Summary and Analysis of the Enterprise by Nissim Ezekiel

Nissim Ezekiel is one of the prolific Indian writers in English of the 20th century. He was playwright, editor, critic and poet. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi
Award for his Poetry collection, Latter-Day Psalms. He was also awarded the Padma Shree by the Government of India in 1988. He is often called the Father of
Modern Indian English Poetry. Ezekiels poetry has different themes and styles. His poems are a depiction of his craftsmanship, restraint and intellectual approach to
everyday life.
How many of you have read T.S Eliots The Journey of the Magi? While reading Enterprise, one may think of Eliots The Journey of the Magi. Though that poem is
different in approach but it is also about a very cold and tiring journey by three wise men in search of spiritual pacification. Enterprise is one of those wonderful poems
published in Ezekiels collection of poems named The Unfinished Man. It revolves around a metaphorical journeyof man on this earth followed by hardships and
failures which man is subjected to by the very nature of the earthly life that he leads.
Summarization:
Stanza:
The poem, Enterprise, begins with a group of people which includes the poet himself (as it is clear from the use of we in the sixth line) journeys to a holy place. At that
time, their minds were full of ideas to reach their destination. Therefore, they started their journey with a lot of vigour and excitement, sure enough that they can easily
overcome all the difficulties that they face. Inconveniences seemed insignificant to them. However, our real strength emerges when we face a crisis, isnt it? Similarly,
the travellers were full of enthusiasm and reached the second stage of their journey. During this second stage, they confronted the adverse natural difficulties,
symbolizing the blazing Sun. But nothing could detain them from reaching their destination or take away their enthusiasm. Their passion to reach their destination was
as hot as the blazing Sun above their heads. The heat of the sun is symbolic of Mother Nature being hostile towards human ambitions. The more the human beings
aspire, the more the nature tries to put up a hindrance to beat them down.
Stanza 2:
The group of the travelers continues their journey, experiencing the difficulties put in their way. Carried away by the unrestrained excitement, the pilgrims kept a record
of the events that they witnessed- goods being bought and sold by the peasants and the ways of serpents and goats. The travelers passed through three cities where a
sage has taught. But they were unconcerned about what e taught or what his message was.
Stanza 3:
The third stanza talks about the differences that cropped up among the members which made a hole in their unity as they continued their journey. As they reached a
desert, differences arose among on the question of how to cross the challenging landscape. One of the members, an excellent prose writer, left the enterprise. He was
considered the most intelligent among the lot. Therefore, a shadow of discord fell onto their enterprise and continued to grow as one of the members parted from the
group.
Stanza 4:
The poet describes the hindrances that follow the enterprise. In the next stage of their journey, the travelers are attacked twice and while saving themselves they lose
their ways and forget the noble ambitions which had motivated them to come so far. The enterprise slowly breaks into two. Some of the members, claiming their
freedom, quit the journey and went their own ways. The poet feels helpless and upset at the breaking of the enterprise, looking at the disorganized lot of pilgrims, the
only thing he could do was to pray. And why do you think we pray? The answer is that the act of praying implies seeking the help of a divine personality when human
efforts go in vain.
Stanza 5:
There is still an assurance from the leader of the group. He assures them that the sea or the destination was at hand. It seems that they members have lost their
enthusiasm and hope as they see nothing noticeable as they move forward. The pilgrims have now turned into a crowd of aimless wanderers instead of being bounded
by a well-focused goal like before. They were not bothered about the roar of the thunder; some of them were too exhausted to stand erect.
Stanza 6:
The final stanza of Enterprise is a relief to the readers, as the poet tells us that they did reach their destination in total disorder- exhausted and frustrated- and without
any sense of satisfaction. Instead of bringing a sense of fulfillment and achievement, the journey had only brought them frustration. They now started to doubt the
importance of their journey; they began to find it futile and meaningless. They found nothing heroic in their achievements. They had a belief that their journey would be
unparalleled and that its success would give them a place in history. So was it disillusionment? They later realized that such a journey was already undertaken by others
before them and would be repeated in the near futile. This gave them a sense of disillusionment and they felt the journey was futile. In the end, they feel that staying
back home would have been better than venturing out on such a dangerous journey with disastrous consequences.
There might be a question that may come to our minds. That was the journey really a fruitful one or was it as the members think, meaningless? What are your views?
For a better understanding of the poem, the critical appreciation is discussed below.
Critical Appreciation of the Enterprise:
Form and Structure:
The poem Enterprise is written in a conventional form. The poem consists of six stanzas, each having five lines. The pattern is iambic tetrameter, with rhyming
scheme ababa that is the first line rhymes with the third and fifth, while the second rhymes with the fourth.
Use of Verbal Antithesis:
The poem has used verbal antithesis to achieve a balance. Antithesis is a contrast or opposition in the meanings of contiguous phrases, lines or stanzas. In this poem,
verbal antithesis is not only found in the entire poem but in the same stanza and in the same lines. Some of the examples are listed below:
*The initial activities of the pilgrims are juxtaposed with those in the final stage as the pilgrims turn into a straggling crowd of little hope.
*The exalted minds of the pilgrims are turned into darkened faces.
*in the beginning the pilgrims found themselves as the burdens light but at the end of the poem they are broken in spirit and bent down physically.
Symbolism:
Enterprise is a symbolic poem. Symbolism refers to the use of symbols to represent ideas or facts. The various symbols used in Enterprise are listed below:
*Pilgrimage in the poem symbolizes life.
*The crowd of pilgrims symbolizes a group of men, who undertake to achieve common goal which begins with excitement and hope but ends with disillusionment and
frustration.
*The Sun is the symbol of hostility of nature towards human aspirations and ambitions.
*A desert patch is symbolic of the challenges and hardships which the group faces or the differences that rise among them.
* A shadow falls on us and grows is symbolic of the differences in opinion that leads to a discord in the enterprise and consequently, a member leaves the group and
the disharmony grows.
* A straggling crowd of little hope symbolizes a group of people who had a well focused goal and during the course of their journey loses their zeal and becomes a
crowd of aimless and frustrated wanderers.
* Thunder is symbolic of mans inner voice.
* Home symbolizes remaining rooted to the soil or remaining true to oneself.
Allegory:
Allegory can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. The poem Enterprise is allegorical in nature. The group of men all set for the journey, enthusiastic and full of
vigour set out for the spiritual quest. They face hardships, difficulties yet they do not lose their aspirations. But during the second stage of their journey, disharmony and
differences in opinions among the members arises and soon a conflict breaks out which results in disunity. The final stanza raises a question, Was the journey worth all
the struggles? The journey here is a metaphor of life. The poem is a stark depiction of the condition of men on this earth who are subjected to such failures, hardships
and disillusionment during their course of journey of life.
Epigrammatic:
An epigram is a brief, sharp, witty and polished saying giving expression to a striking thought. It is used to convey the poets message in the poem.

Home is where we have to gather grace is epigrammatic. Here, the poet wants to convey the message that in the journey of life, home is symbolic of ones inner self
which must be accepted and faced and not shirked away. This is the only sane and balanced way of life that man should accept.
Questions for Self-Study:
1. Bring out the allegorical significance of the poem.
Hints for the answer*What is an allegory?
*Journey of life- (first stage, second stage, conflicts among members, disillusionment)
*Psychology of the group members (conditions they went through, conflicts)
*Journey to the holy place-(symbolizing life, final destination)
2.Do you think Enterprise is a symbolic poem?
Hints for your answerUse the symbols used in the poem in your answer and explain them.

In the short story The Drovers Wife, Henry Lawson acknowledges the hardships of Australian women whose bravery and perseverance is unfairly
overlooked. It is often the men who receive all the glory while the women suffer silently in the background. In this story, Lawson sheds light on the life of one of
these heroic women as she struggles to keep her children safe in the Australian bush.
The vivid imagery of the environment creates feelings of isolation and monotony that the main character experiences in her day to day life. Instead of focusing
on the contents of the bush, Lawson focuses primarily on what is lacking. The bush has no horizon, no ranges in the distance and no undergrowth. The
scarcity of scenery shows the reader a glimpse of the bleakness and emptiness in the bushwomans life. There is more of this dreary imagery in the description of
the house where the wife and her children live. It is crudely made out of slabs of stringybark and round timber. The kitchen, which is larger than the house
itself, has a dirt floor and there is a large, roughly-made table in the centre of the place. The rugged house reveals the poor conditions that the drovers wife
must endure every day. Even the weather is dismal as a thunderstorm comes on, and the wind, rushing through the cracks in the slab wall, threatens to blow out
her candle. She protects the fragile flame of the candle, like her life, against the harshness of her environment. By visualizing the bushwomans surroundings,
the reader can connect with her frame of mind. One is left with an overwhelming sense of loneliness and hardship.
Lawson s admiration of women is evident in the portrayal of a strong and independent female protagonist. The drovers wife fights many battles without her
husband, and each struggle makes her stronger. She thinks about some of the difficulties she has faced in her life while she keeps watch for a snake that has
slithered under the house. She remembers when one of her children died and she rode nineteen miles for assistance, carrying the dead child. This must have
been a traumatic experience for her, but the bushwoman was able to move on and deal with other obstacles. The drovers wife recalls the fire that almost
destroyed her home. She took on the role of her husband, wearing his trousers while she snuffed out the flames with a bough. She has sacrificed her femininity
because her surroundings are not favourable to the development of the womanly or sentimental side of nature. The only thing to feed her womanhood is the
Young Ladies Journal. It is a reminder of the dreams she had as a girl that never came to be.
Amazingly, the drovers wife is able to confront challenges single-handedly. Every difficult experience that she can remember has taken place in her husbands
absence. She has raised their children on her own and constantly protects them from dangers like snake bites and fires. Many people would not be able to handle
the incredible loneliness of life in the bush, but the drovers wife says she is used to being left alone. She once lived like this for eighteen months. She must
miss her husband terribly, but she explains that they are used to being apart, or at least she is. She speaks of the maddening sameness of the stunted treesthat
monotony which makes a man long to break away and travel as far as trains can go, and sail as far as ships can sailand further. She is stronger than these men,
and perhaps stronger than her husband who has also broken away from this dull life. She stresses that the monotony is not a problem for her, and that she would
feel strange away from it. By repeating the fact that she is used to loneliness, she is able to cope with being alone for so long.
Beneath her tough exterior, the drovers wife is a sensitive and expressive person. When a flood breaks the dam that the womans husband made, her heart [is]
nearly broken too, for she [thinks] how her husband would feel when he [comes] home and [sees] the result of years of labour swept away. She cries then. It is
not for herself that she cries, but for her husband. She cries again at the collapse of a woodpile that was stacked by a native man. The bushwoman trusted the man
and praised him for his fine work only to discover that he had built that woodheap hollow. She is genuinely hurt by this breach of trust and tears spring to her
eyes. The drovers wife is overcome by emotion once more at the end of the story, after the snake has been killed. The battles of her life have worn her out, and
in her exhaustion, she begins to weep. Her eldest son notices her tears and comforts her, saying, mother, I wont never go drovin; blast me if I do. This
perceptive child realizes that his fathers absence is the cause of his mothers suffering. Like the boy, the reader is drawn closer to the drovers wife by seeing her
pain and understanding the reasons for this pain.
Lawson is successful in creating a bond between the reader and the protagonist through his powerful scenery and the highly developed characterization. This
bond enables the reader to truly appreciate the accomplishments of this young woman and other women like her. The Drovers Wife is a tribute to these
women and gives them the recognition that they rightfully deserve.