a study of poems of nissim Ezekiel

by c.chaitanya kiran
dedicated to the divine sage “sri ragavendra swami”

Who is prayed my dad & me and in whose mut most of

rites in my childhood are performed

Written by c.chaitanya kiran

1. Enterprise it started as a pilgrimage

Exalting minds and making all

The burdens light.

This is the way the famous Indian poets explain about the way of
mankind’s journey i.e all the world’s a stage is a correct simile here
the way of the world in which people live is depicted here the way of
life cycle is also depicted here here these 2 poems cached my
interest so I would like to present it here life journey started as a
pilgrimage with high ambitions ,divine goals with high minds and
making mind’s thought’s light it is also to note ezekeil used irony in
pilgrims because Europeans, Americans went as pilgrims father’s and
chaucer’s canterbery tales 1st English work came to light is also on
pilgrimage and modern poem ‘wast land’ also deals with pilgrimage
it is thus the story of the world it may also be said that this journey is
journey of life which ezekeil & his friends underwent

Another phase was reached when we

Were twice attacked, and lost our way.

This is now ezekeil says about human nature ‘twice attacked’ no one
attacks pilgrims I think it is their inner self later it is also depicted as
‘shadow’s’ and here it is told they are attacked 2 times and finally
lost their way i.e deviation from pilgrimage

Explored but did not test the call

The sun bent down to match our rage

Here there is no test for their courage & hope the sun’s ray’s
matched with their enthusiasm i.e as the sun is heat so there is
enthusiasm in equal level here sun is an imp symbol he is depicted as
busy old fool in ‘sun raising’ by joan donne and he asks sun to
enquire east and west indese wealth and he depics sun is centert of
their bed room anyhow these all refer to some frustration in him So
here frustration equaled their enthusiasm by now itself their
enthusiasm is not as strong as the sun in the sky

We stood it very well, I thought,

Observed and put down copious notes

On things the peasants sold and brought.

Here they stood and observed about food grains and made notes
they also notated the ways of serpents and goats it say that poet
want to explain about india during his time westerner’s had a
openion about india i.e country which prays serpents’s and
visualizing a sage of 3 cities but forgetting his gospel is what depicted
here

We lost a friend whose stylish prose

Was quite the best of all our batch

As shadow falls on us and ground

They lost a realistic man {prose writer} most of poets are romantic in
treatment than realistic due to some defects conflicts now the real
situation comes when a realistic scholar departs from the group and
shadow is there inner self and may also be personification of evil
they are pilgrims but as time passes everything comes and the realist
departed when they reached desert he is intelligent to note that
next their wont be any way to reach pilgrimage and to cross desert
would be hard desert is symbol of desertedness loneliness and
confused situation in hardships shadow is nothing but inner self

A section claimed its liberty

 To leave the group . I tried to pray

Our leader said he smelt the sea

At this stage there started a group itself who felt insecure {1st it is
only the prose writer now a group itself claimed their freedom} and
the author have to subdue them and their group leader like a
superstitious sailor told that he smelt the sea usually sailor’s are
superstitious due to loneliness these insecurity feeling etc springs
from being alone , deserted etc so now the pilgrims are reduced to
freedom fighter’s by their loneliness here attacks & deaths are here
can be depicted as spiritual death there are no murderer’s to murder
them but what is murdered is the spiritual intension of going to
pilgrimage praying also symbolized back to with what we started
only thoughts like this can uplift fallen society

We noticed nothing as we went,

A straggling crowd of little hope,

Ignoring what the thunder ment,

Deprived of common needs like soap.

Some were broken, some merely bent.

Now there is little hope and they had not noticed message of
thunder ‘the message of thunder’ refer’s to eliot’s work ‘wast land’
there thunder speaks ‘da,da,da’ it is originally from bruhadarankya
Upanishad and so there is no compassion, forbearance, to donate
etc three virtues so there arose unrest and soap is identified here
because it depicts civilized mode of bathing so they lost civilized
mode of life and some were lost from their way and some became
bent in spirits this is the way of the world of pilgrims

When , finally , we reached the place

We hardly knew why we were there

The trip had darkened every face,

Our deeds were neither great nor rare.

Home is where we have to gather grace.

And at these lines poet concludes his poem finally reaches pilgrim
spot as these people are no more pilgrims but mere hunter’s they
even forgot their destiny and the trip did’t bring spiritual light to
them their deeds are not deeds of any saint or adventurous person
and at last they conclude home is the place where we have to gather
grace of spirituality they are actually pilgrims but in the middle way
there are many diversions from the way of pilgrimage eg: farming ,
loneliness there arose a thought of freedom in them though none
controls them they are finally a pack of pilgrims this lack of security
is seen in every 20th century poets so there is loneliness, emptiness &
nothingness in 20th century poets & writer’s than among medieval
writer’s this is reflected in American history too pilgrim father’s went
as a pilgrimage then they fought among themselves for land and
after all frustration only arose in them and their govt can be
compared to leader in the poem finally they declared independence
to america

2. Night of a scorpion

Ten hours
 Of steady rain had driven him

To crawl beneath a sack of rice.

The condition depicted here is rainy season and it has been raining
for continuous ten hours so it forced the scorpion into the house
scorpion is also said as satan and rain is divine as it clear’s
wastelands’ etc varuna in hindu mythology is symbol of rain water’s
importance as life giving, in sandyavandana etc is well known though
night is described as ignorance thunder is not so

Parting with his poison-flash

Of diabolic tail in the dark room-

He risked the rain again.

And he came to stick his poison to someone and after doing it in the
dark room here darkness is depicted as symbol of evil, secrecy i.e he
secretly got parted from his poison and he went away but he has to
face the risk of rain and it is this effect of poison that cover’s entire
poem genital organ’s of men & women when united looks like
scorpion and the diabolical tail may be men’s genital organ

And striking of poet’s mother reefer’s to satan making eve fall down

With candles and with lanterns

Throwing giant scorpion shadows

On the sun-backed walls

They searched for him

Here people come now and the satan enter’s them also and their
shadow’s are depicted as scorpion’s {giant scorpion’s} on the wall
which is visualized by the light of lanterns etc the peasant’s who
come to the author’s house come like flies and they utter the name
of god and serch to kill it rather than saving his mother, they say it is
her past deed etc but action is missing generally what public do
when accidents occur is clearly depicted here in their deed’s ‘clicked
tongue’s’ is a word here each man has only 1 tongue but here
tongue’s means the visitor’s also are personification of snakes,
scorpion’s etc poisonous beings

May the sum of evil

Balanced in this unreal world

Against the sum of good

Become dismissed by your pain, they said

Sum of evil becoming dismisse4d by poet’s mother’s pain and world

being unreal it sounds like poet’s mother is not personal being she is
personification of creation world itself and poet’s mother ‘s suffering
find’s simile with christ’s suffering here too action is missing simple
words verses sounds superstitious when anyone was affected
shouting their past deeds should be burned etc finds odd but it is
what happening in the world there is no reality so world is decreased
to unreal world and men of religion perform rites than saving her
loss of action is clearly observed here the peasant belief in move of
poison as long as the scorpion moves finds irony here scorpion
once went out may be traced or not but binding to that and
forgetting duties is simply silly and invoking gods too the same
sillyness

My father, sceptic, rationalistic

Trying every curse and blessing,

Powder, mixture, herb and hybrid

Now comes author’s father not any orthodox believer what the
author intends to say is orthodox has failed in serving mankind at the
same time science also led to flesh study or machine study rather
than study of heart which can only done by literary genius here
comes poet’s father trying new methods to subdue poison with
traditional medicine {curse & blessing} & modern powder’s mixture
herb and hybrid etc here also he considers his wife as a mere
specimen than his wife so he can even try to burn her this
mechanical life is clearly depicted by the author

Thank god the scorpion picked on me

And spared my children

The poison is temporary after 24 hours its effect pacifies and she
recover’s soon but like Christ she thanks’ god for sparing her children
and choosing her if scorpion had chosen her children then they
would have nearly died due to treachery of those peasants priests
and also their father love of children is also indianness