The Dolphins by Dame Carol Ann Duffy

About the author .. Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born, 1955) is a highly
acclaimed poet of Scottish descent. She teaches Contemporary Poetry
in Manchester Metropolitan University. She has prodigious literary
talent that began to flourish quite early in her life. Prizes, Honours and
awards came to her as she began her writing career. She is crowned
the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, an honour bestowed on her
for her lifelong dedication and illustruous contribution to English
poetry. In matters of personal freedom and choice, she chose the non-
conformist path making many frown on the liberty she too with
morality, as understood in the conventional way. Her unconventional
personal life has been marked by multiple love affairs, and birth of Ella,
her only child. Ella’s biological father is Peter Benson, with whom she
had a brief romantic relationship during the time she was living with,
Jackey Kay, her lover for fifteen years.
Among Duffy’s countless great works are Beauty and the Best (poem),
Take my Husband (play), Stopping for Death (poetry), The World’s
Wife, (poetry), Rapture (poetry), and many many more.
The poem The Dolphin gives the readers a glimpse of her liberal mind,
unfettered sense of personal freedom, and universal love that includes
the love for animals. She felt pained to see the suffering caused to
entrapped animals. In many ways, she was the crusader for freedom,
empathy, and universal love. The Dolphin reflects these sentiments of
her in good measure.
First stanza … World is what you swim in … constant flowing guilt.

Meaning .. The first stanza is the lament of a deracinated dolphin,

caged in an aquarium. [It was born and reared in the wild ocean
waters, but was trapped by poachers and brought to the aquarium for
entertaining humans.] A trainer with a hoop in hand, stands
controlling its movements, so that the visitors are amused. The
speaker is the hapless dolphin who swims and dances, but not in her
natural rythm, nor according to its natural instincts. The trainer sets
the pace. The dolphin bemoans its loss of freedom, but soon realizes
that deliverance from the bondage is out of question. It is enslaved for
life. Even if it escapes to the outside world, it will die because it can’t
breathe. No aquatic animal survives in dry land. The dolphin resents
the way it has to surrender to the commands of its trainer. It seethes in
indignation, but is powerless to do anything. The depressing thought
hurts the dolphin endlessly.

Second stanza .. We have found no truth …………………………………..and

above it is the man.
Meaning .. The dolphin continues to pour out its woes. Quite
understandably, the dolphin finds the aquarium’s water alien and
hostile. It is clueless as to why it has to endure such pain and unease. It
reminisces about its earlier days when it could ram freely in the vast
expanse of the ocean’s waters. It was its natural sanctuary. Now, it is
held captive in the narrow cramped pool of the aquarium. It wonders
how and why such misfortune befell it. Now, the monotony of
swimming in the same water for days on end pricks it relentlessly.
Looking up, it sees the man towering over it. There is no respite.
Third stanza .. And now we are no longer ………………… till the man has
disappeared
Meaning .. There is a group of dolphins in the aquarium, each
condemned to life-long captivity. The dolphin speaks about its fellow
creatures with remarkable empathy and sensitivity. Resigned to its fate
as a show animal, the dolphin wryly says that the pool is not going to
get deeper like the ocean, its original habitat. So, for the rest of the
life, it has to live in the shallow water of the pool. It knows that its
companion must be feeling the same frustration. Its silver skin has
begun to fade due to the artificial environment. It can’t regain its
luster. The task in hand is, however, to obey the commands of the
trainer, and balance the colored balls for the entertainment of others.
The whole group has to fall in line and do likewise.

Fourth and last stanza .. The moon has disappeared

……………………….mind knows who will die here
Meaning .. The night is drawing to an end, the moon has disappered.
The dolphin swims around the same confined pool along with its
companions. Boredom aggravates the agony, but there is no freedom
from the confinement. Life has become insipid, monotonous, and
deeply hurtful. The dolphin knows its friends are enduring the same
pain. It understands their predicament, but can only show solidarity,
with no remedy. Inured to such humdrum existence, the dolphins’
hearts have turned stone. The training routine is repetitive. The
dolphins are asked to swim down till they touch the pool’s floor and
again swim up to do stunts with a plastic ball. The routine goes on and
on, because the trainer standing guard wants it. It is so boring. The
dolphins know, they will be here in the pol till their last braeth. What a
dumb way to die!
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q1. What is the theme of the poem?

Answer .. The poem suffuses with the lament and indignation of an

incarcerated dolphin. The dolphin is the sibling of the seas. It is a ace
swimmer, and a totally harmless towards the humans. Sadly its
playfulness and friendly attitude towards the humans prove to be its
bane. When captured and kept in small congested containers, it
suffers unimaginably.
The moan and the anguish of a creature imprisoned for the rest of its
life comes out clearly from this poem. The dolphin suffers as miserably
as a human being who has been robbed of their freedom and thrown
into a jail. In many ways, the poem expresses the pain and peril of a
captive. It shows what toll captivity takes of a living being when its
freedom is lost, and it has to obey the commands of its captors. Sadly,
during the dark periods of history, when ship loads o slaves were
uprooted from Africa, and forcibly relocated in America and Europe,
generations of black human beings suffered the same pain and
frustration the dolphin suffers in this poem. The apartheid system in
South Africa is another such shameful saga of history.
The poem Dolphin might appear too simple and innocuous, but it
surely stirs the soul. It makes us to reflect, look within, and judge our
attitude towards the animal world and fellow humans. Interpreted
intelligently, the poem can be the guide to our conscience, and the
loadstar of our collective attitude to other creatures with whom we
share this earth. Bereft of empathy, and compassion, we all become
beasts. The dolphin, through its anguish, stops us from being beasts.
So, let’s read this poem again and again.
Q2. ‘The Dolphins by Duffy is a protest against the exploitation
of wildlife’. Discuss.
Answer .. The captured dolphins speak collectively about their cruel
incarceration, the cramped aquarium, the dawn-to-dusk drill, and the
total loss of hope about deliverance from such wretchedness. It is a
lament, whose pathos rings loud in our hearts. No human being with
an iota of compassion can bear to hear out the wail of the imprisoned
dolphins without feeling a turmoil in their conscience.
The dolphins protest. The protest may not lead to their release into
the wild again, but the protest shakes the foundation of our collective
sensitiveness to its very foundation. The protest is powerful, poignant,
and nerve-wracking. It touches our heart. By penning this poem, and
speaking through the mouths of the dolphins, Duffy has succeeded in
arousing our conscience to the sin we all commit in participating in
this game rooted in cruelty and torture. We all begin to see our guilt in
perpetuating exploitation of wildlife.