9th Mile Stone, Bagalagunte, Bangalore-560 073

Aff No: 830918

Geography Lesson
Zulfikar Ghose

About the Poet

Zulfikar Ghose is a Pakistani-American, English language writer. He was born in 1935 in

Pakistan and moved to Bombay in 1942. After the partition of British India into Pakistan and
the present India, he migrated to England, teaching at Ealing Mead School, and then to the
United States in 1969. He lives in Texas and teaches at the University of Texas at Austin.

His arena of work is mainly “magical realism”. This concept is formed from a blend of harsh
reality and fantasy elements.

Ghose’s poems—including those in The Loss of India (1964), Selected Poems (1991),

and 50 Poems (2010)—are often about the travels and memories of a self-aware alien.

Poem Narration

Introduction:

The poem ‘Geography lesson’ is based on the poet’s travel experiences by an aeroplane. He
goes on to describe different scenes as he goes higher and higher in the jet. Through this
poem, the poet is trying to bring out the fact that human beings have achieved a lot of
knowledge about the earth and beyond. We have learnt much about the earth, its shape, the
emergence of cities and nations, but we have failed to learn how to love each other and live
peacefully on this wonderful planet.
The Geography Lesson is a 24-lined single stanza poem that does not have rhyme scheme. In
the poem, the poet talks about three important things – first how everything looks from the
sky, second how civilization was established and the reason behind the unorganized
settlement and third his question to himself why people hate each other.

About the Poem:

Setting: In this poem, the poet has described the scene of a city from a jet.

Theme: God has created the earth has one unit. We have made physical divisions including
cities and countries. We have built boundaries and walls. The poet has used the subject
Geography to describe how the planet was built in a way and how we have transformed it

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into something else. But in the end, the poet is still clueless about the wars and hatred that
we feel for one another.

Title: The poem has been titled, "Geography Lesson" and has been titled quite suitably. The
poet learns a lesson from the geography. He was able to understand that the city that looked
unplanned when viewed from the ground had been developed in accordance with the needs
of the man. It was, therefore, not unplanned, but beyond the understanding of the common
man.

Poem Explanation:

The poet wrote the poem that displays his concern for the divide and friction faced by men.
When he observed things from the height he could see logical development of existence.

It became clear to him why the cities have taken a specific shape and development. He
looked at the miniature shape of the city where a mile is reduced to inches on a scale.

He emphasized that what looked haphazard and unplanned has a logic for its sustenance.
When the poet’s plane reached the height of ten thousand feet; he was able to comprehend
the logic behind setting near water.

Men settled in valleys and caves in the vicinity of water resources. He reiterated that land
and water attracted the man’s attention for habitation.

When the plane reached another six miles, it became obvious to the poet about the
geographical condition. He understood that the earth is round, consisted of landmass and
endless water.

But he feels miserable at the sorry state of the conditions, ill – will, jealousy, barriers;
borders were obvious in place of co-existence and mutual respect. Why we’re has built walls
across cities and try to harm others.

Figures of Speech

The poet mainly uses imagery and alliteration in the poem.

Examples of Imagery: walls symbolise borders and cities symbolise countries.

Examples of Alliteration: (Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in a line). e.g.

“sprang into the sky”, “it scaked six inches”, “why the valleys were” etc.

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Keywords

1. Inevitable: that can’t be avoided.

2. Haphazard: without plan or order.
3. Valleys: deep areas on land between mountain and hills.
4. Delineated: shown
5. Sprang: jump

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