysis: Nissim Ezekiel’s “The Professor”

November 18, 2014 / / 16 Comments

The poem “The Professor” by Nissim Ezekiel is essentially a satire on Indian English. The poem is presented in the form of a dialogue between the professor and his student. Since the listener is silent throughout it can be aptly termed as a monologue. Just as in “Goodbye Party for Miss.Pushpa T.S,” the poet mocks at Indianisms in English, and adaptation of the language to adopt to the native language structure. It caricatures the geography professor,Mr.Sheth, as he converses in English with one of his former students. A professor is the one who teaches, and should be in proper command of the medium he utilizes. Therefore, it is indeed ironical.

Far from pertaining to any academic subject, the Professor showcases his family achievements. He is indeed boastful as he poses his sons as social showpieces to be displayed, as he asserts:

Are well settled in life. One is Sales Manager, One is Bank Manager, Both have cars He states that though he is healthy, he is retired. Therefore he projects retirement (generally) not as personal choice but something born of compulsion. He shows himself to be an exception. The poet also mocks the Indian tradition that makes use of rhyming names for their kids.…

Poetry Analysis: Nissim Ezekiel’s “Night of the Scorpion”

November 18, 2014 / / 1 Comment

The poem belongs to Nissim Ezekiel’s collection entitled The Exact Name that was published in 1965. The poem in the narrative mode reveals the speaker’s objective account of how a scorpion stung his mother one night. The poem is titled the Night of  the Scorpion, for, the major part of the poem, the scorpion is the victor or champion of the poem.

The scorpion crawls into the house one night to evade the heavy rain outside and hides behind a sack of rice. Crawling towards the speaker’s mother with its conspicuous diabolic tail, the scorpion stings her and sneaks back into the rain. The peasants in the neighborhood come to sympathize with the lady in question. The peasants are described as ‘swarms of flies’ to mark their intrusion as parasites. Their ‘buzzing’ the name of God also signifies their irrational ‘collective consciousness.” They chant the name of God repeatedly to nullify the stinging experience. For them, the scorpion was an agent of the devil. Their superstitious frame of mind, make them search desperately for the spider, for, with every movement the scorpion made, the poison injected into the woman’s blood would progress and increase its pain. They ardently pray that scorpion stay motionless wherever it is.…

Poetry Analysis: John Pepper Clark’s “Olokun”

November 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Olokun is the divinity of the sea, and an emblem of the material prosperity worshipped by the Edo people. For the cult of Olokun, life-size groups of royal figures are still made. Olokun is personified in several human characteristics: patience, endurance, sternness, observation, meditation, appreciation for history, future visions, and royalty personified, while its characteristics are found and displayed in the depths of the Ocean. Its name literally signifies Owner (Olo) of Oceans (Olkun). Olokun also signifies unfathomable wisdom. Olokun is a Bini word, the language of the Edo people of South Nigeria.

The African Goddess symbolizes the African spiritual essence. In African culture, there exists a deep bond between Man and God. The act of passing fingers through the hair is one of extreme affection. The fingers and the hair are likened to the relationship between the weeds and the tide. Therefore, their connection is not only inseparable, but also natural. There is perfect harmony between the two entities as brought out by the metaphor. The hair of the Goddess is as dark as the night that shields the moon. The function of the word ‘darkness’ is positive here, and not negative. Rather than blocking the light of the moon, it covers the ‘nakedness’ of the moon, thereby protecting it.…

Poetry Analysis: John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”

November 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Holy Sonnet 10 is a sonnet of the Shakespearean type. It primarily endorses the fact that Death is not the Universal Destroyer of life. A monologue ensues in the form of a dispute between Man and Death where death is apostrophized. The effect of death is condensed by its representation as an undisruptive type of rest or sleep. John Donne refuses to accept death as ‘the final finale’. Religious conviction upholds the belief of eternal life after death embedded at the very core of its ideology. This marks the permanent end of death. Therefore, why is it that death is abhorred or held in awe as the Ultimate Subjugator. The spiritual objective of all believers has forever been to guide them from the cycle of life to salvation (or immortality).In that case, why are people petrified of Death? One has to acknowledge that only a true faith lends us the power to envision and forsee an undying life after death.

Sleep and rest, that are ultimate forms of solace are minimized mirror images of death, then why is not death a source of succor? Moreover, the most upright and honorable of men pass away soon as they are dear to God and relax in the serenity of peace before long.…

Poetry Analysis: John Donne’s “The Sunne Rising”

November 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments

John Donne’s “The Sun Rising” exemplifies the bliss of genuine love. Donne exhibits his characteristic style here by beginning the poem in his abrupt and dramatic style. As in Andrew Marvell’s “To his Coy Mistress” he endeavours to win over Time and Space. He belittles the Sun, that is the centre of the solar system and the forerunner of days and nights as ” BUSY old fool, unruly Sun.” The Sun comes across as the tribal chief imposing his whims and fancies on the members of the tribe. Why do the lovers have to constrain themselves to the time-bound rules and regulations of the Sun. The phrase ‘lovers’ seasons’ point to the fact the lovers have seasons of their own that pertain to individual choice. He may go about his trivial mechanical routine of waking up ‘late school boys’ and apprentices who have developed an aversion to work. The country ants and courtiers may buckle under his pressures. He is termed a “Saucy pedantic wretch;”unworthy in temperament, in show and in action respectively. Love is above seasons and climates. Hour, minutes and seconds are depicted as the rags worn by Time.

The Sun is bound by the illusion that his ever-stinging rays are powerful and command attention.…

Poetry Analysis: John Donne’s “The Relic”

November 13, 2014 / / 1 Comment

John Donne’s “The Relic” like his “The Funeral,” has the lock of hair as the starting point :

Whoever comes to shroud me, do not harm
Nor question much
That subtle wreath of hair, which crowns my arm.

The first stanza though it talks about mortal human beings, reflects immortal love in the same tone. The speaker refers to the exhumation of his and his lover’s grave. The exhumer notes a “bracelet of bright hair” on the poet that appears to belong to his lady-love. Therefore, it renders into an emblematic relic of something that unites the two lovers. The piece of hair is a dead tissue by itself, though it talks of undying love. Grierson asserts that the poem is addressed to Mrs.Magdalen Herbert.

In the next stanza, Mary Magdalen is mentioned by name. This may be affirmed by the fact that Renaissance painters depicted Mary Magdalen with Golden hair. She lies beside the persona in the grave. The persona goes on to state that the gravedigger should respect their privacy and let them be. The notion of death and the passage of time are emphasized through the reiteration of words like ‘bone’, ’grave’.etc. The grave-digger at a distant time in the future may discern that this momento of love-the lock of hair-will reunite them during moments of resurrection.…

Poetry Analysis: John Donne’s “The Ecstasy”

November 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments

With reference to  John Donne’s “The Ecstasy”, Grierson explains “Ecstasy in Neo-platonic philosophy was the state of mind in which the soul ,escaping from the body attuned to the vision of God, the one, the absolute.” The term ecstasy denotes the transition to a higher level where absolute truths are apprehensible to us beyond sense, reasoning and intellect. Just as another metaphysical poet, Richard Crashaw, describes spiritual or religious ecstasy in his “Hymn to St Teresa”. J Weemes asserts that ecstasy occurs when “the servants of God were taken up in spirit, separate as it were from the body, that they might see some heavenly mystery revealed unto them.” In the prescribed poem, the souls of the two lovers free themselves from the definite confines of the physical construct of the body and become one physically and spiritually in an ecstatic union of souls.

The first stanza portrays the two as sitting on an elevated area like a hill, or probably the bank of a river. The violet is set to rest upon this ‘elevation’ as if a pillow on a bed. The violet is emblematic of faithful love. The lovers that were each other’s best companion sat in serenity.
From the tight hand clasp their hands sweat, but the speaker asserts that it acts as a fast balm that cements the two.…

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